Improving the effectiveness of undergraduate teaching by integrating a historical perspective

Summary form only given. It is universally acknowledged that if the students like the instructor (and, of course, the way the material is taught and presented), they like the course and become enthusiastic to learn more from the teacher. There are many techniques on lecturing available in the literature, e.g. learn the students´ names and use them; put long derivations in handouts (leave gaps) and spend most of the class time on teaching, don´t write with the right hand and erase with the left; etc. One important technique is story telling. Students love stories, and a good teacher is a good story teller. However, there is seldom enough time to tell stories during the lecture period and at the same time cover the required course material. However, the history of the profession can be taught in a story-telling format. The best way to do that is to give the students some information about the pioneers in the field of the designated course. These individuals spent most of their lives trying to discover the secrets of that engineering field. These historical case studies can provide technical information, historical perspective, and motivation. One pioneer has been selected, by way of an example, whose contributions have led to the evolution of electrical engineering: Michael Faraday.