Introducing student projects in introductory electromagnetics: what have we learned?

In this work, a trial introduction of student projects as a mandatory part of the fundamental EM course. In particular, in order to comply with the curriculum at McGill University, the paper is limited to topics on electrostatics, magnetostatics and the slowly time-varying fields. Nonetheless, even these limitations left sufficient room to find applications upon which students could base their projects and present them in class to their peers. In order to avoid jeopardizing the learning of EM fundamentals and the rigors of the associated mathematical formulations, the project carried only 10% of the overall course grade. Nonetheless, the students approached it enthusiastically and their feedback suggests that the student projects may be a tool of choice for improving the dynamics of undergraduate EM teaching