Abstract
This article proposes to examine how the study of failure differs from other technical subjects, and how to turn failure experiences to one's advantage. The authors surveyed the properties of failures in PBL (Project Based Learning) and also examined students' interest and understanding of failure, after introducing failure examples. To investigate how students communicate failure experiences to third parties, reports of the failure experience in PBL were evaluated. From above mentioned surveys, we get the following results. The typical causes of failure in educational institutions are lack of skill in manufacturing and inadequate planning, which conversely are minor causes of failure in the industry. A knowledge database on failure, employed commonly in industry, is not effective in PBL, because projects in educational institutes are usually changed every year. Case studies in failure can be approached from many points of view including causes, processes, effects and safety measures. While teachers should emphasize the notable points in the failure examples in introducing examples of specific topics in machine design, teachers should explain the multiple aspects in the failure examples to educate students about the complexity of actual accidents.