The author views the primary purpose of the modern engineering laboratory as teaching the student how to experiment. An attempt is made to update the engineering laboratory and make it generally meaningful for all students, whether headed for graduate school or an industrial job. The intent is to broaden the experimental picture so that students from various disciplines can work together on experiments that are of general use and interest to them all. A series of modern experiments, specifically designed to teach general experimentation, are meant to eliminate or improve the many traditional and detailed tests that often date back forty or more years. The experiments involve analog devices that essentially model a prototype system using electrical or geometrical principles, studies of random variables, performance testing of ground effects machines and solar-cell apparatus, and Monte Carlo simulations using a digital computer. (Author/TS)