Abstract: Practice teaching is an important carrier to cultivate students' engineering application ability. In this paper, the plan of Energy Systems Laboratory, a required course in Mechanical Engineering in University of Wisconsin-Madison, is summarized. The details about contents, schedule and grading are analyzed. It can be found that the contents of practical courses in USA are extensive complex and comprehensive. The core abilities of students can be cultivated, such as data analysis, teamwork, oral presentation, technical writing. For the undergraduate practical courses in China, the following suggestions are put forward: increasing the workload, enlarging the difficulty and breadth, choosing research topics, and establishing a diversified evaluation system.

Key words: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mechanical engineering, Practice teaching, Energy systems laboratory