Conference Session

Improving Introductory Experiences in Chemical Engineering

Collection

2014 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard L. Zollars, Washington State University

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

two translations. In creating ChemProV, wewanted to aid the students in building their own skills in transforming written information intovisual form, without giving them so much aid that the software becomes a crutch. Grounded inthe learning theory of Vtogsky,10 this approach is in line with a rich legacy of softwarescaffolding approaches11,12 in which learners are initially aided by modifications to problems thatmake them initially more doable; the modifications are then gradually removed as learners gainmore skills. The tool would, in addition, give students an opportunity for early success in thematerial/energy balance class, leading to enhanced learning according to self-efficacy theory.13In 2008 and 2009, we conducted a laboratory