research focuses on student belonging in engineering classrooms, hands-on learning, and team/group dynamics. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024 Material and Energy Balances AND Character Development: an investigation of student responses to intentional virtue education in a traditional chemical engineering courseAbstractEngineering education has long held that along with cultivating engineers with solid technicalskills, programs must also develop students to be safe, ethical, and community engagedprofessionals. This has been emphasized time and again through professional organizationsacross all engineering disciplines and within the ABET accreditation structure
and Biomolecular Engineering at Clemson University in the fall of 2023.Michael J. Ardoline, Louisiana State University and A&M College ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024Development of a learning module to teach chemical engineering students aboutmoral reasoning in the context of process safety.AbstractIncorporating ethics and ethical decision-making into the chemical engineering curriculum hasalways been a challenge given that much of this theory is covered outside of engineering, usuallyin philosophy departments. Nevertheless, moral reasoning has been a component of ABETevaluations for years which means that we need to identify how we can teach and assess therelevant components. Recent work
Design pillar course iscomplemented by a two-credit Safety and Ethics course. The block-schedule curriculum doesnot add more credits compared to a traditional curriculum, but instead uses the hours moreeffectively through restructuring (e.g., combining two separate thermodynamics courses offeredin consecutive terms into a single thermodynamics pillar course). This provides larger blocks oftime for students to actively engage in learning in the classroom with the support of the instructorand allows for a hands-on unit operations laboratory experience for five consecutive semestersfor the students in parallel with their core courses.Table 1 provides the sequence of courses and labs which make up our core curriculum. Moredetails on the structure
, alumni network, team and leadership skills development, global awareness, sustainability, and diversity, equity and inclusion.Robert Enick ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2023 How We Incorporate the Impact of Engineering Solutions in Global, Economic, Environmental and Social ContextsIntroductionThe ABET student outcomes (2) “the ability to apply engineering design to produce solutions thatmeet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety and welfare, as well as global,cultural, social, environmental and economic factors” and (4) “ability to recognize ethical andprofessional responsibilities in engineering situations and make informed judgements, which mustconsider
. The results provide insight intothe prioritization of laboratory learning outcomes and allow the redesign of laboratory courses tobetter align with the skills and attributes desired from all three stakeholder groups.IntroductionOver the last decade, many surveys and studies have considered the future of chemicalengineering and its alignment with industry expectations [4], resulting in changes to ABETrequirements [5] (specifically towards process safety education [6] and ethics and socialresponsibility [7]). A larger picture of chemical engineering modernization was the focus of arecent National Academies report entitled “New Directions for Chemical Engineering”, whichexplored research and undergraduate educational program updates [8
how people who historically resided in the Northern Great Plains helpedinsulate their homes (using snow, sod, animal hides, etc.) show how innovative Indigenouspeoples and homesteaders were able to adapt to this area before indoor heating improvements.Oil pipeline: One highly contentious issue within the Upper Midwest is the construction andreplacement of oil pipelines, most recently the Dakota Access Pipeline and Enbridge Line 3.Most students have some direct experience or knowledge of the protests surrounding theseprojects, yet often do not have the complete engineering and/or cultural understanding to fullyunderstand the complexity of the issues. Within both an engineering ethics course and a fluidscourse this topic is discussed. In the
the global context in their work [1]. This involves acknowledging and respectingcultural differences in design, implementation, and decision-making processes. Developing thesecompetencies provides and supports effective communication which is crucial for globalcollaboration. Engineers need to be adept at expressing complex technical concepts in a way thatis understandable across different cultures and backgrounds.Global competencies provide a scaffold to work in diverse teams, bringing together individualswith different skills, backgrounds, and cultural perspectives to address global challenges.Providing educational learning opportunities in social responsibility through ethical decision-making is important as it aligns with ethical
flow diagrams Process safety Process simulation Product design Figure 22. Coverage of technical topics in the capstone design experienceA similar question asked about the coverage of professional skills in the capstone designexperience (Figure 23). Only professional communication and teamwork skills are covered in-depth at 40% or more of responding institutions. Teamwork and ethics were both taught at amajority of institutions in 2012 [1], but most of these topics were not on the survey then. All ofthe topics listed are covered at least lightly in a majority of responding institutions exceptnegotiating skills, which was also low on the topics taught list in 2012
(nine full pages with the required sections= 100%). Students submit intermediate drafts of report sections during the semester to providesome structured accountability for progress.Content requirements for the written report include the following: • Title • Abstract • Introduction o Background o Broader Impacts (societal impact, ethics, safety, environment, and other contemporary issues) • Materials and Methods • Results • Discussion • Conclusions • References (use EndNote: all author names, article title, journal title, volume, page numbers, year). Generally, ACS, IEEE, or NIH are reasonable scientific reference styles in EndNote.Note that within the Introduction section of
an environment ofunprecedented change, so their curriculum needs to prepare them for these social, cultural, andtechnical challenges.In a 2017 review of the academic literature on climate change education strategies by Monroe etal., the authors identified increases in curricular guidelines that address climate change,coinciding with increased interest in and funding for climate education [3]. ABET incorporatessustainability and ethics in criterion 3, in student outcome 2: “an ability to apply engineeringdesign to produce solutions that meet specified needs with consideration of public health, safety,and welfare, as well as global, cultural, social, environmental, and economic factors” andoutcome 4: “an ability to recognize ethical and
fewer than 5 minutes. For the second phase of the project, subjective questions were added after each section. 3. Survey Development: The survey was built on Google Surveys, using the question bank created. The format of the questions was tailored according to the level of specificity that was needed. The survey was reviewed and approved by our institution’s human research ethics committee. 4. Validation: The final survey was reviewed internally and then tested with a sample audience of 3 students. Feedback collected from the test audience was reviewed, analysed, and used to revise the survey. 5. Rollout: The survey was initially taken by a third-year chemical engineering class and
related production process (2) Account for environmental, safety and applicable regulatory issues in designing a product (2) Recognize and analyze professional situations requiring ethical decisions with global context (4)Teams and Project SupportAt the beginning of an academic year, students were asked to rank preferences of ChE topicssuch as food, consumer goods, human health, energy, sustainability, etc. In the 2023-2024academic year, a new type of project option was added: developing a new in-class demo and/oractivity to help students learn ChE
of a wider range of ethical implications and societal impacts. Byembracing DEI, the engineering discipline is better positioned to tackle the grand challenges ofour time, from climate change to equitable access to technology, with solutions that are as variedand complex as the issues themselves [14], [15]. In essence, the integration of DEI into theengineering discipline enhances the field's ability to generate transformative solutions that areequitable, sustainable, and reflective of the needs of all segments of society. It is not just an idealto aspire to but a practical necessity for the continued relevance and progress of the engineeringprofession.Chemical Engineering, like many engineering fields, grapples with the underrepresentation
specific SOs will beintroduced or reinforced, and thus serve as formative assessment. Assessment in I- and R-designated courses are performed each year, while A-designated courses are assessed once everytwo years. SOs 1 through 3 are assessed in the first year, and SOs 4 through 7 are assessed in thesecond year of the two-year cycle. I-designated courses are all sophomore and first-semesterjunior level courses, while the R-designated courses are second-semester junior level courses.Those SOs that can be more challenging to assess in typical lecture courses, namely SO 2(design), SO 3 (communications), SO 4 (ethics and professional responsibility) and SO 5(teamwork), were concentrated for assessment in courses with design projects (Introduction
in aggregateto the Penn State research team as long as the groups were large enough to remain unidentifiablein order to support ethical validity of this work. We feel that having our research partners atClemson send out invitations to the survey helped boost the response rate significantly, and weachieved a 75% response rate from our faculty.Regarding the growth mindset statements (restated below) results show that faculty somewhatdisagree with (1), are neutral/somewhat disagree with (2), and disagree with (3). There is a largestandard deviation with these responses, especially for (2). Although faculty believe, on average,that all students can learn chemical engineering, faculty feel that some inherent intelligence orskill is needed
justice are connected: • General engineering and social justice o Free Radicals “Science Under the Scope” [21] o Donna Riley’s Engineering and Social Justice book [22] o Caroline Baillie’s “Engineering and Social Justice” chapter [23] o ASEE workshop on the “Foundations of Social Justice for Engineers” [24] • Specific case studies in fields o Case study bioengineering ethics “SUMO-1” [25] o Coded Bias documentary [26] o Nicholas Sakellariou’s “A Framework for Social Justice in Renewable Energy Engineering” chapter [27]This area is emerging. There are several scholars documenting their attempts at adding socialjustice to the engineering courses [28]–[31], though
range, considering the typical pass/failcutoff of 50%. Neither a course failure ratenor a course passing cutoff of 20% feltacceptable to the authors.Remedial work is a commonly accepted Figure 1: Midterm scores immediately after return fromsolution for struggling students to improve online teaching.their grades. However, simply askingstudents to submit exam corrections or to complete alternative problems is vulnerable toacademic dishonesty, which violates ethical codes and diminishes effectiveness. On the otherextreme, individually coaching students is not feasible for most faculty. Similarly, alternativegrading schemes or replacing traditional exams with mixed assessment methods rarely
case studies in undergraduate courses can be developed.As the impacts of climate change have continued to evolve and manifest over the past fewdecades, there is also a growing need to develop more nuanced and expansive discourse aroundenvironmental topics. [1] Due to their complexity, the social, ethical, and justice elements ofenvironmental issues often take a secondary role to more economic or policy-based motivations(loss of product, emission/release standards, etc.) in these discussions, which may result in theunintentional erasure or lack of apparent attention to the socially disadvantaged groups whom aredisproportionately affected. [2]–[4] As such, when creating new materials for environmentally-focused chemical engineering coursework
design. Her research focuses on developing assessments to measure problem-solving skills of students. She is also interested in incorporating training of ethics into engineering education and understanding how students learn most effectively.John Ellington Byars, Auburn UniversityProf. Eric Burkholder, Auburn University Eric Burkholder is an Assistant Professor in the departments of physics and chemical engineering at Auburn University. He completed a PhD in chemical engineering at the California Institute of Technology studying the physics of soft active matter. He then transitioned into STEM education research during his time as a postdoc at Stanford Univeristy. Eric’s research focuses on the intersections of
plant.This study seeks not just to improve the efficiency of operations and the quality of products butalso to significantly aid in pollution prevention, thereby minimizing waste and the environmentalimpact at the industrial facility. By decreasing the volume of new products required for thoroughflushing, we minimize commingling of oils, leading to conservation of resources while stillattaining desired product purity. Such an approach aligns with broader objectives of pollutionprevention, sustainable and ethical industrial practices. Figure 1:Multiproduct Pipeline Network of Lube Oil Industry (This representation details the various products “P#1-5” processed through the "Drum Fill Line").2.1 Pilot Plant DesignThe pilot plant was aimed
safety into their everyday lives. Emphasize incident reporting for labs,including near misses. A form is available on the SAFEChE website to use in your lab [6].Other audiences on campus should be interested in process safety, too. Business majors can bepulled in with the story of Paul O’Neill turning Alcoa from unprofitable to profitable by focusingon safety culture [7], [8]. Process safety can be tied to ergonomics, economics, ethics, andproject management. The Center for Chemical Process Safety has a document called the businesscase for process safety [9]. A safety course for non- chemical engineers will be different from acourse for chemical engineers. At the University of Michigan, the safety course is open to non-chemical engineers. The
, undergraduates and alumni. Afew of the many examples of successful mentoring are faculty-led programs that helpundergraduates with technical, ethical and professional problems [1]; the creation of graduatestudent communities as mentoring groups [2,3]; the mentoring of new graduate studentinstructors by existing graduate student instructors [4]; undergraduate student mentoring oftransfer students who are new to STEM [5] and residential peer mentoring of early engineeringstudents and at-risk students by upper-level undergraduates [6].In 2021, the Ralph E. Martin Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Arkansas(U of A) created an undergraduate mentoring program using departmental alumni as career pathidentification as well as professional
Criterion 3 Student Outcome 5 [4]). Passow [5]surveyed ~2000 engineering graduates in 11 engineering fields at 2 years, 6 years, and 10 yearsafter graduation and asked them to rank the ABET competencies (a-k in 2012 [6]) in order ofimportance for engineering practice. Practicing engineers ranked teamwork, data analysis,problem solving, and communication skills as the most important competencies in theirprofessional experience. These skills were ranked significantly above the other ABETcompetencies surveyed (math, science, and engineering skills, experimental design, processdesign, ethics, impact, life-long learning, engineering tools, and contemporary issues). Morerecent studies similarly emphasize the importance of teamwork skills [7] as well as a