Conference Session

New Trends in CHE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Michael Hanyak, Bucknell University; Timothy Raymond, Bucknell University

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

AC 2009-1936: TEACHING MATERIAL AND ENERGY BALANCES TOFIRST-YEAR STUDENTS USING COOPERATIVE TEAM-BASED PROJECTSAND LABSMichael Hanyak, Bucknell University Michael E. Hanyak, Jr. is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Bucknell University since 1974. He received his B.S. from The Pennsylvania State University, M.S. from Carnegie Mellon, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976. His teaching and research interests include computer-aided engineering and design, courseware development and the electronic classroom. He was one of the principal investigators with Brian Hoyt, William J. Snyder, Edward Mastascusa, and Maurice Aburdene on a five-year National

Conference Session

E-Learning in Chemical Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Richard Zollars, Washington State University; Christopher Hundhausen, Washington State University; Pawan Agrawal, Washington State University

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

students that failed to successfully complete the material andenergy balance course had a cumulative GPA of 3.06 versus 2.95 for those that didsuccessfully complete the class. The SAT scores for these two groups were 1265 versus1300, respectively. The standard deviation for the GPA was 0.50 while that for the SATscores was 70. Why, then, do 35% of our students fail to complete the material andenergy balance course?Defining an Approach To explore why the material and energy balance course might be such a stumblingblock, we studied the problem solving activities of introductory chemical engineeringstudents. To do this, we ran an exploratory study in the Fall of 2006 using four pairs ofstudents and a SmartBoard√ electronic whiteboard to (a

Conference Session

E-Learning in Chemical Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jeremy VanAntwerp, Calvin College; Aubrey Sykes, Calvin College; xiuhua si

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

capabilities: thesuccessive iterative calculations to close material and/or heat balance equations with a set ofthermodynamic equilibrium correlations and data that successfully model the physical chemistryof the process. The bookkeeping capabilities of these programs are valuable but not unique.Other programs (e.g., a spreadsheet like Excel) can easily provide the same capabilities forbookkeeping of material and energy balance equations—especially through the trial and errorcalculations. In practice, most simulators require a substantial amount of data entry and/orentering/fitting of thermodynamic parameters to provide any results (let alone meaningfulresults!). For many of the general purpose simulators support for inorganics and/orbiological

Conference Session

New Trends in CHE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Christensen, Texas A&M University; Lale Yurttas, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

addition of a projectcomponent of such magnitude. In addition, the general engineering principles of the lower-levelcourses can be most readily applied and extrapolated to more general real-life challenges thatwould be the basis of the service-learning projects. The goals of increasing excitement andretention rates would be also better served by implementing service learning during the mostinfluential time of a student’s academic career, which typically coincides with the lower-levelcourses. Furthermore, the four learning outcomes of the material and energy balances coursewere defined with the goal of implementing service learning. Specifically outcome 4 is wellaligned with such objectives of a service learning project: community engagement

Conference Session

New Trends in CHE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Claire Komives, San Jose State University; Erik Fernandez, University of Virginia

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

to begin to incorporate bio intotheir courses. The database would function as a supplementary solution manual to the textbooksolution manual. An NSF Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement proposal was Page 14.1086.2 1funded in January, 2007 to the authors of this paper, and the plan was to develop 100 problemswith solutions for the Material and Energy Balance course.BioEMB has a number of useful attributes for faculty. Unlike a static solution manual, theproblems on BioEMB can be easily modified. Thus, mistakes in calculation, typo's and othererrors can be easily fixed and reposted

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Claire Komives, San Jose State University; Erik Fernandez, University of Virginia

textbooks for theinitial course that most students take on material and energy balance (MEB) analysis of chemicalprocesses[2]. Because many chemical engineering faculty have little or no biological training, aworkshop was offered during Summer '07 at SJSU to provide a "crash-course" in biology andbiochemistry that is applicable to biochemical engineering.The assessment of the project has been multi-faceted. Beta-test sites that incorporated some ofthe problems into their courses evaluated student performance during the Fall '07 and '08semesters. A statistical analysis of the data from the first round of beta testing showed that theevaluation strategy was not appropriate to demonstrate improved student learning from the use ofthe website materials

Conference Session

Information Literacy Integration and Assessment

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Donna Riley, Smith College; Rocco Piccinino, Smith College

Tagged Divisions

Engineering Libraries

follows: • Basic engineering calculations and computation. Convert quantities from one set of units to another quickly and accurately; define, calculate and estimate properties of process materials including fluid density, flow rate, and chemical composition (mass and mole fractions, concentrations). • Material and energy balance calculations. Draw and label process flow charts from verbal process descriptions; carry out degree-of-freedom analyses; write and solve material and energy balance equations from single-unit and multiple-unit processes, processes with recycle and bypass, and reactive processes. Apply mass and energy balance principles to product life-cycle assessment (LCA). • Introductory Thermodynamics. Perform pressure

Conference Session

E-Learning in Chemical Engineering

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Silverstein, University of Kentucky

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

successes of collaborative learning, selected elements of each were tied intoa simple project requiring minimal student time to collaboratively develop a reflective learningdocument using a wiki. A wiki is a web-accessible document that can be edited by multipleusers. For this project, students in a material and energy balance course were assigned theweekly task of maintaining a wiki page on the current textbook chapter by entering what theyperceived as the most important items learned during class. This was similar to other activelearning activities suggested in the literature, but in this case the student contributions werecollaborative and archival. Students were encouraged to be complete and accurate with thepromise that their entries would be

Conference Session

Multidisciplinary Capstone Design Projects

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Josef Rojter, Victoria University of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Multidisciplinary Engineering

. Production of steel Full material and energy balances in production of steels.Problem-solving focused tutorials provided the context for much of the student learning.Academic consultations, outside timetabled classes, provided further context for studentlearning. Tutorial problems were generally based on case studies such as fuel comparisons interms of economics, energy intensities and carbon footprint, or glass bottles design for thefermentation of sparkling wines. Other problems were derived from topics on health, wastewater treatment, mineral and food industries. Areas of knowledge, both in fundamental Page 14.466.5sciences and engineering

Conference Session

Using Technology to Enhance Education

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Paul Blowers, University of Arizona

Tagged Divisions

Educational Research and Methods

Introduction to OneNote and its Multimodal CapabilitiesThe Course:The sophomore material and energy balances course investigated in this work had an enrollmentof a total of 94 students who finished the course out of the 103 who began the course at thebeginning of the Fall 2008 semester. This course is the first core course in chemical engineeringand is one of the two options engineering management students must take in order to satisfy theirenergy-based curriculum content requirements. Students in engineering management may takethis course during their sophomore, junior, or senior years, while chemical engineers will all beclassified departmentally as sophomores.A variety of instructional support tools were used in this course that had an impact on

Conference Session

New Trends in CHE Education I

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Adrienne Minerick, Mississippi State University; Keisha Walters, Mississippi State University; Bill Elmore, Mississippi State University; Rebecca Toghiani, Mississippi State University; Rafael Hernandez; Priscilla Hill, Mississippi State University; Hossein Toghiani, Mississippi State University; Todd French, Mississippi State University

Tagged Divisions

Chemical Engineering

mass and energy along withevaluation of physical properties to evaluate batch and continuous processes. The students areexpected to be able to utilize basic algebra, calculus, and physics principles. The students arealso expected to have a fundamental knowledge of chemistry including stoichiometry andcomponent balances. The text used in this course is Felder and Rousseau [4].The students are taught how to graph functions and perform statistical calculations with andwithout the aid of Excel using data collected from chemical processes. Other sources ofinformation that would provide assistance when performing material and energy balances arebrought to their attention. Students are trained how to read and understand descriptions ofprocesses

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Curricula

Collection

2009 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering