How We Teach: Material and Energy Balances
- Conference
- Location
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Minneapolis, MN
- Publication Date
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August 23, 2022
- Start Date
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June 26, 2022
- End Date
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June 29, 2022
- Conference Session
- Page Count
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33
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--41893
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/41893
- Download Count
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728
Paper Authors
Laura Ford The University of Tulsa
Dr. Laura P. Ford is an Associate Professor in the Russell School of Chemical Engineering at the University of Tulsa. She teaches engineering science thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, separations, mass transfer, senior labs, and applied controls. Dr. Ford advises the Engineers Without Borders - USA chapter and the refining technologies joint industry project. She has three degrees in chemical engineering: BS from Oklahoma State University and MS and PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Janie Brennan Washington University in St. Louis
Janie is a Senior Lecturer in Energy, Environmental & Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. Her PhD is in chemical engineering from Purdue University. Research focus areas include laboratory courses, process safety, and chemical engineering pedagogy.
Kevin Dahm Rowan University
Kevin Dahm is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rowan University. He received his B.S. from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1992 and his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1998. He is an author of the textbook Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, and is an Associate Editor for the journals Advances in Engineering Education and Education for Chemical Engineers.
David Silverstein University of Kentucky
David L. Silverstein is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Kentucky. He is also the Director of the College of Engineering's Extended Campus Programs in Paducah, Kentucky, where he has taught for 23 years. His PhD and MS studies in ChE were completed at Vanderbilt University, and his BSChE at the University of Alabama. Silverstein's research interests include conceptual learning tools and training, and he has particular interests in faculty development. He is the recipient of several ASEE awards, including the Fahein award for young faculty teaching and educational scholarship, the Corcoran award for best article in the journal Chemical Engineering Education (twice), and the Martin award for best paper in the ChE Division at the ASEE Annual Meeting.
Lucas Landherr Northeastern University
Chemical engineering teaching professor at Northeastern University, conducting research on comics and videos as visual learning tools
Christy West University of South Alabama
Jennifer Cole Northwestern University
Dr. Cole is the Assistant Chair in Chemical Engineering at Northwestern and the Associate Director of the Northwestern Center for Engineering Education Research. Dr. Cole's teaching and research interests lie in engineering design, both first year and capstone. She is particularly interested in bringing anti-racism and social and environmental justice contexts to engineering problem solving in her courses.
Stephen Thiel University of Cincinnati
Bruce Vaughen American Institute of Chemical Engineers
Dr. Bruce K. Vaughen, PE, CCPSC, is the Lead Process Safety Subject Matter Expert at the Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS), a Technology Alliance in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). He has more than two and a half decades of process safety experience, including engineering, research, teaching, and consulting experiences. He is a co-author with James A. Klein for the book Process Safety: Key Concepts and Practical Approaches (CRCPress 2017), is the principal author of three CCPS Guideline books, and has developed training modules for AIChE’s Safety and Chemical Engineering Education (SAChE) Program. He holds a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, MS and PhD degrees in chemical engineering from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, and is a registered professional engineer. In 2021 he was named an AIChE Fellow; in 2022 he was named a CCPS Fellow.
Marnie Jamieson University of Alberta
Abstract
The Curriculum Committee of AIChE’s Education Division surveyed chemical engineering departments across the United States and Canada in Fall 2021 about material and energy balances (MEB) courses. Courses have been described by 84 faculty at 75 institutions.
MEB is taught primarily to first-term sophomores (78% of schools) majoring in only chemical engineering (46% of schools). Over 70% of the schools require only one MEB course, and 24% require two courses. All schools require general chemistry as a prerequisite, with half requiring Calculus II (integrals). Faculty do not expect incoming MEB students to be experienced or proficient in any software packages, but they are expected to be at least novices in word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software. Over 40% of schools expect at least novice-level understanding of computerized algebra systems, primarily MATLAB. Schools provide students with computer labs, with almost 60% of schools maintaining the labs at the college level.
Exams and homework are the most popular assessments, appearing in over 90% of courses. Over half of the courses also have pre-announced quizzes, and team homework is used in 45% of the courses. In a majority of the courses (67%), twenty percent or fewer of the assignments are completed with a computer. The Felder, Rousseau, and Bullard textbook is used in nearly 80% of the courses. Textbook topics through energy balances on reactive systems are covered in over 70% of courses. Only the topics of computer-aided balance calculations and transient balances receive low coverage, in under 50% of the courses. Second courses in MEB tend to emphasize energy balances. In professional skills, only formal problem-solving strategies are covered in over half of the courses. Lecture section sizes are 40 students or smaller for over half of the reporting courses.
Ford, L., & Brennan, J., & Dahm, K., & Silverstein, D., & Landherr, L., & West, C., & Cole, J., & Thiel, S., & Vaughen, B., & Jamieson, M. (2022, August), How We Teach: Material and Energy Balances Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41893
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