How We teach: Unit Operations Laboratory
- Conference
- Location
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Salt Lake City, Utah
- Publication Date
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June 23, 2018
- Start Date
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June 23, 2018
- End Date
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July 27, 2018
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
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Chemical Engineering
- Page Count
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13
- DOI
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10.18260/1-2--30587
- Permanent URL
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https://peer.asee.org/30587
- Download Count
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948
Paper Authors
Margot A. Vigeant Bucknell University
Margot Vigeant is a professor of chemical engineering at Bucknell University. She earned her B.S. in chemical engineering from Cornell University, and her M.S. and Ph.D., also in chemical engineering, from the University of Virginia. Her primary research focus is on engineering pedagogy at the undergraduate level. She is particularly interested in the teaching and learning of concepts related to thermodynamics. She is also interested in active, collaborative, and problem-based learning, and in the ways hands-on activities such as making, technology, and games can be used to improve student engagement.
David L. Silverstein P.E. 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 19 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.
Kevin D. Dahm Rowan University
Kevin Dahm is a Professor of Chemical Engineering at Rowan University. He earned his BS from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (92) and his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (98). He has published two books, "Fundamentals of Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics" and "Interpreting Diffuse Reflectance and Transmittance." He has also published papers on effective use of simulation in engineering, teaching design and engineering economics, and assessment of student learning.
Laura P. Ford University of Tulsa
LAURA P. FORD is an Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the University of Tulsa. She teaches engineering science thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, mass transfer, and chemical engineering senior labs. She is a co-advisor for TU’s student chapter of Engineers Without Borders USA. Her email address is laura-ford@utulsa.edu.
Jennifer Cole
Northwestern University
orcid.org/0000-0001-7104-2986
Jennifer Cole is the Assistant Chair in Chemical and Biological Engineering in the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science at Northwestern University. Dr. Cole’s primary teaching is in capstone and freshman design, and her research interest are in engineering design education.
Lucas James Landherr Northeastern University
Dr. Lucas Landherr is an associate teaching professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University, conducting research in engineering education.
Abstract
One of the truly distinctive elements of a chemical engineering undergraduate experience is working with larger-scale process equipment in a laboratory setting. Unit Operations courses seek to expose students to the type and scale of equipment they are likely to see in industry and to equip them with the ability to analyze the behavior of these systems as well as have a true “feel” for how they work (or don’t work quite as expected).
For the 2017 survey, the AIChE Education Division Survey Committee focused on the laboratory portion of the chemical engineering undergraduate curriculum. Over 70 programs completed the survey, which asked about course structure, hours, and experiments. The typical undergraduate takes one or two laboratory-focused courses within chemical engineering, completes experiments as part of a team, and has at least some exposure to pilot-scale equipment. Virtual experiments make up about 10% of control system experiments and are otherwise relatively uncommon. This paper reports on the survey’s key findings as well as some of the highlights of innovative laboratory experience and pedagogy discussed in the results.
Vigeant, M. A., & Silverstein, D. L., & Dahm, K. D., & Ford, L. P., & Cole, J., & Landherr, L. J. (2018, June), How We teach: Unit Operations Laboratory Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--30587
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