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Session 2213

Improving Student Learning in the ChE Laboratory

David C. Miller,* Mark Anklam, Ronald S. Artigue, Alfred Carlson, Daniel G. Coronell, Sharon G. Sauer, and Atanas Serbezov Department of Chemical Engineering Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

Abstract: The unit operations lab brings together a significant number of educational goals for the students: experiencing a broad range of equipment and instrumentation, enhancing teaming skills, learning to analyze experimental data, and developing written and oral communication skills. To help improve the students’ overall learning in laboratory so as to better prepare them for industry and/or graduate research, we have (1) created a new lecture course on engineering experimentation to accompany the laboratory, (2) increased the emphasis on experimental planning and data analysis for each lab project, (3) implemented a peer-review and report revision procedure, (4) require students to follow industry standards for recording data in laboratory notebooks, and (5) completely revised the department’s Lab Manual to reflect these changes in emphasis. This paper describes the organization and effectiveness of our revised laboratory sequence in comparison with our previous approach.

Introduction The unit operations laboratory is generally regarded as an ideal setting for students to learn the skills that will help them become better engineering practitioners.1,2 It brings together a significant number of educational goals for the students: experiencing a broad range of equipment and instrumentation, enhancing teaming skills, learning to analyze experimental data, and developing written and oral communication skills. Because of the large number of goals, it is difficult to attain an appropriate balance among them and to stay within the time limitations of the course. Many engineering departments have sought to make significant improvements in their laboratory courses. Jiménez et al.2 describe a “holistic approach” which incorporates more soft skills such as teaming and communication as well as the global concerns of safety, environmental impact, and trouble shooting. Recently, an increased emphasis is being placed on experimental design3,4 in part due to the importance of this specific area as explicitly required in the ABET EC 2000 criterion.5 Other departments are adding elements of process design in an attempt to increase student interest in the laboratory projects.6

The impetus for this project came from our desire to improve the students’ overall learning in laboratory, so as to better prepare them for industry and/or graduate research. In particular, we wanted to focus on the further development of the students’ ability to

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Artigue, R., & Anklam, M., & Miller, D., & Coronell, D., & Serbezov, A., & Sauer, S., & Carlson, A. (2004, June), Improving Student Learning In The Che Laboratory Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--13411