Asee peer logo

Introduction To Chemical Engineering: A New Course For Freshman Students

Download Paper |

Conference

2002 Annual Conference

Location

Montreal, Canada

Publication Date

June 16, 2002

Start Date

June 16, 2002

End Date

June 19, 2002

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Innovative Courses for ChE Students

Page Count

8

Page Numbers

7.756.1 - 7.756.8

DOI

10.18260/1-2--10603

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/10603

Download Count

409

Paper Authors

author page

Basil Baltzis

author page

Dana Knox

Download Paper |

Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Main Menu Session 2213

Introduction to Chemical Engineering - A New Course for Freshman Students

Dana E. Knox and Basil C. Baltzis

Department of Chemical Engineering New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, NJ 07102

Abstract

Oftentimes entering freshman students know little about the major they have selected. Furthermore, the transition from high school to university is not straightforward and may create serious problems impacting retention. In order to address the foregoing issues we introduced a new course for freshmen that entered in Fall 2001 and indicated chemical engineering as their intended major. The course runs on a pilot basis.

“Introduction to Chemical Engineering,” runs as a seminar type course for one hour every week. The objectives are to expose students to various aspects of chemical engineering in general and career paths in particular, and to ensure that the students form a real connection with the department right from the early phases of their college life.

Each week the students meet with either faculty members or alumni (both recent and well- established graduates) to discuss topics varying from the department history and administrative structure to careers in the pharmaceutical industry and independent consulting. Students visit the labs they will work in later years and also discuss issues of advisement.

To ensure a seamless transition to the university life, we have instituted the Peer Mentoring program. Each freshman student has been paired with either a sophomore or a junior student and they interact primarily outside of the classroom. Mentors were selected, on a voluntary basis, from students that have a good academic performance and are involved in student societies such as the student chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.

A special questionnaire has been developed with the help of the Office of Institutional Research in order to assess the course in a qualitative way.

Experiences and results from this course will be discussed.

“Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright Ó 2002, American Society for Engineering Education”

Main Menu

Baltzis, B., & Knox, D. (2002, June), Introduction To Chemical Engineering: A New Course For Freshman Students Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10603

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2002 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015