Asee peer logo

Prioritizing Learning Outcomes for Chemical Engineering Laboratory Courses: Student Perspectives

Download Paper |

Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

June 26, 2024

Conference Session

Joint Session: Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division and Chemical Division

Tagged Divisions

Experimentation and Laboratory-Oriented Studies Division (DELOS) and Chemical Engineering Division (ChED)

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

23

DOI

10.18260/1-2--47874

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/47874

Download Count

84

Paper Authors

biography

Chris Barr University of Michigan Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-2938-2896

visit author page

Dr. Christopher Barr is the Instructional Laboratory Supervisor in the Chemical Engineering Department at University of Michigan. He obtained his Ph.D. at University of Toledo in 2013 and is a former Fellow in the N.S.F. GK-12 grant "Graduate Teaching Fellows in STEM High School Education: An Environmental Science Learning Community at the Land-Lake Ecosystem Interface". His main responsibilities are supervising and implementing improvements to the undergraduate labs. He also serves as secondary instructor for the CHE labs, the Departmental Safety Coordinator, and lead for the SAFEChE (Process Safety Across the CHE Curriculum) modules as well as the Visual Encyclopedia of Chemical Engineering Equipment. Currently, he serves as a Director for the ASEE ChE Division.

visit author page

biography

Sarah A Wilson University of Kentucky

visit author page

Sarah Wilson is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering at the University of Kentucky. She completed her bachelor's degree at Rowan University in New Jersey before attending graduate school for her PhD at the University of Massachusetts.

visit author page

biography

Janie Brennan Washington University in St. Louis

visit author page

Janie Brennan is a Senior Lecturer of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis. She earned her BS in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Purdue University in 2010, and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering (also from Purdue) in 2015. She teaches several core engineering courses, including thermodynamics, separations, unit operations lab, and zymurgy, and her research has focused on understanding best practices for teaching and learning in these courses.

visit author page

biography

Joanne Beckwith Maddock Carnegie Mellon University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0003-1505-6894

visit author page

Joanne Beckwith Maddock is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. She earned her B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Toledo in 2013, her M.S.E. from the University of Michigan in 2017, and her Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Michigan in 2021. Her research focus areas include laboratory courses, first year engineering, and engineering in rural communities.

visit author page

biography

Tracy L. Carter Northeastern University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-4184-0052

visit author page

Tracy Carter is a faculty member in the Chemical Engineering Department at Northeastern University. She is also a faculty facilitator for the Industry/CCPS Faculty Workshops on process safety. She also has 9 years of R&D experience in industry. She has 15+ years of experience teaching unit operations laboratory and process safety to undergraduate and graduate students. She also has 5+ years mentoring graduate students on technical communications in the NU College of Engineering Communication Lab.

visit author page

biography

Samira Azarin Azarin

visit author page

Samira Azarin is an Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. She earned her B.S. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2006 and went on to receive a Ph.D. in chem

visit author page

biography

Amy J. Karlsson University of Maryland Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-9962-925X

visit author page

Amy J. Karlsson is an associate professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Maryland - College Park. She received her BS in chemical engineering from Iowa State University and her PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

Undergraduate laboratories are an integral component of most engineering programs, playing a pivotal role in integrating hands-on application of theory as well as building other skills for future engineers. Previous work by Feisel and Rosa [1] suggested thirteen learning outcomes that can be covered in engineering laboratory courses; however, two potential barriers make using these outcomes in chemical engineering laboratory courses challenging: (a) Feisel and Rosa’s learning outcomes are not targeted specifically to chemical engineering or to the needs of stakeholders within the chemical engineering curriculum and (b) expecting laboratory instructors to assess thirteen different learning outcomes for student success is unrealistic.

Therefore, a survey was designed to gain an understanding of the outcomes most important to the various lab stakeholders (faculty, non-academic engineers, and students) and the current successes and gaps of chemical engineering laboratory curricula in addressing those outcomes. This paper describes responses received from chemical engineering students. Including the student voice is important in higher education curricular development and can have positive outcomes in terms of student perceptions of courses and their engagement in them [2]. Additionally, students are more intrinsically motivated by course attributes that are tied to their future careers [3]. Thus, incorporating the student perspective into chemical engineering laboratory course design is critical.

Thirty-one students responded to the survey. Survey responses included demographic and background information, which can be used to situate the survey responses in the context of the respondents’ experiences. Additionally, respondents were asked to rank the five most important learning outcomes for laboratory-intensive chemical engineering courses, identify which outcomes respondents are weakest in, and which outcomes the chemical engineering curriculum should do a better job covering. Finally, open-ended questions were included to identify additional important learning outcomes and provide comments. The results provide insight into the prioritization of laboratory learning outcomes and allow the redesign of laboratory courses to better align with the skills and attributes desired from all three stakeholder groups.

Barr, C., & Wilson, S. A., & Brennan, J., & Beckwith Maddock, J., & Carter, T. L., & Azarin, S., & Karlsson, A. J. (2024, June), Prioritizing Learning Outcomes for Chemical Engineering Laboratory Courses: Student Perspectives Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--47874

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: © 2024 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