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Work-in-progress: Identifying unit operations laboratory curriculum needs

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Works in Progress: Chemical Engineering Education

Page Count

23

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40900

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40900

Download Count

324

Paper Authors

biography

Sarah Wilson University of Kentucky

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Sarah is an assistant profession in chemical engineering at the University of Kentucky. Her research is in engineering education and focused on understanding internal barriers to success within engineering.

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Tracy Carter Northeastern University

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Tracy Carter is a part-time faculty member in the Chemical Engineering Department at Northeastern University and the Communication Lab Coordinator for the College of Engineering. She has 15+ years of experience teaching unit operations laboratory and process safety to undergraduates and 5 years working with graduate students on technical communications. She is also a faculty facilitator for the CCPS Faculty Workshops on process safety.

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Janie Brennan Washington University in St. Louis

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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.

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Joanne Beckwith University of Michigan

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Joanne Beckwith 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.

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Samira Azarin

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Chris Barr University of Michigan

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Chris Barr is the CHE lab manager at University of MIchigan. Previous to Michigan, Chris has taught or managed CHE labs at University of Toledo, where he earned his Ph.D, and Trine University, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree. As the lab supervisor, Chris’ main responsibilities focus around the successful operation of the undergraduate chemical engineering laboratories. This includes (but is not limited to) chemical safety within the laboratory, ensuring equipment is functioning properly, assisting students with both experiment-based and theory-based questions, and assisting faculty of the development of new experiments to incorporate in the undergraduate labs. In addition to the labs, Chris focuses on safety within the labs as part of the departmental safety committee, managing a safety demonstration lab for training new graduate students, and leading the SAFEChE initiative (safeche.engin.umich.edu) and Visual Encyclopedia of Chemical Engineering Equipment (https://encyclopedia.che.engin.umich.edu/)

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Abstract

A knowledge gap exists between what is taught in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum and what is needed in terms of knowledge, skills, and attributes for industry. ABET has worked towards characterizing curriculum needs by specifying seven student outcomes that were developed by their more than 2,200 experts from academia, government and industry. While useful in curriculum assessment, these outcomes are broad and do not provide details about what should be incorporated into specific courses. The National Science Foundation and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers surveyed 507 individuals from industry and academia to identify more specific skills needed for graduates going into industry. In addition to process safety and process dynamic knowledge, results suggested the need for skills in communication, critical thinking, teamwork, leadership, open-ended task analysis, problem solving, and time management. These skills are often taught through the unit operations laboratory.

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty were forced to evaluate the learning outcomes of unit operations laboratory courses, allowing them to think more explicitly about how to address those gaps identified through the previous study. Moving forward, faculty have the opportunity to redesign the course to meet the needs of industry. Surveying unit operations laboratory stakeholders will offer a more targeted approach to making the necessary changes in course content. This includes surveying 1. Faculty on their perceptions of the key learning outcomes of the unit operations laboratory, 2. Industry on the knowledge, skills and attributes that should be taught in the laboratory, and 3. Students on what gaps exist in the chemical engineering curriculum that could be filled by the laboratory. The results of these surveys will provide information that will help balance the breadth and depth of content necessary while incorporating updates to address stakeholder needs. This work-in-progress paper will detail the development of these three surveys.

Wilson, S., & Carter, T., & Karlsson, A., & Brennan, J., & Beckwith, J., & Azarin, S., & Barr, C. (2022, August), Work-in-progress: Identifying unit operations laboratory curriculum needs Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40900

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