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Integrating a Laboratory Into a First-Semester Introduction to Chemical Engineering Course

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Integrating a Laboratory Into a First-Semester Introduction to Chemical Engineering Course Paper ID #34909 Integrating a Laboratory into a First-semester Introduction to Chemical Engineering Course Dr. Susan M. Stagg-Williams, The University of Kansas Dr. Susan M Stagg-Williams is the Charles E. & Mary Jane Spahr Professor and Chair of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering at the University of Kansas (KU), with a specialty in biomass conversion. She has worked closely with the KU Center for Teaching Excellence and been a champion for course redesign across campus. Her primary focus has been on large freshman and sophomore classes. She is the founder of the KU Biodiesel Initiative which provides opportunities for undergraduate students to apply their engineering skills in practical applications while earning their degree. Dr. Stagg-Williams earned her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1994 and her Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma in 1999. Dr. Molly McVey, The University of Kansas Dr. Molly A. McVey is a post-doctoral teaching fellow at the University of Kansas School of Engineering where she works with faculty to incorporate evidence-based and student-centered teaching methods, and to research the impacts of changes made to teaching on student learning and success. Dr. McVey earned her Ph.D in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas in 2012. Mr. Andrew David Yancey, The University of Kansas Andrew earned a B.S. in Chemistry from Baylor University in May 2019. Currently, he attends the University of Kansas where he is pursuing a PhD in Chemical Engineering. His research focuses on selective separation of azeotropic refrigerant mixtures using porous materials. Mr. Akash Anand, The University of Kansas Mr. Arthur A. Lee, The University of Kansas PhD Candidate, Bioengineering Graduate Program c American Society for Engineering Education, 2021 Integrating a Laboratory into a First-Semester Introduction to Chemical Engineering Course Abstract The Introduction to Chemical Engineering course at the University of Kansas has traditionally been taught as a 2-credit hour, 1-semester course in the fall of the freshman year. In 2019, the course was redesigned to span both the fall and spring semesters and incorporate a hands-on laboratory experience each semester. The lab was structured to accommodate enrollments of up to 144 students, with each student attending four two-hour laboratory sessions during each semester. This paper is focused on the laboratory component of the fall semester course. The primary goal of the fall semester laboratory was to expose students to chemical engineering concepts while providing opportunities to see chemical engineering processes from feedstock selection to products utilization. The focus of the laboratory was the production of biodiesel from vegetable oil with each laboratory period highlighting a different aspect of the process involved. The four laboratory sessions covered concepts including batch reaction, separation of products, purification of biodiesel using an ion exchange mechanism, and glycerin purification using distillation with emphasis on methanol recycling. Aspen modeling of the distillation process, and fuel property testing along with product utilization in a diesel generator was demonstrated. The students were able to see the integration of each experiment with respect to the overall engineering process and complete mass balances on individual processes and the complete process over the course of the semester. Additionally, fundamental chemical engineering topics including transport phenomena, thermodynamics, and reaction engineering were introduced when appropriate during experiments. Finally, for each laboratory session, the students saw a demonstration of larger-scale equipment for each process unit being studied. Retention analysis of first-year students to the university and the major along with evaluations from the students in the sophomore year will be presented. Introduction The University of Kansas (KU) Chemical and Petroleum Engineering (C&PE) department has historically introduced students to the chemical engineering profession using a one semester, two credit hour “Introduction to the Profession” course. The course provided students information in three main areas: 1) an introduction to work done by professional chemical engineers, the resources available to help them be successful at KU, the curricular requirements and expectations of chemical engineering students, and possible career opportunities; 2) an introduction to engineering ethics, basic safety considerations, teamwork, and technical writing; and 3) an introduction to basic material and energy balances and fluid flow. This course was the only chemical engineering course the students took during the freshman year. While teaching the first semester sophomore Material and Energy Balance course between 2009 and 2012, students often remarked that the freshman class was boring and that they still did not understand what chemical engineers did. Based on this feedback, a proposal was submitted in 2013 to the Kansas Soybean Commission called “Beyond the Book: Active Learning through Biodiesel (#ALT-B)” to develop a freshman course which would include a laboratory component centered around the production of biodiesel. Students would be exposed to all of the processes and chemical engineering concepts related to biodiesel production including reactions, separations, fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, process control, thermodynamics, and material and energy balances. The goal was to introduce students to the fundamental concepts at a high level while providing an opportunity to see how the concepts are integrated while exploring in a hands-on laboratory. The production of biodiesel was selected because the University of Kansas has a Biodiesel Initiative which has a pilot scale process that converts used cooking oil into biodiesel and provides it to campus for various applications. While the original grant proposed a laboratory related to biodiesel production, the department ultimately decided to have two courses each with a laboratory component to maintain a connection with students throughout the first year. The department’s Curriculum Committee discussed that students in the chemical engineering program did not have any chemical engineering specific courses in the spring semester of their freshman year. The perception from the faculty was that the loss in contact between the chemical engineering students and the department between the fall of freshman year and the fall of sophomore year negatively impacted retention. Literature has shown the multitude of factors affecting student retention in engineering include classroom and academic climate, grades and conceptual understanding, self-efficacy and self-confidence, high school preparation, interests and career goals, race and gender, poor teaching and advising, curriculum difficulty, and a lack of belonging [1, 2]. In a multi-year study at a single institution, the lack of belonging was the most significant factor reported by students that left [2]. At the course level, active and cooperative learning have repeatedly shown to be important factors in student success and retention. For example, increasing course structure, increased transparency, and active/cooperative learning have been shown to increase success for all students [3], but particularly for students from under-represented groups [4, 5]. Additionally, hands-on projects in a first year engineering program have been shown to improve retention [6, 7]. Therefore, this redesign focused on two factors known to be important for student retention: improving a feeling of belonging [2] by providing continuity of contact with the department and content and by including hands-on, active learning in a first year course [6, 7]. While the content development of the biodiesel-based laboratory was completed in 2015, several other factors influenced the timing of the first offering of the course. The School of Engineering opened a new building in fall of 2015 and the senior chemical engineering laboratory courses for the C&PE Department moved to the new building. While this opened up some space, the laboratory was still being used by the petroleum engineering courses. In the fall of 2018, these courses moved into new laboratory space in the Earth, Energy & Environment Center (EEEC) which allowed for the freshman laboratory to have a home. The department and School of Engineering Senate approved the proposal for the change in structure and the addition of the spring semester course. Also, during that time, Frank and Stephanie Tsuru made a generous donation to the department to support the renovation of the laboratory space and the purchase of equipment and supplies for the course. The new introductory courses were taught for the first time in the 2019-2020 academic year. The fall 2019 course was taught as originally envisioned; however, the spring 2020 course was interrupted due to COVID-19. This paper will focus on the first semester course as taught in fall 2019, providing an overview of the course structure and the experiments involved in the laboratory component. The end of the article will discuss changes that were made in the fall of 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions. Structure of the New Courses The structure of the fall and spring courses is similar. All students attend one 50-minute lecture once per week. The fall lectures focus on an introduction to work done by professional engineers, the resources available to help them be successful
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