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'OLD DEAD GUYS' Using Activity Breaks to Teach History

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'OLD DEAD GUYS' Using Activity Breaks to Teach History ---11111-111111111---------~S=i classroom ) 'OLD DEAD GUYS' Using Activity Breaks to Teach History JOSEPH H. HOLLES Michigan Technological University • Houghton, Ml 49931 eaching students in the classroom on a regular basis tors, the students are usually completely unfamiliar with quickly reveals the importance of activity breaks. them. By focusing on the history and personalities, chemical TActivity breaks can be used for active learning ex­ engineering comes alive and the students become familiar ercises such as in-class teams, think-pair-share, or minute with the human side of our profession. These examples can papers_[ll The core elements of all active-learning methods also be used to demonstrate to students the reasons why these are student activity and engagement in the learning process. problems were so important and how their solutions led to These methods have been shown to have a positive effect on practical developments and applications. Since there is often student learning. [ZJ at least one historical figure mentioned in every class lecture, An alternative focus of this active-learning activity break they provide an opportunity to re-engage the students and re­ can be to educate students about the history and personalities focus on the topic through the use of a historically focused of chemical engineering. Almost every lecture in a chemi­ activity break. cal engineering class contains references to the people and their accomplishments that form the foundation for today's APPROACH students: Antoine equation, Gibbs' free energy, Arrhenius When a historical figure is encountered during a class pe­ equation, Reynolds number, McCabe-Thiele plot, Bode plot. riod, it is often part of a derivation, and student attention is Why are these figures famous today? Because they came up waning. This provides an ideal opportunity for a historically with solutions to important problems. While many of these focused activity break. This break serves as a way to put an historical figures are at least vaguely familiar to us as instruc- exclamation point on a concept and to connect the person to this concept. The students are first asked to guess when the historical figure lived and did the work that bears his or her Joseph H. Holles is an assistant professor name. As expected, a few wildly inaccurate guesses usually of chemical engineering at Michigan Tech­ result. Next, the students are shown a picture/portrait of the nological University. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering in 1990 from Iowa historical figure. Slightly more accurate guesses are then State University and his M.E. and Ph.D. given. The guesses serve as a way to encourage participation. from the University of Virginia in 1998 and 2000, respectively. His research area is Since no one is likely to know the answer, a wrong guess nanoscale materials design and synthesis does not demonstrate a lack of technical knowledge to their for catalytic applications with an emphasis on structure/property relationships and in­ peers. Finally, the students are shown a picture together with situ characterization. biographical information about the historical figure. This in­ formation typically includes birth and death dates, institutions attended, degrees earned and dates, major accomplishments, © Copyright ChE Division of ASEE 2009 150 Chemical Engineering Education TABLE 1 Thomas Midgley, Jr. Biographies Used in Kinetics and Reaction Engineering b. 1889 Class d. 1944 Svante Arrhenius Edward Teller Ph.D. Cornell Cato Guldberg Paul Emmet 1922 Discovered tetraethyl lead as Peter Waage Irving Langmuir anti-knock additive to gasoline. Maud Menten Thomas Sherwood 1928 Discovered Leonor Michaelis Alan Colburn chlorofluorocarbons were essentially "inert" and could be used Hans Lineweaver Ernest Thiele as refrigerants. Dean Burk Gerhard Damkohler Nichols Medal 1922 and awards earned (Figure 1 and Figure 2). The degree and in­ Perkins Medal 1937 Priestly Medal 1941 (ACS) stitution data show students that people from many fields have William Gibbs Medal 1942 contributed knowledge important to chemical engineering. It also exposes students to the importance of advanced degrees in science and engineering but also that some historical figures Figure 1. Thomas Midgley picture and biography had no more than a bachelor's degree. Major accomplishments for classroom use. other than the one of current interest are also listed. In this way, the versatility of these historical figures is demonstrated Wilhelm Ostwald as well as the fact that people often succeed and contribute b. 1853, Riga, Latvia to fields outside their area of study. The break is concluded d. 1932, Leipzig, Germany with a short discussion of why the accomplishment occurred Univ. of Tartu 1875 (Estonia) at that time, the historical context in which it occurred, what Univ. of Tartu 1878, Ph.D. other historical events influenced it, and other broad societal 1877: Prof. of Physical Chemistry at influences (intended and unintended). Leipzig University. Students included: Arrhenius (Nobel Prize 1903) Van'! Hoff (Nobel Prize 1901) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Nernst (Nobel Prize 1920) The historically focused activity breaks have been used Received Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1909 for "Work on catalysis, chemical over the last five years in two separate courses (a junior-level equilibria, and reaction velocities." required course in Kinetics and Reaction Engineering and a senior-level elective in Industrial Chemical Production). For Figure 2. Wilhelm Ostwald picture and biography the Kinetics and Reaction Engineering class, 14 biographies for classroom use. have been developed (Table 1). Six biographies have been developed for the Industrial Chemical Production class. of engineering in a global and societal context and contribute directly to desired outcome (h) of Criterion 3 in ABET. From the instructor perspective, what appears to draw the students into the presentations is when they include contro­ Students can also be educated about the practice of sci­ versy. For example, Thomas Midgley was responsible for ence and engineering through these historical biographies. two of the most important inventions of the 20th century: For example, most faculties are aware of the mentor/mentee tetra-ethyl lead gasoline additive and chlorofluorocarbon relationships between professors and graduate students. If the refrigerants. These inventions lead to the tremendous suc­ historical biography lists an individual's advisor and students, cess of the automobile and allowed large population growth the students can see how one generation of scientists educates/ in the American south and southwest. As a result of these trains the next generation. An ideal example of this is Ostwald, inventions he won numerous awards. Before the century was who mentored three Nobel laureates (Figure 2). over, however, the side effects of these inventions were well Whenever possible, women and minorities should be fea­ known and both substances were tightly regulated. Similarly, tured as historical figures (e.g., Maud Menten of Michaelis­ Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch developed catalysts to produce Menten kinetics). There is an ongoing effort by the NSF and ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen. This allowed Germany other organizations to encourage the participation of women to make explosives for its war efforts after it lost access to con­ and minorities in science and engineering. By highlighting the ventional nitrogen sources. On the positive side, subsequent contributions of these groups, our own students can be encour­ ammonia production and use as a fertilizer has also allowed aged. It should also be noted that many historical women and a worldwide expansion of agriculture production. Examples minorities succeeded in spite of the roadblocks placed by soci­ such as the two above help our students understand the impact ety. This can be used to show students that anyone can succeed Vol. 43, No. 2, Spring 2009 151 despite whatever roadblocks they face. Resources focused on The most recent class went a step further. They spontane­ information specifically about women and minorities in science ously decided to determine which member of our department may be used to prepare these biographiesP 5l most resembled the historical figure. Due to the preponderance The use of historical biographies also allows the opportunity of beards on 19th-century scientists, the two members of our to expose undergraduate students to the scientific literature. department with beards were frequent winners. Subsequently, Show the students a copy of the paper where Thiele investi­ this class incorporated this idea into their own classroom gated the relationship between catalytic activity and particle presentation. Approximately 75 percent of the student presen­ size[6l (which led to the Thiele modulus) or when Michaelis tations included a biography of a historically relevant figure. and Menten published their understanding of enzyme kinet­ Several students also noted to me how hard they worked to ics_[7l By showing students the original papers, they can begin find biographical data and images of the historical figure. to understand the process whereby a problem evolves into a Additionally, as part of these presentations, the students research project, becomes published in a research journal, competed informally to see who could incorporate the oldest is accepted by the researchers in the field, and graduates to historical figure into their presentation. textbook fundamentals. CONCLUSIONS Information
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