scholarly journals IMPLEMENTING A COMMON APPROACH TO PROBLEM SOLVING IN THE SECOND YEAR OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Meunier ◽  
Nicolas Hudon
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Concept Map ◽  
Learning Theories ◽  
Graduate Studies ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Science Courses ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Structured Approach

At the undergraduate level, chemical engineering students must learn how to solve complex problems, but many students fail to apply effective problem-solving techniques taught in fundamental science courses. Because these techniques are not consistently presented and reinforced, instructors and students often interpret poor capabilities in problem solving to misunderstandings of fundamentals or to gaps in mathematical knowledge. In this contribution, a previously proposed concept map aimed at ascribing a common approach to problem solving is further explored in a sequence of two junior-level chemical engineering courses. The difficulties of implementing a common problem-solving approach are discussed, and a hierarchy of problem solving is proposed – based on a combination of learning theories – to structure a problem-solving methodology from junior to senior level as well as toward graduate studies and professional practice. Preliminary results indicate that students benefiting from this structured approach exhibit improved confidence in their problem-solving abilities.  The proposed concept map forms the basis of future stages of the project, including curriculum and teaching innovations.

scholarly journals TRANSLATING PROBLEM STATEMENTS INTO ACTIONABLE SOLUTION PROCEDURE: DEVELOPING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS IN CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Meunier ◽  
Nicolas Hudon
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Solution Procedure ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Confidence Levels ◽  
Traditional Lectures ◽  
Second Year ◽  
Instruction Methodology

Junior-level chemical engineering students often struggle with solving problems in fundamental undergraduate courses. This deficiency is generally attributed, by instructors and students alike, to gaps in mathematical knowledge. However, the difficulty may instead be rooted in an inability to interpret the information from problem statements. In this contribution, a coordinated, multi-faceted instruction methodology is proposed, over a sequence of second-year chemical engineering fundamental courses, to foster the development of problem-solving strategies and to increase the confidence of students in their abilities to decipher problem data, to develop a proper mathematical framework, and to apply a first-principle approach to problem solving. Compared with traditional lectures alone, obstacles to problem solving may be overcome when students are offered additional learning streams in the form of interactive workshops and video-recorded examples. This results in raised confidence levels toward translating problems into actionable solution procedure.

The characterization of cognitive processes involved in chemical kinetics using a blended processing framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 617-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kinsey Bain ◽  
Jon-Marc G. Rodriguez ◽  
Alena Moon ◽  
Marcy H. Towns
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Chemical Kinetics ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Knowledge Integration ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Chemistry Students ◽  
Student Integration ◽  
And Mathematics

Chemical kinetics is a highly quantitative content area that involves the use of multiple mathematical representations to model processes and is a context that is under-investigated in the literature. This qualitative study explored undergraduate student integration of chemistry and mathematics during problem solving in the context of chemical kinetics. Using semi-structured interviews, participants were asked to make their reasoning and thinking explicit as they described provided equations and as they worked though chemical kinetics problems. Here we describe the results from our study, which included thirty-six general chemistry students, five physical chemistry students, and three chemical engineering students. Analysis and findings are framed in terms of blended processing, a theory from cognitive science that characterizes human knowledge integration. Themes emerged relating to contexts that were commonly discussed when blending occurred. Variation in the depth and directionality of blending was also observed and characterized. Results provide implications for supporting student problem solving and the modeling of chemical processes.

Teaching Database Courses to Engineering Students

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abe Zeid
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Teaching Approach ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Abstract Concepts ◽  
Undergraduate Level ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Hands On ◽  
New Perspective

The teaching of databases to engineering students at the undergraduate level has proven challenging for multiple reasons. First, the course is a nontraditional engineering course. Second, the concepts of databases are highly abstract. Third, engineering students prefer the problem-solving, hands-on, and project-based method of learning over the coverage of database design concepts. Fourth, there is a lack of engineering-oriented database textbooks. This paper presents an effective teaching approach that overcomes these challenges. The approach mixes and integrates the database abstract concepts with hands-on and capstone-based learning activities. The approach incorporates engineering students' feedback during the course. The paper discusses the database course objectives, content, project requirements, the skill set students learn, the software tools they use, and assessment tools. Sample projects and students' comments are included. The paper concludes with some observations that can be useful to use in traditional engineering courses to provide a new perspective of teaching in engineering.

scholarly journals First to Second Year Identity Emergence in Industrial and Chemical Engineering Students

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline McNeil ◽  
Erin Gerber ◽  
Gerold Willing ◽  
Mary Mills
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Second Year

Language aspects of engineering students' view of entropy

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 489-508 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Haglund ◽  
Staffan Andersson ◽  
Maja Elmgren
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Internal Energy ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Second Law Of Thermodynamics ◽  
Ideal Gas ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Chemical Thermodynamics ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Chemistry Students

Entropy is a central concept in thermodynamics, but has been found to be challenging to students due to its abstract nature and the fact that it is not part of students' everyday language. Interviews with three pairs of engineering students (N= 6) were conducted and video recorded regarding their interpretation and use of the entropy concept, one year after a course on chemical thermodynamics. From a syntax perspective, students were asked to assess whether different sentences involving temperature, internal energy, and entropy make sense. With a focus on semantics, they were asked to rank a set of notions with regards to how closely they are related to entropy, how scientific they are, and how useful they are for explaining what entropy is. From a pragmatics point of view, students were asked to solve two qualitative problems, which involve entropy. The results show that these chemistry students regard internal energy, but not entropy, as a substance-like entity. The students' ranking of how closely related to entropy notions are and how useful they are for explaining entropy was found to be strongly negatively correlated to how scientific the notions were seen to be. For example, disorder was seen as highly unscientific, but very useful for explaining entropy. In the problem-solving tasks, Chemical Engineering students were comfortable relating entropy to enthalpy and Gibbs free energy, the three notions being seen to form a “trinity” in thermodynamics. However, the students had challenges grasping the unchanged entropy in reversible, adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas, in which they did not consider how entropy relates to the second law of thermodynamics. In final reflections on their learning processes, the students saw weak connections between their problem-solving skills and their conceptual understanding of entropy, although acknowledging that both aspects of learning are important.

Implementation of the Second-year course in an Engineering Professional Spine

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umar Iqbal ◽  
Deena Salem ◽  
David Strong
Keyword(s):  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Research University ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Employability Skills ◽  
First Year ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Core Courses ◽  
Second Year ◽  
First Time ◽  
Academic Year

The objective of this paper is to document the experience of developing and implementing a second-year course in an engineering professional spine that was developed in a first-tier research university and relies on project-based core courses. The main objective of this spine is to develop the students’ cognitive and employability skills that will allow them to stand out from the crowd of other engineering graduates.The spine was developed and delivered for the first time in the academic year 2010-2011 for first-year general engineering students. In the year 2011-2012, those students joined different programs, and accordingly the second-year course was tailored to align with the different programs’ learning outcomes. This paper discusses the development and implementation of the course in the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) department.

First-Year Engineering Computing Courses in Canadian Engineering Programs

1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Maw ◽  
Janice Miller Young ◽  
Alexis Morris
Keyword(s):  
Problem Solving ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Expected Value ◽  
Knowledge Development ◽  
First Year ◽  
Recent Past ◽  
Engineering Programs ◽  
Digital Computation ◽  
Pedagogical Philosophies ◽  
Introductory Computing

Most Canadian engineering students take a computing course in their first year that introduces them to digital computation. The Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board does not specify the language(s) that can or should be used for instruction. As a result, a variety of languages are used across Canada. This study examines which languages are used in degree-granting institutions, currently and in the recent past. It also examines why institutions have chosen the languages that they currently use. In addition to the language used in instruction, the types and hours of instruction are also analyzed. Methods of instruction and evaluation are compared, as well as the pedagogical philosophies of the different programs with respect to introductory computing. Finally, a comparison of the expected value of this course to graduates is also presented. We found a more diverse landscape for introductory computing courses than anticipated, in most respects. The guiding ethos at most institutions is skill and knowledge development, especially around problem solving in an engineering context. The methods to achieve this are quite varied, and so are the languages employed in such courses. Most programs currently use C/C++, Matlab, VB and/or Python.

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