A concept inventory for knowledge base evaluation and continuous curriculum improvement

Students at Polytechnique Montreal have demonstrated the ability to tackle large-scale, complex calculations through their integrative projects. However, high quality engineers must not only master calculations, but the underlying fundamental concepts as well — this level of retention allows them to transfer their knowledge to the new challenges they will face. To ensure this, accreditation criteria for engineering programs in Canada require the evaluation of multiple attributes, the first of which is “a knowledge base for engineering”. While most universities opt to evaluate this attribute through in-class grades, we choose to adapt a pedagogical tool (a concept inventory) to formulate an evaluation of our students. Our students are examined using a subset of questions from more than 800 chemical engineering questions, split into 10 subcategories. Data amassed over four years is presented, showing the impact of various improvements to this tool, as well as its use for instructor feedback and curriculum improvement. Key improvements include question revisions and targeted reviews of muddy concepts in the affected courses.     

Sharing good practice in process safety teaching

The teaching of safety is one of the most important and transferrable subjects in the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum. However, whilst different institutions have a broadly similar approach to educating students in core topics such as transport processes, approaches to safety teaching are somewhat more variable. This paper describes, analyses and reflects on our approach to safety teaching. It was found that not only are the requirements for accreditation of the degree programme by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) met, but the majority of the IChemE Safety Centre’s (ISC) recommendations are also covered. Student feedback on the 3rd year Safety and Loss Prevention (S&LP) module showed that the course has been consistently well received by the students, pointing to good course structure and coherence being a significant factor. Analysis of the outcomes of the 2020 final examination for S&LP, using Bloom’s taxonomy, supported existing plans to change the mode of assessment of S&LP to a significant coursework project. Finally, plans for a future revision of the S&LP module are presented to serve as one exemplar of good practice in safety teaching, which not only meets the requirements of the accrediting body and industry, but is also enjoyed by students.     

新工科建设背景下化工专业学生工程素质强化培养的探索——以化工工艺学相关课程为例

化工专业学生工程实践能力的培养和强化是教学环节的重要任务。教学团队以国家新工科建设为行动指南,从课堂教学、实践教学及课程考核方面对化工工艺学课程进行了一系列改革,以满足产业和技术发展对人才的需求。此次改革旨在提高学生综合运用理论知识分析和解决实际复杂工程问题的能力,强化学生工程素质和创新意识的培养。     

基于案例分析的工程伦理课程实践

案例教学法在我国起步较晚,以培养学生工程伦理实践能力为取向的案例教学逐渐成为重要的教学方法。通过对工程伦理教育发展历史沿革、工程伦理教育存在的问题等阐述,提出构建工程伦理案例分析课程体系的思路、方法、及其意义,旨在推动我国工程伦理课程体系教学理论和实践的发展。     

浅论“纳米材料与纳米技术”课程教学研究

"纳米材料与纳米技术"是我校复合材料专业开设的一门专业选修课。结合课程教学思考和授课经验,分析了当前该课程教学的目的、教课现状和存在问题,并提出了一些课程改革与措施。     

将活动表现评价引入工科实验教学

实验教学中传统的评价方式多以量化评价为主,只关注学生的学习结果,这样的评价方式不利于学生综合素质和职业能力的发展。因此,工科实验教学评价中要量化评价与质性评价相结合,将活动表现评价引入实验教学,在关注学生学习结果的同时也关注学生的学习过程,构建科学、全面的评价体系。     

Sustainability in the Chemistry Curriculum: A Call for Action

Sustainable development and sustainability are two widely used umbrella concepts, both “brilliantly ambiguous.” Many fields of study, including engineering, business, the humanities, and the sciences offer opportunities for instructors to connect content with sustainability. As the central science, chemistry is surely one of them. This paper issues a call for action to chemistry instructors to build stronger connections in the college chemistry curriculum to the local, regional and global challenges that we face on our planet. These challenges, multi‐faceted and multi‐disciplinary, include providing clean energy, protecting the environment and stewarding its resources, employing wise agricultural practices to supply food, and insuring clean water and clean air to those in all communities. As a chemical concept, the carbon cycle connects to challenges such as these. It is presented as a possibility for building stronger connections to sustainability in the curriculum.     

基于STSE教育理念的高考化学试题分析及教学策略

研究选取2018—2020年高考理综全国Ⅰ卷、Ⅱ卷和Ⅲ卷中涉及“STSE”知识的试题。采用试题研究法和统计比较法进行了分析,研究发现,“化学与STSE”知识点在高考试题中的数量及分值趋于稳定;题目类型重点在“注重基础,联系实际生活生产”方面。教师在教学中应注重“STSE”知识教学的策略,联系实际的一些生活生产的知识作为题设,让学生在学习课本知识的同时要有能联系实际问题,解决实际问题的能力。     

新工科人才培养导向的化工类延伸式实践教学模式的构建与运行

为适应新形势对高素质化工专业人才的需求,本科实践教学中构建了以拓展、连贯、多样为特色的延伸式实践教学模式,形成了传统实践为基础、拓展实践为延伸、支撑课程为保障的一体化延伸实践教学体系,通过"认知-工程-综合-应用"连贯化延伸式实践教学平台和多样化的延伸式实践组织形式开展实践教学,采用"任务分解-任务分工-自主学习-检查讨论"的任务驱动型实践教学方法,并形成了"执行-评价-改进"的运行机制和"精准指导-以赛促教-课程教改"的质量机制。延伸式实践教学模式的实施实现了本科教育"理论知识向工程能力转化、专业知识向综合能力转化、开放思维向应变能力转化",为工科人才培养探索了新的路径。     

工科院校化学课程群建设的研究与实践

工科院校化学课程群建设包括理论课程体系建设、实验课程体系建设、教学方法与手段的研究与实践、师资队伍建设、教材建设等。教学实践表明,理论课程新教学体系的科学性、系统性、先进性、完整性和新颖性,实验课程形成了一体化、三层次、多模块化学课程群实验平台,对普通高等院校化学课程群建设改革提供参考。     

化工设备机械基础课程教学改革研究

以培养应用创新型人才为目标,结合化工设备机械基础课程的特点及社会发展趋势,并从淮北师范大学的实际出发,从整体优化课程内容、改革教学方法、强化课程设计和实践环节等几个方面入手,对化工设备机械基础的理论与课程设计教学改革进行探索,特别是结合丰富的课程设计内容和灵活的教学评价方式等措施,构建启迪式教学模式,从而提高学生化学工程设计能力。     

NaWuReT-Workshop: Forschung in der Reaktionstechnik für und mit der Gesellschaft

In this article, the results of the NaWuReT (Early Career Reaction Engineers) workshop on the topic “Are we doing relevant science?” are presented. The topics “(In)surmountable hurdles for Citizen Scientists in reaction engineering?” and “Circular Economy in reaction engineering with/for society?” were discussed. Therefrom, a variety of ideas and suggestions were extracted.     

Research on and Development of Inquiry‐Type Chemistry Laboratories in Israel

Over a period of more than 60 years, the chemistry laboratory has been extensively and comprehensively researched and hundreds of research papers, reviews, and doctoral dissertations have been published, investigating the laboratory as a unique learning environment. However, there were challenges and pedagogical questions regarding its educational effectiveness and benefits for teaching and learning chemistry. At the beginning of the 21^st century there was a call to rethink (and research) the goals for learning chemistry in the laboratory. This is especially applicable in an era in which we are trying to enhance the goal of teaching “chemistry for all students” and/or for the benefit of what is fondly called “future citizens”. Working for more than 15 years with colleagues and students, we researched the potential of establishing an inquiry‐type chemistry laboratory for developing high‐order learning skills, namely, skills for the future or skills for life, including metacognitive and argumentative skills, and the ability of students to ask relevant questions resulting from an inquiry‐type chemistry laboratory.     

Teaching water desalination through active learning

Active learning refers to the direct involvement of students in the learning process rather than being passive receptors of materials. This paper evaluates the implementation of active learning in teaching seawater desalination as an elective course in chemical engineering curriculum. Desalination is a multi-disciplinary engineering science that encompasses elements of water chemistry, material science, transport phenomena, thermodynamics, engineering design, and corrosion. Water desalination is an important course in most chemical and mechanical engineering curricula, where the design and analysis of different water desalination processes are addressed. The current teaching method, however, relies heavily on classical lecture-presentation of the course materials, without any direct involvement of the students. A simple approach that utilizes Excel and Ez-Solve in designing and analyzing desalination processes has been developed. Active learning is the central part of this course development, where students are heavily involved in class activities and can directly assess the effect of input variables on the design parameters, allowing them to carry out “What If” or parameter sensitivity analysis.     

Incorporating life cycle assessment and ecodesign tools for green chemical engineering: A case study of competences and learning outcomes assessment

Chemical engineers assume a broad range of roles in industry, spanning the development of new process designs, the maintenance and optimization of complex systems, and the production of intermediate materials, final products and new technologies. The technical aptitude that enables chemical engineers to fulfill these various roles along the value chain makes them compelling participants in the environmental assessment of the product in question. Therefore, the introduction of life cycle assessment (LCA) and ecodesign concepts into the chemical engineering curriculum is essential to help these future professionals to face design problems with a holistic view of the technical, economic, social and environmental impacts of their solutions. The teaching of these and other disciplines by means of student-centered methods, based on a holistic structure, have demonstrated better teamwork and communication skills. For that reason, this paper proposes a Micro (Assess-Analyze-Act) (M-3A) model of assessment mainly focused on closing the loop of the learning activities. This model has been applied to an ecodesign case study of the “University master’s Degree in chemical engineering” of the University of Cantabria/University of the Basque Country, with positive feedback of the students. They felt that the approach has allowed them to utilize their analytical skills in quantifying a situation before applying other subjective measures, and that the public discussion of the results was a satisfactory element for improving their communication skills. Moreover, the students found that the workload was nicely adjusted, highlighting the acquisition of 4 competences preferentially: teamwork, creativity; relevance of environmental issues and initiative and entrepreneurship. Finally, the students suggest that the application of this methodology into their degree could motivate future students improving their performance.     

煤化工工艺学教学中实施STS教育的探索与实践

文章是对我校在化工专业的主干课程煤化工工艺学的教学中实施STS教育的成果总结。在教学过程中渗透STS教育,改革传统的授课模式,做到与时俱进,用现代的教学手段、丰富的教学内容和科学的考核机制构建新型的煤化工工艺学课程教学模式。实现专业理论扎实、工程实践能力强,综合素质高的煤化工应用型人才的培养目标。     

关于院系如何做好专业认证自评工作的思考

本文简述了开展工程教育专业认证的背景,提出了院系做好专业认证自评工作的三个重要方面：明确工程教育认证与本科教学工作水平评估的区别,深入了解《全国工程教育专业认证标准》的内涵,扎实做好自评工作,并针对专业认证对化工高等教育的启示,我们提出了自己的思考。     

The development of chemical engineering in german industry and universities

Chemical engineering is taught at German universities in three different types of curricula: chemical engineering proper, process engineering (“Verfahrenstechnik”), and industrial chemistry (“Technische Chemie”). Independent departments resp. faculties of chemical engineering exist at four universities. At other universities process engineering is offered as a complete curriculum with a smaller amount of chemistry than chemical engineering curricula, mostly by the departments of mechanical engineering. Industrial chemistry is an essential component of chemistry courses at most technical universities and optional subject at several classical universities. The cause of this diversity of approaches to chemical engineering can be traced back to the beginning of the production of high-value organics (dyes, pharmaceuticals) in Germany in the second half of the 19th century.     

以工程教育专业认证理念推动化工设计系列实践课的建设和改革

合肥工业大学化学与化工学院针对化工专业大学生工程设计及实践能力不足的现状,遵循以学生为中心、以能力产出为导向、持续改进的认证理念,参照工程教育专业认证标准要求对化工设计系列实践课进行了全面深化改革和认证指标的分解落实,整合了现有的教学体系、教学目标及教学模式,全方位培养化工专业学生的专业素养、综合运用知识的能力及工程系统意识。     

以专业认证引领专业建设

过程装备与控制工程专业是北京化工大学最老的三个支撑专业之一,在国民经济和社会发展中作用大,需求广。在新形势下,为加强工程教育,参与国际竞争,过程装备与控制工程专业以专业认证为引导,在保持机械、过程及控制学科交叉专业特色的同时,加强专业建设和教学改革,取得了突出成绩。本文从专业目标、课程体系、师资队伍、支撑条件、学生发展、管理制度和质量评价等专业认证的七个方面进行简要介绍。