The impact of focused degree projects in chemical engineering education on students’ research performance,retention, and efficacy

Recent reforms in engineering education have emerged to meet the changing needs of engineers, however sparse research exists that comprehensively assesses the outcomes associated with such engineering education efforts. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for educational approaches tied to assessing engineering students’ performance, retention, and impact.This study's purpose is to explore the relationship between sequential chemical engineering degree projects and students’ performance, engineering efficacy, multidisciplinarity, and retention. The projects for this education for chemical engineers research are thematically focused laboratory experiments embedded in a four-year chemical engineering program. Each project component is connected to the next, is increasingly complex as courses advanced, and is aligned with essential course content. This connectivity enables students to participate in logically sequenced experiments that culminate in well-developed senior laboratory projects. This study's educational impact was determined via comparison between seniors’ and freshmen’ performance, efficacy and retention.Results of this research indicate that the use of degree projects in chemical engineering education is impactful, resulting in students’ increased understanding of experimentation and course content; meaningful, resulting in statistically significant increased student chemical engineering efficacy; and engaging, resulting in students’ satisfaction with program impact, engagement with peers during experimentation, and dramatically increased student retention.     

A detailed anatomy of students’ perception of engagement and their learning a threshold concept in core chemical engineering

An attempt has been made to reveal a detailed anatomy of students’ self-perceived engagement with material in a lecture and their learning of a key course threshold concept. A cohort of 80 students in a third year chemical engineering (64% response rate) course voluntarily recorded their engagement using a Likert-type scale at intervals of 5 min in a (nominally 50 min) lecture, together with written comments. Marks were awarded for a substantial, follow-up summative assignment to test their understanding of the threshold concept. It was found students were highly unaligned in their level of engagement with the lecture. A key reason was that individuals’ engagement varied highly significantly during the lecture. Six engagement styles were identified. Some 33% exhibited Type 1 (engage strongly at the start and slowly disengage) and 23% exhibited Type 2 (remain at a more or less fixed engagement). Significantly, there was no correlation between students’ engagement scores and marks awarded; in particular there was no correlation with specific lecture intervals in which material was identified as most important. Further, there was no correlation between the number of written comments made by an individual and their marks. It is concluded that student self-perceived engagement is not a good predictor of learning as assessed by marks awarded on a summative assignment. It is not known whether student engagement is predicated on particular lecture material and type of lecturer, or other contributing factors. The experimental design could be readily widely applied.     

A retrospective analysis on the impacts of an immersive digital environment on chemical engineering students’ moral reasoning

Process safety decision making in chemical engineering practice has a strong ethical and moral component. While effective process safety decision making can be taught, it is not solely a technical topic, and includes complex behavioral elements that classroom-based instruction finds difficult to capture. To capture the complexity of this decision making, we have developed a digital immersive environment, Contents Under Pressure (CUP), that includes both technical and behavioral elements. This immersion allows participants to explore realistic process safety decision points in a safe environment. To determine the effect of CUP on moral reasoning, a retrospective study of two cohorts was conducted. The first cohort (n = 109) received traditional process safety instruction, and the second cohort (n = 181) had CUP included as part of their instruction. Pre- and post-assessment of participant process safety reasoning was achieved via the Engineering Process Safety Reasoning Instrument (EPSRI), also developed by the authors. Analysis of the data suggests that exposure to CUP has a distinct and statistically significant impact on process safety reasoning as compared to the comparison cohort.     

Community service as an application of the independent learning – independent campus program to improve the competence of chemical engineering students through collaborative and student project-based learning

The community service program is one of the Tri Dharma or three obligations of Higher Education conducted by the academic community in Indonesia. A brand-new initiative in education was unveiled by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology, specifically Independent Learning – Independent Campus. Numerous Chemical Engineering – Institut Teknologi Indonesia faculty members and students collaborated with partners to manufacture and diversify cocozone oil as an outcome of downstream research and community service. As part of the 'Independent Learning - Independent Campus' program, community service is examined to determine its effect on student competence development and faculty-student engagement. Furthermore, students are unaware of its cost because it is subsidized by the government, though it highlights the importance of voluntary community work. Similarly, faculty members followed the same trend, though their ratings were higher than the pupils. Student socialization is an important part of their education and learning process. Additionally, community service activities are beneficial to the partner since they cushion them against the economic effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.     

A framework for hands-on learning in chemical engineering education—Training students with the end goal in mind

Chemical engineering education aims to equip students with both theoretical knowledge and hands-on capability to solve practical problems. At Imperial College London, this is practiced via three laboratory-based courses, which span over the first three years of the undergraduate curriculum. The Foundation, Knowledge and Discovery Laboratories were designed based on Kolb’s experiential learning theory as well as Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Although these courses intend to challenge students, appropriate scaffolding is in place to ensure a satisfactory learning experience across the spectrum of abilities. Assessment and survey results show that all students were capable of meeting the learning goals (>96% achieving satisfactory to excellent results in academic years 2014–2016), while a large majority is satisfied with the courses (>80% in academic years 2014–2016). The design and implementation of these courses are discussed to promote the exchange of good practices within the higher education community.     

The impact of synthetic biology in chemical engineering—Educational issues

This paper describes the development of synthetic biology as a distinct entity from current industrial biotechnology and the implications for a future based on its concepts. The role of the engineering design cycle, in synthetic biology is established and the difficulties in making and exact analogy between the two emphasised. It is suggested that process engineers can offer experience in the application of synthetic biology to the manufacture of products which should influence the approach of the synthetic biologist. The style of teaching for synthetic biology appears to offer a new approach at undergraduate level and the challenges to the education of process engineers in this technology are raised. Possible routes to the development of synthetic biology teaching are suggested.     

Team formation on the basis of Belbin’s roles to enhance students’ performance in project based learning

This paper presents a method that instructors have designed and implemented to form balanced teams based on Belbin's roles, with the aim of boosting positive interdependence and individual accountability within the teams and improving their performance in a project-based learning environment. Students’ performance has been measured through the scores obtained during the project, individual exam and Individual Accountability Factor (IAF) and compared with cohorts of previous years, in which team composition was self-selected by students. Belbin teams (18/19–19/20) have performed significantly better than self-selected teams (16/17–17/18). Additionally, students’ feedback experience and opinion has been collected. Students belonging to Belbin teams acknowledge that they attend classes more regularly, they need less time for study outside the classes and they show a higher interest for the subject at the end of the course. They also agree that working on Belbin teams has helped them to mainly improve interpersonal relationships and social skills, followed by positive interdependence and individual accountability. This team forming method gives students the opportunity to identify their own strengths and weaknesses and understand the roles (behaviours) of their teammates as well as their strengths and weaknesses. Besides, it encourages learners to focus explicitly on group work skills.     

Positioning “chemical product design” in the chemical engineering curricula in India

Chemical product design is concerned with the design of specialty products such as formulated products, specialty chemicals, etc. Chemical product design is becoming increasingly relevant to chemical engineers as chemical process industries (CPIs) are shifting away from the traditional commodity products to specialty products. In this article, the nature of the specialty product industry is discussed in detail. It is felt that this vital area is under-represented in Indian chemical engineering curricula and this has to be remedied immediately so that fresh chemical engineering graduates are able to adapt to the changing scenario. The teaching of chemical product design in other Universities abroad is considered and a discussion on our own experience at VIT University is provided.     

Development and application of scoring rubrics for evaluating students’ competencies and learning outcomes in Chemical Engineering experimental courses

This paper reflects on the interest of several teachers in reviewing the instruments and evaluation processes in Chemical Engineering experimental courses taught during three consecutive academic years at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid: Engineering Laboratory, Experimentation in Chemical Engineering and Process Scale-up.In this study, a methodology has been proposed to design, develop, and apply rubrics based on competence and learning outcome approaches. Thanks to the collaborative work of the three teaching teams involved, the application of comprehensive rubrics to provide gradual attainment of competence and formative evaluation over the academic years was rendered possible.Rubrics were developed to evaluate the main tasks of the courses: Personal Work, Written Report, and Oral Presentation. The rubric for each task contained the same evaluation criteria and dimensions with four levels of achievement, but differed in the scoring strategy depending on the course in which the rubric was implemented.The use of evaluation rubrics had a low impact on the final students’ grade; its greatest impact was on Personal Work, as a larger number of students achieved higher scores. The rubrics fostered transparency in the evaluation process of the students and homogenized the evaluation criteria for a large number of teachers (22) and students (180 per year).     

Students’ performance and perceptions on continuous assessment. Redefining a chemical engineering subject in the European higher education area

Chemical Engineering taught as a subject across three Energy Engineering-based degree streams was evaluated considering two cohorts in two consecutive years after the implementation of the Bologna Process in Spain. A regular continuous assessment methodology yielded negative results during the first year. Student insight on course development, own expectations and results, and the evaluation system were then explored via a 33-item survey with participation levels between 41% and 82%. Direct answers were evaluated including rank correlations between all items. The 465 correlation coefficients obtained showed stimulating and unanticipated results. For example, it was shown that a severe grading process (external blame-assignment) was only identified as an explanation for a low mark by those students who performed most poorly in the subject and, therefore, had a poorer understanding of the materials.Besides, the feedback received from students was used to implement several changes in both the teaching practice and the assessment method during the second year, such as incorporating exam-like problems in daily classes and setting two midterm exams instead of the final one. The results registered after the second year pointed to substantial progress in student learning. Pass rates also rose from a 30% in the first academic year to 49% and 58% in the two following ones.     

Evaluation of “Year 1 Assessment Week” in promoting transferable skills among first year chemical engineering students

The Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, The University of Nottingham, Malaysia Campus has introduced “Year 1 Assessment Week” to replace the conventional coursework assessment method. During the assessment week, the first year students are required to conduct activities in groups. The activities involve elements of experiment, analysis, interpretation and presentation. This paper evaluates and analyse the impacts of such assessment system in promoting transferable skills among the students. Three stages of reflection (Teaching Activity, Reflecting and Interpreting) were conducted throughout the study. Questionnaires completed by the students, feedback from lecturers and self-observations are taken as the measurement of this study. Based on the results from the questionnaires, it is noted that most of the students agreed or strongly agreed with the transferable skills of “data sorting”, “manipulating and analysing”, “logical reasoning”, “communication”, “creativity and innovation”, “safety and teamwork” and “independent learning” were being applied during the assessment week. However, they were uncertain on how the transferable skills of “working within limited and conflicting data” and “information technology” could be applied in the activities during the assessment week. Most of the lecturers agreed that the students achieved the basic requirements of the assessment and fulfilled the learning outcomes. However, some lecturers found that the presentation and report writing skills were not highlighted during the assessment. In addition, some experienced lecturers reflected critically that the limited materials used in some of the activities had limited the creativity of the students.     

Use of Kahoot! to keep students’ motivation during online classes in the lockdown period caused by Covid 19

COVID 19 lockdown forced a general move of teaching activities from their on-site mode to remote producing different negative consequences for students. In this work, the use of Kahoot! platform was studied to keep students’ interest during online teaching. For this, Kahoot! games were carried out for the different topics of a university subject. The data analysis revealed that a high participation implies an improvement in the final marks. Additionally, questions response time was also extracted serving as a reference for remote exams. On the other hand, two surveys were carried out in which the students showed that the transfer from face-to-face to remote teaching had produced a general decrease in interest that can be mitigated by performing Kahoot! games.     

Assessing the utility of coal’s elementary composition in predicting the yield of coking products

Elementary analysis of the organic mass of coal does not provide sufficient information to predict the yield of coking products, since it does not reflect the changes in the atomic bonds between the carbon, hydrogen, and other elements.     

The triplet “molecular processes–product–process” engineering: the future of chemical engineering ?

Today chemical engineering has to answer to the changing needs of the chemical and related process industries and to meet the market demands. Being a key to survival in globalization of trade and competition, the evolution of chemical engineering is thus necessary. Its ability to cope with the scientific and technological problems encountered will be appraised in this paper. To satisfy both the markets requirements for specific end-use properties of products and the social and environmental constraints of the industrial-scale processes, it is shown that a necessary progress is coming via a multidisciplinary and a time and length multiscale approach. This will be obtained due to breakthroughs in molecular modelling, scientific instrumentation and related signal processing and powerful computational tools. For the future of chemical engineering four main objectives are concerned: (a) to increase productivity and selectivity through intelligent operations via intensification and multiscale control of processes; (b) to design novel equipment based on scientific principles and new methods of production: process intensification; (c) to extend chemical engineering methodology to product focussed engineering, i.e. manufacturing and synthesizing end-use properties required by the customer, which needs a triplet “molecular processes–product–process” engineering; (d) to implement multiscale application of computational chemical engineering modelling and simulation to real-life situations, from the molecular scale to the overall complex production scale.     

The physical–chemical study of detonation nanodiamond application in adsorption and chromatography

In the present work, the study on detonation nanodiamond (DND) powders modifications in gaseous media was carried out. The surface properties of DND were studied by TGA, IR-spectroscopy, pH-potentiometry and chromatography methods. It was determined that modifying the DND surface reduces specific retention volumes and retention times of adsorbates. At the same time, specific and dispersion interactions have decreased. Such phenomena are significant for gas chromatographic separation of complex mixtures. The study of DND in contact with water and water solutions showed that chemical modification of DND produces on its surface oxygen-containing groups with acidic character. The latter stipulates its ion-exchange properties and applicability to liquid chromatography. In summary, the performed research provides significant perspective toward new-generation adsorbent creation with controlled surface identification for gaseous and liquid chromatography purposes.     

HSG400 – Design,implementation, and evaluation of a hybrid board game for aiding chemistry and chemical engineering students in the review of stereochemistry during and after the COVID-19 pandemic

This paper provides information about a hybrid multilingual (English, Portuguese, French, and Italian) game developed as an alternative learning method to the traditional problem-solving exercises model. The game comprises a physical board and a free-of-charge application for undergraduate students to review and reinforce concepts related to stereochemistry by answering questions, from a bank of 400 questions, in a ludic, competitive, and collaborative environment. Brazilian, French, and Italian undergraduate students played the game face-to-face before the disruption caused by the Covid-19 Pandemic and remotely during that. They also evaluated the game, and the quite positive results obtained from students’ self-assessment revealed that they felt the game contributed to their learning while playing.     

Assessing the Effects of Acute Amyloid β Oligomer Exposure in the Rat

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, yet there are no therapeutic treatments that can either cure or delay its onset. Currently, the pathogenesis of AD is still uncertain, especially with respect to how the disease develops from a normal healthy brain. Amyloid β oligomers (AβO) are highly neurotoxic proteins and are considered potential initiators to the pathogenesis of AD. Rat brains were exposed to AβO via bilateral intracerebroventricular injections. Rats were then euthanized at either 1, 3, 7 or 21-days post surgery. Rat behavioural testing was performed using the Morris water maze and open field tests. Post-mortem brain tissue was immunolabelled for Aβ, microglia, and cholinergic neurons. Rats exposed to AβO showed deficits in spatial learning and anxiety-like behaviour. Acute positive staining for Aβ was only observed in the corpus callosum surrounding the lateral ventricles. AβO exposed rat brains also showed a delayed increase in activated microglia within the corpus callosum and a decreased number of cholinergic neurons within the basal forebrain. Acute exposure to AβO resulted in mild learning and memory impairments with co-concomitant white matter pathology within the corpus callosum and cholinergic cell loss within the basal forebrain. Results suggest that acute exposure to AβO in the rat may be a useful tool in assessing the early phases for the pathogenesis of AD.