design teaching workshop - university of kansaskuktl.dept.ku.edu/workshop/block2.pdf7 c. s. howat -...

1 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002

KurataThermodynamics

Laboratory

Design Teaching WorkshopDesign Teaching Workshop

Colin S. ‘Chip’ Howat

Joe A. and Annabel H. Christy ScholarDirector, Kurata Thermodynamics Laboratory

Department of Chemical & Petroleum EngineeringUniversity of Kansas

Lawrence, Kansas 66045-7609

AIChE Annual MeetingSession 168

Indianapolis, Indiana

The Students


Block 2The Raw Material

Thesis:Thesis:

Students are fully ready to practice design.

Students have spent threeto four years preparingfor our design courses.So, they must be, right?



Economically, efficiently, elegantly and safety recover solvents from a pharmaceutical plant water effluent.

Are we missing a few things?

What do we expect from our students? What do we expect from us?



We can’texpect toarrive atthis withoutknowingthe rawmaterial.

We can’tWe can’texpect toexpect toteach designteach designwithoutwithoutknowing knowing the state ofthe state ofthe studentsthe studentsand theirand theirfoundation.foundation.



We can’t expect to teach design without knowing the state of the students and their skill and knowledgefoundation.

At most institutions, despite our best intentions, students are taught chemical engineering as aseries of disconnected topics.



Students often work in groups, not under cooperative learning approaches. They lose confidence.The faculty who have taught them have not practiced and rely on textbooks. Perspective is lost.Often software is merely imposed on the students detaching them from the intimacy of thecontent. The boundaries become impermeable, the content becomes blurred.

We’d like to think that wewere different. We see theintegration because ofrepetition.



Open-ended problems may be imposed on classes without design instruction. They are solved as engineering science. The additional work implies that either the students didn’t learn because the workload was too high or they didn’t learn some of the material because it wasn’t presented. They work is with groups resulting in students being off-balance, without confidence.

If there are ‘holes’ in theknowledge foundation, theintegration, synthesis andevaluation aspects of designwill be problematic.



Well, maybe they don’t havethe foundation that we thinkbut they do have the skills,don’t they?c

Senior Problem-Solving Strategies

ProblemIdentification

ProblemSolution

ProblemCompletion

None (DivineIntervention)

Transcribe EverythingVisualize Flowsheet

Visualize Solution

None (Never Needed)

Work BackwardCalculate Everything

Match History

Direct to Indirect

None (Out of Time)

Diminish ReturnsMaximize Points

Anticipate Professor

Recognize Solution



Material & Energy Balances

Therm

odyn

amics

Momentum Transport

Mass Transport

Heat Transport

Econ

omics

Kinetics

Control

Humanities

Social Sciences

Language

The History

This is the paradigm that we use and have used for a number of years. It basically was spawnedby the work of BS & L and their Transport Phenomena textbook. It took the place of the Unit Operationsparadigm developed by G. G. Brown and others.

But now?

What else could impact design?



Material & Energy Balances

Therm

odyn

amics

Momentum Transport

Mass Transport

Heat Transport

Econ

omics

Kinetics

Control

Humanities

Social Sciences

Language

Chemical engineering is expanding into new areas, to name a few, all vying for attentioncompeting with traditional areas, e.g. oil, petrochemicals and pulp & paper. New professorsnecessarily want to include these ~ it is their research area.

Biochemical

Biomedical

Environmental

Electron

ic

Materials

Electrochemical

Accounting

Pharmaceuticals

The Expansion



Therm

odyn

amics

Momentum Transport

Mass Transport

Heat Transport

Econ

omics

Kinetics

Control

Humanities

Social Sciences

Language

DESIGN

SAFETY

GREEN SIMULATIONThe Restrictions

And, then, there are outside thrusts of emphasis competing with the expansion of topics for time.So, what do we get?



• Problem Solving Skills

• Critical Thinking Skills

• Creative Thinking Skills

• Integrative Thinking Skills

• Independent Learning Skills

It would appear that we havean incomplete raw materialcoming to design.

The literature indicates that if we teachour students these skills, they should beable to practice in any existing oremerging area of chemical engineering.

Evidence indicates that they don’t havethese skills when they come to design.

Students do have the talent, they do have the desire, they do have the motivation.

Students do not have the knowledge base, the big picture, the skills and the depth.



Thesis:Thesis:

Myth:Myth:

Students are fully ready to practice design.

The ‘Take Home’: The ‘Raw Materials’ (Students) must be defined The ‘Take Home’: The ‘Raw Materials’ (Students) must be defined tototeach Design and what we teach may change from semester to semesteach Design and what we teach may change from semester to semesterter

depending on the class depending on the class ‘history’.‘history’.

What should come next, then?

design teaching workshop - university of kansaskuktl.dept.ku.edu/workshop/block2.pdf7 c. s. howat -...

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