Collaborative Research: Integration of Conceptual Learning throughout the Core Chemical Engineering Curriculum

The goal of this proposed CCLI project is to create a community of learning within the discipline of chemical engineering (ChE) focused on concept-based instruction. The project will develop and promote the use of a cyber-enabled infrastructure, the AIChE Concept Warehouse, which ultimately could be used throughout the core ChE curriculum (Material and Energy Balances, Thermodynamics, Transport Phenomena, Kinetics and Reactor Design, and Materials Science). Conceptual questions, both as Concept Inventories and ConcepTests, will be available through an interactive website maintained through the Education Division of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the discipline’s major professional society. It will use a database - a flexible, query-driven information storage system - that is designed to be versatile so that conceptual learning can be deployed by programs and instructors as it best fits into their curriculum and culture. The overall objective is to lower the activation barrier for using conceptual instruction and assessment so that many more chemical engineering faculty incorporate concept-based learning into their classes. Workshops will be developed and delivered to faculty and department administrators to explain the value and methods of concept-based instruction. Intellectual Merit A flexible database-driven approach will be used to form the AIChE Concept Warehouse. This innovative approach allows conceptual questions to be developed, linked, and integrated on an itembased level, allowing versatility in use, including both in assessment and in instruction. The software will allow interactive electronic use, as well as PowerPoint, Word, and pdf formats to be automatically generated so that conceptual learning and evaluation can be incorporated into instruction in various forms: in-class ConcepTests with student response (clickers, laptops, cell phones), concept inventories to evaluate student learning (or student preparation for a course), exam problems, and homework problems. A key element to this approach is to provide a context for conceptual learning that reflects the richly interconnected and interrelated knowledge structures of experts. The pedagogy includes cross development and testing between items on a Concept Inventory and in ConcepTests. This includes relation to questions which test for requisite prior knowledge, identification and selection between isomorphic questions, development of cadres of questions with similar surface features but based on different concepts, and development of questions that appear different but are based on the same concept. This project will form a bridge between chemical engineering researchers developing Concept Inventories and ConcepTests and chemical engineering educational practitioners in the classroom. The project team consists of leaders in engineering education in developing Concept Inventories, developing ConcepTests, developing educational software, using active learning, and presenting educational workshops. Through concept-based instruction, students will become more facile in applying core concepts to real situations, and they will become more adaptable problem-solvers. This project will lay the groundwork for implementing a widespread transformation of chemical engineering education towards concept-based instruction and learning with understanding. Broader Impact This project is expected to broadly impact the way undergraduate chemical engineering is taught. A goal it to directly present the approach and the use of the website to at least 300 chemical engineering faculty in workshops and for at least 100 to switch to more effective, active-learning modes of instruction by providing the instructional materials to make this switch easy to implement. Once one faculty member in a department changes to this active-learning mode, the effect is contagious and more faculty will switch within that department. An important aspect of this project is to develop access to teaching materials so that faculty can change the way they teach and implement more effective teaching methods without taking additional time away from the many other demands on their time. Workshops will be presented at the ASEE Annual Conference, the AIChE Annual Meeting, and the 2012 ASEE Chemical Engineering Summer School on Education. Additionally, the PIs will travel to approximately 20 universities to present workshops and discuss implementation of conceptual learning with faculty, including targeting institutions with traditionally underrepresented populations. The website and workshops will be promoted in conjunction with AIChE Education Division activities. This chemical engineering-specific project will partner with ciHUB, which is a wider effort to create a repository of concept inventories in engineering education. As such, we will (1) provide content to ciHUB in the form of compiled Concept Inventories and edited screencasts of workshops and (2) serve as a model for curricular integration through a databasedriven approach that can potentially be adapted by other disciplines through ciHUB. Assessment will emphasize a continuous evaluation cycle using both quantitative and qualitative methods.