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
2 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
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?
3 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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?
4 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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.
5 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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.
6 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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.
7 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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.
8 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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
9 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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?
10 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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
11 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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?
12 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
• 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.
13 C. S. Howat - Design Teaching Workshop - ©2002
Block 2The Raw Material
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?