(271a) Five Semesters of Hands-on Unit Operations Laboratory Courses

The Chemical Engineering Pillars curriculum at the University of Pittsburgh, allows our student to take their core CHE classes in a ‘block-schedule’ which immerses them in four two-hour classes each week, with the fifth two-hour class each week spent in a hands-on unit operations laboratory course. The Pillars curriculum does not add more credits, compared to a traditional curriculum, but instead uses the hours more effectively through restructuring. Importantly, for the student, it provides larger blocks of time to actively engage in learning in the classroom with the support of the instructor – and allows a hands-on unit operations laboratory experience each semester for the students in parallel with their core courses.

This presentation will provide details of the structure of the laboratory structure (i.e. how to provide hands-on laboratory experiences for approximately 300-350 students each semester), an over-view of the laboratory experiments – how they support the core courses and how they build upon one another from sophomore through senior year.