(558b) Active Learning Exercises for Teaching Reactor Design

Dr. Ashlee N. Ford Versypt has taught Chemical Reaction Engineering (CRE) for chemical engineering juniors at Oklahoma State University for six years. She also co-led the AIChE Education Division’s Virtual Community of Practice on CRE & Process Control during Spring 2020.

Formulating and solving complex reactor design problems is a primary learning outcome of the CRE course. Active, problem-based learning approaches are used to build a strong basic understanding and then progress incrementally to more demanding concepts and problems. She employs a modified flipped classroom approach. Students are required to read chapters and supplemental readings before topics are covered in class. Most of the in-class time is spent discussing how to work problems, doing examples, and giving student opportunities to work problems while they can quickly get her feedback and interact with peers on learning the material. This framework is referred to as “I do, we do, you do.” First, Dr. Ford Versypt presents a case study and works a realistic example. After showing how she approaches solving a particular type of problem, the students form teams of two or three and work together in class to solve a similar problem that is slightly more challenging or is intended to unveil a commonly misunderstood point. While students work, she circulates to answer questions before the group comes back together to debrief. Often students are encouraged to explain their methodologies or pitfalls instead of just having the instructor tell the answers. Finally, students use these same problem-solving skills on their out of class homework assignments. The course is structured so that the problems that the students see on assessments lead toward achieving the course learning objectives.

In this presentation, examples of active learning exercises and memorable analogies will be shared for other chemical engineering educators to adapt for their own courses. The course opens with analyzing the illustration of witches brewing a potion that was the cover of Octave Levenspiel's The Chemical Reactor Omnibook as a way to brainstorm the course topics to be covered during the semester. One exercise uses grilled cheese sandwiches to demonstrate stoichiometric tables. Another analogy relates the mass transfer and reaction processes involved in heterogeneous catalysis to the plot of the ‘90s blockbuster movie Armageddon. These exercises culminate in a semester group project where students apply course concepts to design the reactor(s) for synthesizing a chemical product of their choice.