(254c) A Scaffold for a Project Assessing Communication, Reflection, and Self-Motivated Learning in Core Chemical Engineering Courses

Developing projects for core chemical engineering classes is a challenge. Long technical questions are time consuming to develop and time consuming to grade. Another challenge in technical courses (outside of laboratory and design courses) is the inclusion and assessment of “softer” skills, including communication.

An end-of-semester project scaffold was developed for two different chemical engineering thermodynamic courses. Students select a problem that they struggled with (either from homework, exams, or quizzes) and redo it correctly. They must explicitly discuss what aspect of the problem they initially struggled with and what they have since learned. This portion of the assessment incorporates both self-motivated learning and a mastery learning approach. Students must also communicate this process to an expert in the field (the instructor) through writing and through notations in their technical work.

The second part of the project requires students to write a two-page paper for a lay audience related to the problem they selected in part one. This paper requires the student to constructively engage with a topic they found difficult, specifically by discussing it in simple terms for a non-expert to read. Compared to technical reports, grading time is minimal due to the requirement of layperson readability.

Future work with this project scaffold will investigate how to extend its use into other courses and robust assessment of student learning outcomes before and after completion of the project.