(82f) Introducing Chemical Engineering to Prospective Engineers

A significant challenge often faced for students considering chemical engineering as a major is attempting to grasp the idea of what exactly chemical engineers do and what chemical engineering is about. However, an issue that is often less addressed is the significant lack of understanding students in other engineering majors have about chemical engineering, a larger issue when compared to other engineering fields. Because of the breadth of roles chemical engineers take both in an academic setting and in industry, they will often work with a wide variety of engineers with different expertise, meaning that it would be of great interest for them to gain at least a basic idea of what chemical engineering is about. In an attempt to bridge these gaps in understanding, a half-semester module was developed in an Introduction to Engineering class at Lafayette College. Early offerings of the module have been generally well-received by students in all majors, reporting a better grasp of what chemical engineers do (even if they have absolutely no desire to major in it). This talk will describe the experiences, input and constraints that led to the development of the module, a discussion of the implementation and subsequent modification of the module and feedback from the students along with self-reflection.