The project, a partnership involving San Jose State University, University of Arkansas, and University of Virginia, is developing a web-based repository that will ultimately hold approximately 100 solved problems to facilitate the incorporation of problems with substantial biology content into the undergraduate chemical engineering material and energy balance course. The problems are being generated by faculty from several different universities. The website includes effective mechanisms for solicitation of problems, review of problems by an editorial board and faculty users, and evaluation of website content and usability. Solutions to the problems are available to faculty through registration on the website and a password-protected secure server. Background information pages are included as a supplemental tool for both faculty and students. Six universities are evaluating how inclusion of biology problems improves students' ability to solve material and energy balance problems in a biological context. A workshop on the use of the material for chemical engineering faculty without formal training in biotechnology is being developed and planned. All problems are being evaluated through repository use statistics, through assessment of student learning, through faculty and industry surveys, and through editorial board and advisory board reviews. The problems and associated materials are being disseminated through the project's website, which is being promoted through links on other popular sites serving chemical engineering faculty, through targeted mailings, through presentations at chemical and biological engineering conferences and at engineering education conferences, through journal publications, and through the NSDL. Broader impacts include the wide dissemination of the instructional material, a special focus on underrepresented groups at one of the partner institutions, and the community building resulting from the collaboration on the problem set.
