This project develops and promotes the use of a cyber-enabled infrastructure, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) Concept Warehouse, that could be used throughout the core chemical engineering curriculum (Material and Energy Balances, Thermodynamics, Transport Phenomena, Kinetics and Reactor Design, and Materials Science). The goal is to create a community of learning focused on concept-based instruction, within the discipline of chemical engineering. Conceptual questions, both as Concept Inventories and Concept Tests, will be available through an interactive website maintained through the Education Division of the AIChE, the discipline's major professional society. It uses a flexible, query-driven information storage system so that conceptual learning can be deployed by programs and instructors as it best fits into their curriculum and culture. The overall objective is to lower the barrier for using concept-based instruction and assessment so that more chemical engineering faculty incorporate concept-based learning into their classes. Workshops will be offered to faculty and department administrators to explain the value and methods of concept-based instruction.
More than 1,400 Conceptests for chemical engineering courses were developed at the University of Colorado and were added to the Concept Warehouse. Working in collaboration with PIs at Oregon State University, University of Kentucky, Colorado School of Mines, and the University of New Mexico, workshops were presented on using Conceptests in instruction. This is a method based on teaching and learning research where all students are involved in answering multiple choice questions using hand-held personal response systems or mobile phones. When combined with peer instruction, this approach has been shown to significantly increase student learning. The 2.5-hour workshop (presented twice) on Conceptests and the Concept Warehouse at the ASEE Summer Schoool for Chemical Engineering was the most highly-rated presentation at the week long summer school. One journal publication and a number of proceeding publications and presentations resulted from this project. The use by faculty at other universities increased significantly during the lifetime of the grant. Talks on using Conceptests in chemical engineering courses were also given at several chemical engineering departments to make faculty aware of the resources avaiable for instruction. Faculty at other universities have also submitted Conceptests to the Warehouse, so that it now contains more than 2,100 Coceptests.
