Abstract
Laboratory courses are an integral part of chemical engineering curriculum. Many of the engineering departments across the globe conduct laboratory courses in a traditional manner i.e. the experiments are designed to validate an already established phenomena using step-by-step instructions provided to the students by the instructor. A recent study conducted in our Department into the performance of traditional laboratory courses in training undergraduates established two fundamental challenges with the course design: i) lack of open-endedness and ii) no interconnectivity between the various experiments. To overcome the said challenges, our team proposed the use of project-based laboratory in conjunction with traditional laboratory. This study shares the design, implementation and efficacy of project-based laboratory. In the project-based component, students (in groups) were required to work on an open-ended, industry-relevant mini design project over a period of seven weeks. The project required the students to conduct a series of inter-related experiments using laboratory scale equipment to obtain data. Using the information gained through experimentation and through application of knowledge from different chemical engineering areas, students were expected to develop a feasible solution to the design problem. Based on the improved performance of the students and positive student feedback (in the end-semester surveys), it can be ascertained that the re-design of the laboratory course to incorporate design project component is a move in the right direction and that it serves to impart training to students that is industry-relevant and advances higher order skills.
Presenters
Satyen GautamSenior Lecturer, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, South West, Singapore Cindy Ly Lee
Senior Lecturer , Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering , National University of Singapore , South West, Singapore Suraj Vasudevan
Senior Lecturer, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore Liming Yang
Instructor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, Central Singapore, Singapore Zhen Qin
Laboratory Manager, Department of Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, South West, Singapore
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
LABORATORY COURSE, INTEGRATED DESIGN PROJECT
