Article pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Improving the Practical Education of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Engineering Majors in Chinese Universities Feng-qing Zhao,*,† Yi-feng Yu,†,‡ Shao-feng Ren,† Shao-jie Liu,† and Xin-yu Rong† †
Department of Chemical Engineering, Hebei University of Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang 050018, China Hebei Research Center of Pharmaceutical and Chemical Engineering, Shijiazhuang 050018, China
‡
ABSTRACT: Practical education in chemical engineering has drawn increasing attention in recent years. This paper discusses two approaches to teaching and learning about experiments among upper-level chemical and pharmaceutical engineering majors in China. On the basis of years of experience in teaching chemical and pharmaceutical engineering, we propose the IGD (inspiration, guidance, and discussion) and the DRR (discovery, reasoning and research) approaches, which integrate experiments of different types: basic, comprehensive, custom-designed, and innovative. Custom-made equipment, a pipelineinstallation training program, and a simulation practice are also discussed; these were effective in improving students’ practical skills. KEYWORDS: Upper-Division Undergraduate, Chemical Engineering, Curriculum, Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives
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INTRODUCTION Training patterns and curriculum reform for chemical and pharmaceutical engineering professionals have received the attention of the Chinese government since 2000, with fruitful results achieved. However, for most universities, improvement in the quality of education is easier said than done. It is common that some students graduate with high scores yet low practical ability.1,2 The rapid development of universities requires reform in various aspects, including training patterns, teaching content, and teaching methods. The call from academic technical reports on engineering education is for higher education institutions to produce a “new kind of engineer”.3,4 It is necessary that engineering education should include a set of learning experiences that allow students to develop the ability to apply professional skills fluently, and to engage in authentic engineering projects. In May 2005, the China Ministry of Education issued a notice, launching the construction and evaluation of the National Experimental Teaching Demonstration Centers to promote the reform of higher education for teaching practical skills. Since then, the construction of these centers has been carried out in various universities in full swing.5 Chemical and Pharmaceutical Experimental Teaching Center of Hebei University of Science and Technology was built in 1984, one of the country’s larger laboratories of chemical principles at that time. It incorporated with other laboratories (Chemical Process Lab, Pharmaceutical Engineering Lab, and Test Center) in 1998, forming a comprehensive experimental teaching center. In the process of construction, we adhered to the principal of promoting students’ practical ability, academic thinking, and overall quality. Through years of construction, an effective experimental teaching system was formed.1,6 With the approval of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, the center became a national experimental teaching demonstration center in 2008. More than 10,000 students have benefited from the center in the past four years. This paper discusses some of the practices of the © 2013 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
experimental teaching system, in terms of teaching methods and content.
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CURRICULUM OVERVIEW OF DIFFERENTIATED EXPERIMENTS Engineering graduates worldwide must possess higher-level skills than beforeincluding innovativeness, effectiveness, leadership skills, and multidisciplinary problem-solving capabilitiesto meet the evolving needs and demands of many industries.7 A combination of scientific research with practical education has been the dominant approach for years. During the process of curriculum reform, we maintained adherence to the principles of imparting knowledge, strengthening ability, and personalizing training, while focusing on encouraging the spirit of exploration, scientific thinking, engineering practice, and creativity. We adopted different strategies for different students according to their grades, from basic experiments to innovative ones. This helps students achieve the training objectives step by step, from the command of basic skills to problem-solving and innovative capability. The experimental teaching and management system for chemical and pharmaceutical engineering majors was established in accordance with the integration of four types of experiments (basic experiments, comprehensive experiments, custom-designed experiments and innovative experiments), focusing on the interrelation of basic courses, specialized basic courses, and specialized courses. A hierarchical, modular, and interrelated scientific system strategy was formed, as represented in Figure 1.
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TOPICS OF THE EXPERIMENTS The practical education teaching content for chemical and pharmaceutical engineering students in China was first designed in the late 1990s and has been used for more than 20 years. Many reforms have been undertaken during this Published: December 9, 2013 211
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Figure 1. Experimental teaching system for chemical and pharmaceutical engineering majors.
and creativity in using theoretical knowledge to solve practical problems. First, teachers establish the proposed experimental goals. Second, students write proposals for pilot projects (including literature review, project plan, and equipment installation) within a prespecified time. Third, students prepare the experiment, install the equipment, and complete the experiment under the guidance of the teachers. Finally, students write lab reports. Evaluation of students in the entire process takes into account their attitudes, systematic thinking, data processing, and the quality of laboratory reports.
period, including experiments of unit operation, instrumental analysis, drug synthesis and preparation, reaction engineering, separation engineering, chemical processes, and other training aspects. Some content not found in current textbooks was also added to enhance students’ ability to solve practical engineering problems. Basic Experiments
The main objectives of the basic experiments are to train students to consolidate theoretical knowledge, to form engineering concepts, and to combine theory with practice. For example, in order to introduce the concept of engineering, we built an engineering practice observation center, which includes three parts: (i) a chemical process exhibition room; (ii) an industrial catalysts exhibition room; and (iii) an industrial equipment display area. The chemical process exhibition room dynamically exhibits the process of coalbased ammonia with water and air as fluid media. The students can get an overview of an entire chemical process vividly and intuitively. Four categories of over 130 industrial catalyst samples and more than 200 pieces of equipment (valves, pumps, heat exchangers, etc.) used in the chemical and pharmaceutical plants are exhibited in two other rooms. Some of these pieces of equipment were profile-cut to help students understand the inner structure and the materials used.
Innovative Experiments
Innovative experiments are open for students who are interested in research, with an emphasis on cultivating students’ creativity, innovation awareness, and team spirit. Two kinds of innovative experiments were designed for this purpose: (i) performing the experiment under the guidance of the tutors; and (ii) performing the experiment by the students themselves. In the first case, the teachers present the exploratory research goals that are closely related with the actual plant. Then, the students set up an experimental research program, and continuously adjust and optimize the program in the implementation. Finally, the report is submitted. Teachers evaluate students based on their performance during the “process”, especially in terms of innovative thinking and creativity. In the second case, the research group organized by students themselves enters the open laboratories specially designed for them, accessing information, proposing a research target, designing an experiment program, and finishing the experiment by themselves. The other students outside the group evaluate the results based on the group members’ performance. In effect, the innovative experiments have much to do with discovery-based experiments or “guided-inquiry” activities. Students play the role as the discoverer in lab with less guidance from the instructor.8
Comprehensive Experiments
Comprehensive experiments were designed with an emphasis on improving the students’ comprehension ability for analyzing and solving engineering problems. A training base was built for training pharmacy students in pharmaceutical engineering and pharmaceutical preparation; the training base is composed of various operating units such as solid dosage, liquid preparations, and so forth. We equipped more than 100 sets of producing and testing equipment in the training base, including tablets, granules, injections, capsules, soft capsules, pills, and other forms of pilot-scale preparation equipment, packaging equipment, and quality control devices. The practical skills of students can be improved by operating these types of equipment.
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METHODS FOR TEACHING ABOUT EXPERIMENTS Some universities still adopt the experimental teaching methods of two decades ago, which are often not well aligned with the development of the society.9 We note that though the traditional deductive methods of teaching are still common today, there has been considerable discussion and development of inductive teaching approaches in recent years.9,10 Following
Designed Experiments
The designed experiments, such as distillation, absorption, and adsorption, focus on cultivating students’ systematic thinking 212
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are some of our approaches to improve the students’ abilities in engineering and practical operation skills. Inspiration, Guidance, and Discussion Method
The main purpose of education is learning to think. The essence of the inspiration, guidance, and discussion (IGD) method is inspiration by inquiring, deepening understanding via encouragement, and reaching conclusions through discussion. For example, in guiding experiments on the process of centrifugal pumps, the teacher may inspire students by asking the questions “What is the operating point of the centrifugal pump? How does it work?” This may guide students to adjust the valve and change the rotation speed according to the intersection point of the pipe and pump characteristic curves, which is the basic theory the student learned from textbooks. In addition, the students may also develop a deeper understanding of the advantages of frequency control, arousing their enthusiasm in comprehensive thinking.11,12 The IGD method not only triggers curiosity of an individual student, it also involves all students active participation in the process. This approach helps students comprehend the causeand-effect relationships of variables in the processes, and helps to foster their scientific understanding.13 Figure 2 gives the schematic diagram of IGD teaching method.
Figure 3. Schematic diagram of the DRR method.
instruments for industrial applications. Figure 4 shows the centrifugal pump cavitation erosion demonstration device built
Figure 4. Centrifugal pump cavitation erosion demonstration device.
Figure 2. Schematic diagram of the IGD method.
in 2006 by senior students, which has been used in chemical principle experimental teaching in Hebei University of Science and Technology since 2007. In the 2008 undergraduate teaching quality evaluation organized by the China Ministry of Education, the experts spoke highly of this approach, and suggested extending to other colleges and universities.
Discovery, Reasoning, and Research Method
The essence of the discovery, reasoning, and research (DRR) method is to find problems from actual plant and operating practices, and then to investigate the necessity and feasibility of solutions by brainstorming and exploratory experiments, ultimately creating innovative results through design and experiments. Once in a cognitive practice in a vinylon plant in Hebei province, the students found methyl acetate (a byproduct in PVA production) had a lower hydrolysis rate, resulting in excessive energy consumption. On the basis of months of painstaking research, the teachers and students developed a catalytic distillation of the methyl acetate hydrolysis process, in which the methyl acetate hydrolysis rate increases from 24 to 80% compared to the traditional process, and from the original five-columns-in-series process to a one-column process, significantly reducing energy consumption and environment pollution. Figure 3 gives the schematic diagram of DRR method.
Pipeline-Installation Training Program
A typical chemical process including pipes, heat exchangers, tanks, pumps, and different valves was designed for the pipeline-installation training program. Students assemble all the parts with their own hands according to the flowchart, performing leak and pressure testing, and dismantling it after the normal operating state of the process is achieved. This program is used to train students in designing chemical pipelines, reading flowcharts, and installing and dismantling chemical pipelines, which helps to deepen the students’ understanding of the installation and operation of practical chemical and pharmaceutical engineering processes. Figure 5 shows students doing a leakage test after equipment installation and pipe connection. This program was initially designed by chemical engineering students, but was later extended to pharmacy and pharmaceutical engineering majors because of the positive feedback from students.
Custom-Built Equipment
To improve students’ engineering practice skills, the teachers and students design and assemble experimental apparatus. Most of the custom-built equipment pieces are pilot scale. The experimental apparatus combine classical and modern control technologies, which enable students not only to have thorough knowledge of the basic theory of chemical engineering, but also to understand the advanced measurement and control
Simulation Practice
The simulation practice center was set up through the campus computer network and Internet. The experiments enable students to “operate” the process using the computer keyboard, 213
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the top-level academic contests for Chinese university students.14 Above 98% of students took part in various scientific activities, and finished 36 China national patent applications, including 16 patents of invention and 20 patents of utility model in 2009−2011. Some of these patents have found practical applications and have had remarkable economic and social benefit. Additionally, more than 180 research papers with students as first author were published in academic journals, in which nearly 30% were cited in Science Citation Index Expanded or EI Compendex. The students are satisfied with the approaches used for teaching chemical engineering. Their satisfaction was measured via open-ended questions on a sample survey administered in June 2012 on the effect of the experimental teaching approach. Of the 300 participating students, 286 students recognized the value of hands-on experimentation, teamwork, and cooperation in engineering problem solving. Only 14 students expressed no opinion, or were dissatisfied with this approach. Most students suggested that this approach is good for them in seeking jobs. Almost all the participating students gave positive evaluative comments. As a student put it, “It was great to get some experience with the techniques, apparatuses, and analysis method in the lab, it was really fun.” With the implementation of this professional teaching system reform, students’ overall ability improved and the employment rate (including those to pursue further study) of the graduates of our department in the three consecutive years (2009−2011) was more than 95%, ranking among the top of similar universities in China, 5% higher than that in 2006−2008.
Figure 5. Pipeline-installation training process: students conducting a leakage test after equipment installation and pipe connection.
mouse, and display. Through simulation practice, students can gain a thorough knowledge of process control, adjustment of the normal range of operating conditions of the process parameters, control system theory, function of valves, as well as startup and shutdown of a plant. Simulation practice also helps students get to know trouble-shooting, process parameters, operating conditions, and monitoring in a real plant. Simulation practice is an efficient tool to develop practical ability and problem-solving skills of students with lower cost. Table 1 synopsizes the teaching content of simulation practice for chemical engineering majors. In a survey on the function of simulation practice, about 98% of a total of 326 students in the chemical engineering major think that this approach is helpful for understanding the real plant.
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SUMMARY In this article, we outline the IGD and the DRR approaches for laboratory instruction of chemical and pharmaceutical engineering students. These approaches are clearly beneficial and can be easily carried out in other universities and colleges. We propose an efficient teaching system for chemical engineering and pharmaceutical engineering majors, namely, the integration of basic experiments, comprehensive experiments, custom-designed experiments, and innovative experiments. Several practices were also introduced, such as the custom-built equipment approach, the pipeline-installation training program, and the simulation practice. Significant results were obtained using these approaches over the past three years. Additionally, via qualitative feedback from students, the participants viewed these approaches as meaningful and interesting. Engineering education has been facing challenges in recent years. One of the keys is to help students build their knowledge structure and gain practical skills and “hands-on” abilities so
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RESULTS Through curricular and pedagogical education reform in experimental teaching, the students’ interest in experiments was increased. Significant results of experimental teaching were obtained. Students made unprecedented achievements in the history of our department. In the past three years, they completed more than 108 extracurricular scientific and technological projects and won 12 state-level awards and 26 province-level achievements, including one first prize and one second prize in the “Challenge Cup” National Science and Technology College of Extra-Curricular Academic Works Competition, which is one of
Table 1. Practical Course Topics and Objectives for Chemical Engineering Majors
a
Topics (Instructional Hours)a
Educational Objectivesb
Teaching Emphasis
Ammonia process overview (4) Desulfurization process (4) Conversion section (4) Shift Section (4) Decarburization section (4) Methanation section (4) Synthesis section (4) Simulation operation of distillation (12)
Understanding characteristics and principles Understanding characteristics and principles Understanding characteristics and principles Understanding characteristics and principles Understanding characteristics and principles Understanding characteristics and principles Understanding characteristics and principles Skillful command of the relationship between process and state
Revealing principles in process Revealing principles in process Revealing principles in process Revealing principles in process Revealing principles in process Revealing principles in process Revealing principles in process Automatic and manual operation
Different instructors taught different topics. bStudent achievement of these objectives was assessed. 214
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that they can find solutions to problems “from the breaker to the plant”. More attention should be paid to what would-be engineers will need to learn for future employment in factories and research laboratories, rather than just theories in the classroom. China is now vigorously promoting the Excellent Engineer Training Program, initiated by the Ministry of Education with the aim of producing millions of graduates with top engineering talent within a decade. Most of the educational concepts and methods of Excellent Engineer Training Program are in line with those of CDIO (conceive, design, implement, and operate) engineering reform. The combination of two specific effortsNational Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center Construction, and Excellent Engineer Training Program will be beneficial for universities to educate excellent engineers with rich theoretical knowledge, hands-on abilities, and actual work experience.
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(12) Kuhlthau, C. C.; Maniotes, L. K.; Caspari, A. K. Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century; Libraries Unlimited: Westport, CT, 2007. (13) Sever, S.; Yurumezoglu, K.; Oguz-Unver, A. Comparison Teaching Strategies of Videotaped and Demonstration Experiments in Inquiry-Based Science Education. Procedia: Soc. Behav. Sci. 2010, 2, 5619−5624. (14) Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Research Group. Chemistry and Chemical Experimental Curriculum System Construction and Teaching Content Reform; Nanjing University Press: Nanjing, China, 2010.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors are thankful to Ying Zhao, Wen-tong Keng, Yongquan Xu, Hui-yong Li, Zhong-kai Yuan, and Hong-xia Du for their assistance and support in this work. Especially, the authors wish to thank the reviewers for their valuable comments and suggestions.
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