Increasing Curricula Content Through "Lecture-Laboratory" Experiments

这个项目回答了这样一个问题：如何在不增加或减少课程的情况下将额外的材料添加到本科课程中？论文认为，包括讲座实验室是实现这一目标的一种方式。为了评估这篇论文，该项目在本科阶段教授催化学，包括一组相关的实验室作业，作为高级化学工程动力学课程的一部分。 然而，为了实现这一目标，实验室设备必须是用户友好的，能够演示催化的重要概念，并与简短，集中的作业兼容。所有这些属性都是这里使用的紧凑、灵活的设备的特征。学生不仅可以在讲座实验室中接触到基本的催化背景，而且设备也与单元操作实验室课程的特点开放式6至8周的实验室作业完全兼容。 该项目为解决其他工程学科中的类似问题提供了一个潜在的模型。最后，应该指出的是，这个特殊的项目是完全符合最近的承诺，对化学工程系的一部分，完全重新思考和改造其本科实验室。

This project answers the question, How can additional material be added to the undergraduate curricula without the addition or subtraction of courses? The thesis is that the inclusion of lecture-laboratories is one way of accomplishing this goal. To evaluate this thesis, the project teaches catalysis at more than a cursory degree at the undergraduate level by including a related set of laboratory-based homework assignments as part of the senior-level chemical engineering kinetics course. However, for this goal to be achieved, it is absolutely necessary that the laboratory apparatus be user-friendly, have the capability of demonstrating the important concepts in catalysis, and be compatible with short, focused assignments. All of these attributes are features of the compact, flexible apparatus being used here. Not only can students be exposed to basic catalysis background in the lecture-laboratories, but the equipment is also totally compatible with the open-ended 6- to 8-week laboratory assignments that characterize the Unit Operations Laboratory course. This project serves as a potential model for addressing similar problems in other engineering disciplines. Finally, it should be pointed out that this particular project is totally compatible with the recent commitment on the part of the Chemical Engineering Department to totally rethink and refurbish its undergraduate laboratories.