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School of Engineering

Undergraduate Curriculum

Curriculum Philosophy and Scope

In general, the goals of the new curriculum are to

  • Give the students a strong fundamental foundation by concentrating on the essential core of scientific and engineering basics in a given discipline.
  • Enhance systems thinking by helping students to integrate their knowledge across courses and disciplines so that they are better prepared to address open-ended problems.
  • Prepare and provide for continuing education and life-long learning.

Specifically, the grant will allow the Department to:

  • Modularize and integrate the critical "core" of Chemical Engineering (including mass balances, thermodynamics, kinetics, separations, transport phenomena, process systems, control, laboratory, and design) into six Pillar courses.
  • Re-evaluate and re-align supporting courses (mathematics, chemistry, physics, and biology) and elective courses into application-focused tracks.
  • Re-align each individual course so that, in addition to the traditional macroscopic and continuum-level descriptions, we also include "sub-continuum", molecular or "fundamental unit" analysis.

Typical Curriculum

A typical Chemical and Petroleum Engineering curriculum

The shift in curriculum is from short, (primarily) disconnected courses with little "integrated" insight until late in the curriculum, to a more thoroughly integrated curriculum involving longer classes which take advantage of Block Scheduling.

New Curriculum

New Chemical and Petroleum Engineering curriculum

Block Scheduling calls for courses with considerably longer contact hours than a traditional University course so that: (1) students may gain systems insight through integration of their core knowledge;(2) the instructors have the time to include truly multi-scale descriptions of Chemical Engineering content; and (3) the instructors have the flexibility to accommodate diverse learning styles andincorporate active learning more effectively.

For more details and supporting literature regarding Block Scheduling please see:

R.L. Canady and M.D. Rettig. Block Scheduling: A Catalyst for Change in High Schools. Eye on Education, Inc., Priceton, New Jersey, 1995.

J. Carroll. Organizing time to support learning. The School Administrator, 51:26-33, 1994.

In R.L. Canady and M.D. Rettig, editors, Teaching in the Block: Strategies for Engaging Active Learners. Eye on Education, Inc., Priceton, New Jersey, 1996.

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