I How to Use the CRE Web Resources

The primary purpose of the CRE Web Resources is to serve as an enrichment resource. The benefits of using the CRE Web Resources are fivefold:

1. To facilitate different student learning styles: http://www.umich.edu/~elements/5e/asyLearn/index.htm

2. To provide the student with the option/opportunity for further study or clarification of a particular concept or topic

3. To provide the opportunity to practice critical thinking, creative thinking, and problemsolving skills

4. To provide additional technical material for the practicing engineer

5. To provide other tutorial information, such as additional homework problems and instructions on using computational software in chemical engineering

• Objectives. The objectives page lists what the students will learn from the chapter. When students are finished working on a chapter, they can come back to the objectives to see if they have covered everything in that chapter. Or if students need additional help on a specific topic, they can see if that topic is covered in a chapter from the objectives page.

• Learning Resources. These resources give an overview of the material in each chapter and provide extra explanations, examples, and applications to reinforce the basic concepts of chemical reaction engineering. Summary Notes serve as an overview of each chapter and contain a logical flow of derived equations and additional examples. Web Modules and Interactive Computer Games (ICG) show how the principles from the text can be applied to nonstandard problems. Solved Problems provide more examples for students to use the knowledge gained from each chapter.

Links to entertaining YouTube videos can be found on the Web site home page. From the University of Alabama the most viewed videos are:

Chapter 1: Fogler Zone (you’ve got a friend in Fogler).

Chapter 3: The Black Widow murder mystery and Baking a Potato.

Chapter 4: CRF Reactor Video, Crimson Reactor Firm’s video of a “semi batch” reactor with Diet Coke and Mentos.

Chapter 5: Learn a new dance and song, CSTR to the tune of YMCA, Chemical Good Time Rhythm rap song, and the University of Michigan students’ Chemical Engineering Gone Wrong.

From the University of Michigan the most viewed videos are:

Chapter 3: Arrhenius Dream

Chapter 4: I Just Found X

Chapter 5: Chemical Engineering Gone Wrong

Chapter 5: Under Pressure

• Living Example Problems (LEP). These problems are usually the second homework problem in each chapter (e.g., P5-2_B), and most require computational software to solve. One can run the LEPs using Polymath, Wolfram, or MATLAB. The LEP programs are provided on the Web site so students can download the program to “play” with the problem and ask “What if . . . ?” questions to practice critical and creative thinking skills. Students can change parameter values, such as the reaction rate constants, to learn to deduce trends or predict the behavior of a given reaction system.

• Professional Reference Shelf. The Professional Reference Shelf contains two types of information. First, it includes material that is important to the practicing engineer but that is typically not included in the majority of chemical reaction engineering courses. Second, it includes material that gives a more detailed explanation of derivations that were abbreviated in the text.

• Computer Simulation Problems. These problems are based on the LEPs. Readers must use Wolfram Sliders, Polymath, or MATLAB to vary the parameters to answer the questions or solve the problems. These problems apply to both texts: Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 2nd edition and Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 5th edition. This section also contains excellent problems from previous editions of the text.

• LearnChemE Videos. The University of Colorado has a number of 6- to 8-minute videos on a number of the concepts covered in the course. A number of these videos are very good.

• i>clicker Questions. A collection of i>clicker questions for each chapter, with answers, are provided for each chapter.

• Expanded Material. This material provides typeset pages of text that may not be covered at all universities and is therefore relegated to the Web site as a resource.

• Lecture Notes. There are two sources for the lecture notes in PowerPoint slides: those from my notes at the University of Michigan and those from Professor Mary Kraft at the University of Illinois.

• Visual Encyclopedia of Equipment (http://encyclopedia.che.engin.umich.edu). This section was developed by Dr. Susan Montgomery at the University of Michigan. Here, a wealth of photographs and descriptions of real and ideal reactors are given. Students with visual, active, sensing, and intuitive learning styles of the Felder/Solomon Index will particularly benefit from this section.

• Reactor Lab (http://www.ReactorLab.net). Developed by Professor Richard Herz at the University of California at San Diego, this interactive tool allows students not only to test their comprehension of the CRE material, but also to explore different situations and combinations of reaction orders and types of reactions.

The materials in Learning Resources are further divided into Summary Notes, Web Modules, Interactive Computer Games, and Solved Problems. Table I-1 shows which enrichment resources can be found in each chapter.

TABLE I-1 DVD-ROM ENRICHMENT RESOURCES

Note: The ICGs are high-memory-use programs. Because of the memory intensive nature of the ICGs, there have been intermittent problems (10-15% of Windows computers) with the games. You can usually solve the problem by trying the ICG on a different computer. In the Heatffx 2 ICG, only the first three reactors can be solved, and users cannot continue on to part 2 because of a bug currently in the program that we cannot find.

The information that can be accessed in the “by concept” sections is not specific to a single chapter. Although the material can be accessed from the by chapter sections, the “by concept” sections allow you to access certain material quickly without browsing through chapters.

• Interactive Web Modules. The Web site includes both Web Games and ICGs. The Web Games use a Web browser for an interface and give examples of how chemical reaction engineering principles can be applied to a wide range of situations, such as modeling cobra bites and cooking a potato.

• Interactive Computer Games (ICGs). The ICGs are games that use a Windows or DOS-based program for an interface. They test knowledge on different aspects of chemical reaction engineering through a variety of games such as basketball and jeopardy.

• Problem Solving. Here students can learn different strategies for problem solving in both closed- and open-ended problems. See the ten different types of home problems and suggestions for approaching them. Extensive information on critical and creative thinking can also be found in this section. Also see the Strategies for Creative Problem Solving, Third Edition, by Fogler, LeBlanc, and Rizzo, along with the web site http://www.umich.edu/~scps/.

• Syllabi. Representative syllabi have been included on the Web site: (1) a 4-credit-hour undergraduate course, Chemical Engineering 344, and (2) a 3-credit-hour graduate course.

• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). Over the years that I have taught this course, I have collected a number of questions that the students have asked over and over for years and years. The questions usually ask for clarification or for a different way of explaining the material or for another example of the principle being discussed. The FAQs and answers are arranged by chapter.

• Credits. See who was responsible for putting the CRE Web site together.

• Use the summary lecture notes to get an overview of each chapter on the Web site and see the big picture

• Review real-world examples and pictures on the Web site

• Look at concepts outlined in the ICGs

Sequential

• Use the Derive hot buttons to go through derivations in lecture notes on the Web

• Follow all derivations in the ICGs step by step

• Do all self-tests, audios, and examples in the Web site lecture notes step by step

• Use self-tests as a good source of practice problems

• Use Living Example Problems to change settings/parameters and see the result

• Review for exams using the ICGs

Reflective

• Self-tests allow you to consider the answer before seeing it

• Use Living Example Problems to think about topics independently

• Relate how Living Example Problems are linked to real-world topics

Intuitive

• Vary parameters in supplied Polymath problems and understand their influence on a problem

• Use the trial-and-error portions of some ICGs to understand “what if . . . “ style questions

• Study the examples and self-tests on the DVD-ROM summary notes that have graphs and figures showing trends

• Do ICGs to see how each step of a derivation/problem leads to the next

• Use the graphical output from Living Example ProMems/Polymath code to obtain a visual understanding of how various parameters affect a system

• Use the Professional Reference Shelf to view pictures of real reactors

Verbal

• Listen to audios on the Web to hear information in another way

• Work with a partner to answer questions on the ICGs

TABLE 1-2 HOT BUTTONS IN SUMMARY NOTES