last updated 9/22/11
KaRE TExT status page

The education literature indicates that active learning approaches to teaching can be much more effective than the traditional lecture format. Nonetheless, the majority of engineering courses are taught using the traditional lecture format. In some ways, this is not surprising because most engineering professors are not trained educators; they are engineers. Furthermore, a faculty member's career advancement is often affected much more by their research productivity than their teaching proficiency. Thus, when the high demands upon faculty time force one to choose between developing improved teaching skills or pursuing research activities, the research activities win out. Often it's not that a faculty member doesn't want to use more effective teaching methods, but instead it's that doing so will take lots of time and will move them outside their teaching comfort zone. Most engineering faculty learned in a system where the traditional lecture format predominates, they already have notes based upon that format, and they feel comfortable with that format.

The hypothesis underlying the TExT project is as follows: if engineering faculty could teach a course using active learning tools that were demonstrated to be more effective than the traditional lecture, and if they could do so with a time and effort expenditure that was comparable to using the traditional lecture, then more faculty would use active learning methods in their teaching. The first objective of the TExT project is to create a complete and integrated toolkit for exceptional teaching. Such a TExT would uniformly integrate the material typically found in a traditional textbook, the material typically found in traditional lectures, a complete set of in-class learning activities, detailed lesson plans for using all the materials, and a complete set of assessment tools. All of these components would be consistent in terms of nomenclature, and they would be integrated in a manner that facilitates all aspects of teaching a course. The prototype TExT that Carl is developing attempts to do this for an undergraduate chemical kinetics and reaction engineering course.

The development of the active learning tools and the detailed lesson plans is the primary area of activity at present. Ideally, the learning activities will span a range of approaches including inquiry based learning, project based learning, collaborative learning, etc. The activities include one-minute papers, games, use of simulators, collaborative problem solving, etc. The TExT includes a complete set of traditional lectures, but they are supplied as computer video files and assigned for viewing outside of class time, thereby freeing class time for active learning. Approximately two thirds of these videos are now completed, along with corresponding readings, learning objectives. Completion of these videos and readings represents a second significant area of project activity.

Once all the components of the TExT has been created and tested, the second phase of the TExT Project will commence. In the second phase, the first objective will be to find out whether using the TExT will allow a professor to teach a course using active learning methods instead of traditional lecture without investing significantly more time than would have been invested with the traditional approach. The second objective will be to determine whether such a course is still more effective than the traditional approach when the former is offered by a professor who is not an education specialist, but who is using the TExT. The third objective, assuming the first two are met, will be to gauge how readily faculty embrace the TExT approach to offering a course (i. e. will they switch to the TExT).

The KaRE TExT has moved from this temporary site to it's new home on the servers of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at the University at Buffalo. The new URL follows:
http://www.eng.buffalo.edu/Research/karetext

Kinetics and Reaction Engineering TExT Simulators

As a part of the TExT project, a number of simulators are being developed for use during in-class activities and for student use outside of the classroom. A sampling of the simulators is available below. Each simulators is packaged as a .zip file that you can download by clicking on the button under the description. Unzipping the downloaded file will produce a folder that contains a .jar file and a folder named "lib". Not surprisingly the latter folder contains additional libraries and files that the simulator uses. To run the simulator, launch the .jar file either from the command line using java -jar [name of .jar file], or by double clicking it if your operating system supports it. Complete instructions for using the simulator can be accessed when it is running by choosing "User Guide..." under the "Help" menu.

Please note that these simulators are intended for educational purposes only. They should not be used for any other purpose, and if they are, the author does not bear any responsibility or liability for the consequences.

MeCl Equilibrator

This simulator equilibrates the reaction between methanol and hydrochloric acid to produce methyl chloride and water. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

RWGS Equilibrator

This simulator equilibrates the the reverse water-gas shift reaction, in which carbon dioxide and hydrogen are converted to carbon monoxide and water. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

MeOH Equilibrator

This simulator equilibrates the reaction between carbon monoxide and hydrogen to produce methanol. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

CSTR Impulse Response Simulator

This simulator generates the response of a CSTR to an impulse stimulus. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

CSTR Step Change Response Simulator

This simulator generates the response of a CSTR to a step change stimulus. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

PFR Step Change Response Simulator

This simulator generates the response of a PFR to a step change stimulus. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

Isothermal CSTR Simulator

This simulator can be used to study the behavior of an isothermal CSTR wherein a single reaction takes place. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

Adiabatic CSTR Simulator

This simulator can be used to study the behavior of an adiabatic CSTR wherein a single reaction takes place. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

Isothermal PFR Simulator

This simulator can be used to study the behavior of an isothermal PFR wherein a single reaction takes place. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

Isothermal Series CSTR Simulator

This simulator can be used to study the behavior of three equal-volume isothermal CSTRs in series wherein a single reaction takes place. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

Isothermal CSTR Followed in Series by an Isothermal PFR Simulator

This simulator can be used to study the behavior of an isothermal CSTR followed in series by an isothermal PFR of equal volume wherein a single reaction takes place. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

Isothermal PFR Followed in Series by an Isothermal CSTR Simulator

This simulator can be used to study the behavior of an isothermal PFR followed in series by an isothermal CSTR of equal volume wherein a single reaction takes place. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

Single Reaction in an Isothermal Batch Reactor

This simulator mimics the change in concentration of the product of a single reaction taking place isothermally in a batch reactor. This simulator requires you to have JAVA 1.6 or later available on your computer.

This project was partially sponsored by the National Science Foundation as a Phase I Course, Curriculum Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) grant (DUE-0736495). It is currently unfunded.

Conference Proceedings Resulting from this Project

“A TExT for Engineering Education in the 21^st Century, 2. A Sample Study Unit,” C. R. F. Lund. Proceedings of the 2009 Annual ASEE Conference, AC 2009-612, Austin, TX, 2009. [more info]

“A TExT for Engineering Education in the 21^st Century, 1. Objectives and Overview,” C. R. F. Lund. Proceedings of the 2008 Annual ASEE Conference, AC 2008-192, Pittsburgh, PA, 2008. [more info]

Presentations Resulting from this Project

“Moving Lectures Out of the Classroom,” Target Your Teaching Conference for Teaching Assistants, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, August 2010.

“Textbooks are so Twentieth Century,” AIChE Annual Meeting, Nashville TN, November 8-13, 2009.

“Making Room for Active Learning in the Classroom,” Target Your Teaching Conference for Teaching Assistants, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, August 2009.

“A TExT for Engineering Education in the 21^st Century, 2. A Sample Study Unit,” 2009 Annual ASEE Conference, Austin, TX, June 2009.

“TExTs for the 21^st Century,” Annual AIChE Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, November 17, 2008.

“Making Room for Active Learning in the Classroom,” Target Your Teaching Conference for Teaching Assistants, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY August 2008.

“A TExT for Engineering Education in the 21^st Century, 1. Objectives and Overview.” 2008 Annual ASEE Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, June 2008.

“Moving Lectures Out of the Classroom to Make Room for Learning,” University at Buffalo Teaching and Learning Center, Teaching Effectiveness Workshop Series, April 7, 2008, Buffalo, NY.