No abstract

The use of problem-based learning (PBL) is gaining attention in the engineering classroom as a way to help students synthesize foundational knowledge and to better prepare students for practice. In this work, we study the discourse interactions between 27 student teams and two instructors in an engineering PBL environment to analyze how participation is distributed among team members, paying particular attention to the differences between male and female students. There were no statistically significant differences between the amount that male and female students spoke; however, stereotypical gender roles and traditional gendered behavior did manifest in the discussion. Also, regardless of the gender composition of the team, the amount of time that each member talked was usually unbalanced. Our findings lead to recommendations to instructors interacting with student teams and contribute to knowledge about team and gender interactions in PBL environments.

is a post doctoral fellow at the University of Michigan. She received her doctorate and masters from Tufts University in mechanical engineering and STEM education respectively. Her current research involves examining different types of homework problems in undergraduate engineering courses, teaching in flexible classroom spaces, active learning, responsive teaching, and developing elementary engineering teachers.

Chemical process safety must be an integral part of a chemical engineer's training. This training could be achieved through a course on chemical process safety, but the undergraduate chemical engineering curriculum is often fully packed, with virtually no credit hours available for incorporating additional courses. Consequently, a very small percentage of graduating seniors may receive adequate training in process safety. In this paper, we describe the University of Michigan's Safety Modules on the Process Safety Across the Chemical Engineering Curriculum website (http://umich.edu/~safeche/index.html) which offer a unique and efficient way to impart a chemical process safety mindset into our students in every core course in the chemical engineering curriculum, thus graduating more prepared engineers who are equipped to prevent major industrial accidents.

No abstract