2012 Chemical Engineering Summer School: Equipping Faculty to Teach the Next Generation

University Of Florida, Gainesville FL

Investigators

Abstract

The Chemical Engineering Division of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE) will hold its 15th Chemical Engineering Summer School on July 21-26, 2012 at the University of Maine. The Summer School, initiated in 1931 and currently offered every five years, is the premier teaching training workshop for new chemical engineering faculty. The Summer School is unique in its emphasis on the development of new chemical engineering educators. There is no other educational forum which is comparable in scope - targeted specifically toward training new chemical engineering faculty. And no other engineering discipline has a comparable forum offered on a consistent basis. By targeting faculty at the beginning of their careers, professors can become more effective educators ? more capable of producing better qualified undergraduate and graduate chemical engineering professionals. In the Summer School, new faculty learn how to integrate the latest developments in the field effectively and seamlessly into the chemical engineering curriculum. The Summer School also aids in the career development of new faculty by providing them extensive resources and network opportunities. Historically, around 200 new chemical engineering educators attend the Summer School each time it is offered. Thus, the Summer School has enormous broad impact, as new faculty become much more effective at educating the next generation of chemical engineers. And, the Summer School has a proven track record of effectiveness with testimonials from previous attendees confirming its value. The teaching abilities of new chemical engineering faculty are improved significantly, and the breath and timeliness of new topics incorporated by these faculty into courses taught at their home institutions is enhanced. Student evaluations of the teaching capabilities of new faculty who attend the Summer School increase significantly. The 2012 Summer School will both capitalize on the many successful aspects of the previous Summer Schools and include several novel aspects. Innovations include the addition of international faculty participation (both faculty presenters and early-career faculty), collaboration between industry and academic representatives in the workshop presentations, and the industrial Q & A panel session. The 2012 Summer School will also emphasize the linkage between research/teaching and engagement with external constituent groups, including industry, K-12, and other stakeholders. This linkage will be emphasized via an NSF session, a day-long Teaching Institute, and through workshops in career development, K-12 engineering education, and combining research and educational scholarship. Finally, an additional assessment instrument will be introduced which gathers input from faculty participants approximately one year after their attendance at the Summer School. This instrument will both help confirm the longer- term impact the Summer School has on participants and provide useful feedback for improving the School even more in the future.