US high school (HS) students are lagging behind their foreign peers in math performance. It is thus necessary to design teaching modules that motivate US HS students to learn more math and to improve their math skills. Our study set out to test two different software programs designed for the development of such skills. MATLAB Simulink provides a…

In a diagnostic problem solving operation of a computer-simulated chemical plant, chemical engineering students were randomly assigned to two groups: one studying product-oriented worked examples, the other practicing conventional problem solving. Effects of these instructional strategies on the progression of learners' mental models were examined…

Problems requiring numerical solutions of differential equations or the use of agent-based modeling are presented for use in a course on mass transfer. These problems were solved using the popular technical computing language MATLABTM. Students were introduced to MATLAB via a problem with an analytical solution. A more complex problem to which no…

For decades, every chemical engineer has been asked to have a background in separations. The required separations course can, however, be uninspiring and superficial because understanding many separation processes involves conventional graphical methods and commercial process simulators. We utilize simple, user-­friendly mathematical software,…

Thirty six senior students in chemical engineering were randomly assigned to three treatment groups in an experimental study that examined the impact of different instructional strategies for troubleshooting malfunctions in a computer-based simulation of a chemical processing plant. In two groups, different types of worked examples,…