Abstract:

Currently, companies require professionals with different skills, both from a social, technical, practical, scientific and technological point of view. For this reason, chemical engineering students, when finishing their degree, will have to deal with new problems and they have to solve these situations quickly. One of the methodologies that can help students to face a problem is Project-Based Learning (PBL). Students solve a problem through research by themselves, or with collaborative work and different tools similar to what they will use in future situations.

However, student motivation is an important part of the PBL, because a lack of this incentive causes a loss of interest in this tool. The projects present in the chemical reactors subject of chemical engineering degree are related to reactor design. Until now, in Escuela Politécnica Superior de Alcoy, the proposed project during the academic year was a reactor design of a real industrial process. These projects always had an added difficulty such as the mathematical resolution. For this reason, a lot of students gave up on the project. This effort to solve this mathematical complexity was demotivating for the students and the results were less and less useful. Although the reactor design was about a valuable industrial product, the students believed that the project was away from their reality and their daily life.

For this reason, in this academic year, the PBL for the chemical reactor subject is related to a real situation such as the Ukraine war and the people’s needs. The project is less ambitious than other years, but it is a current problem and with a social component, which can involve the students and consequently, they feel motivated to solve the problem. The presented issue has a simple text: “As Winter is soon coming to Ukraine, and many of us know how tough it can be, we ask for your help and support to make this project happen. We need to design self-heating products to help feed the soldiers and displaced victims in Ukraine. We need products that do not need any electricity or open fire to heat up and their transport can be easy. We need chemical engineers to design self-heating soups or coffees using low-cost materials. Can you help us?”.

In the class, each student has a self-heat can on the table to research how the exothermic natural reaction works when calcium oxide reacts with water. The student can research the small reactor there is inside to design and simulate the system.

Will this project motivate students? In a few weeks, we are going to know.

Keywords:

Project-Based Learning, Chemical Reactor, Motivation, self-heating drinks.