Abstract:

This paper discusses a project carried out by groups of students from a first-year Chemistry course, as part of their undergraduate degree program in Industrial Technology Engineering (GITI in Spanish) at the Madrid Polytechnic University (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), School of Advanced Industrial Engineering.

The activity presented here was developed after observing the difficulties students were having with understanding distillation and the construction and meaning of the associated temperature-composition (T-x) diagrams, also known as distillation diagrams.

The objectives being pursued included, firstly, to help the students clearly understand what happens during the course of a distillation process for a solution made up of two volatile components; and secondly, to learn how to represent this process using distillation diagrams and to understand how these function. These partial objectives fall within the specific knowledge competency, while other objectives being focused upon by the students were the transversal competencies [1] of teamwork, creativity [2], and communication by means of an oral presentation.

The activity consisted of assigning each team of three students the task of using PowerPoint software to create a T-x distillation diagram. They were also instructed to select of a type of animation to illustrate what happens during distillation of an ideal or real binary mixture, with either a maximum or minimum boiling temperature applied to the solution. Using their creativity, the students also developed and applied a graphic animation technique to demonstrate various states of vapor/liquid equilibrium, also showing the relative concentrations of the components in mole fractions for the vapor as well as for the liquid in equilibrium, and the variations in these concentrations over the course of the process. The animation also displayed, graphically and qualitatively, the direction in which the composition of the distillate and the waste was moving.

The written project was first evaluated by the professor, then the best teams were selected to perform an in-class presentation for each type of binary solution. This included a time limit, a Q&A session, and constructive criticism from the professor and from the other students. The students were then evaluated in terms of the competencies mentioned, using a corresponding grading system that relied upon specific indicators as tools for measuring these competencies.
Finally, the results were used to assess the success of the activity in terms of learning, demonstration, and mastery of concepts related to knowledge of binary mixture distillation, as well as development of the students' creativity and the other transversal competencies evaluated.

Keywords:

Learning, innovation, chemistry, competencies.