Bringing Research Into The Classroom: Conceptually New Heat Exchange Cartridge For Chemical Engineering Education.

There is a need for faculty to integrate their research and teaching activities. This call has become more strident especially within research universities. In fact, funding agencies such as the NSF are providing strong motivation to include educational components as part of the broader impact of research proposals. This paper describes an example of a new idea from the research lab in the form of a multichannel evaporator being brought into a classroom with an inductive learning environment for testing and analysis by the students. Hands-on activities with the equipment are designed to promote understanding of heatand mass-transfer principles. The evaporators utilize novel open-coil capillary channels that are being developed for various applications including intensified processes. Activities, concept questions, and a teaching strategy continue to be modified to center on classroom implementation of this evaporator. Targeted assessment in the form of pre and post concept tests was administered but the results were not statistically significant. Students reacted positively to the opportunity to test a new system that cannot be found in textbooks.