2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Previous literature has shown that active learning techniques and knowledge retention are closely correlated. For short term (i.e., during the timeframe of the course) retention is enhanced by rest breaks1, scaffolding, and multi-part practice that takes complex problems and breaks them down in shorter steps.2 Knowledge retention is also enhanced by team based learning techniques.3 In this talk, we will focus on how long term knowledge retention can be enhanced as well. For core courses that are taken by all chemical engineering undergraduate students, it is imperative that the knowledge is retained across multiple semesters. The instructor’s course is a core course taken by all chemical engineering undergraduate students in their second year, in the spring term. The average class size ranges from 45-60 students. The course is designed such that the undergraduates learn math, numerical methods, MATLAB as a coding language, and how analytical and numerical techniques apply to chemical engineering. The materials taught in the class ranges from basic mathematical concepts such as matrices, to advanced materials such as partial differential equations. Alongside the mathematical knowledge, the students learn different numerical techniques to approximate solutions to complex equations, and learn how to code these solutions using Matlab. All of this is taught using chemical engineering based examples and questions.
The materials taught in this course is utilized throughout future chemical engineering core courses. For example, the knowledge of partial differential equations feature heavily in the fluid dynamics and mass and heat transfer courses, and non-linear regression analysis is featured in the reaction engineering course. Therefore, the students will require long term retention of the acquired knowledge over the next two years, if not for longer depending on their future path. However, it is clear from talking to faculty members who teach the subsequent core courses, that the student knowledge retention could be improved. Although the students spend the required amount of time and energy to relearn the material to succeed in the course, they would be better served by having long term retention of the knowledge.
In this talk, I will outline my efforts to test and evaluate the long term retention of knowledge, during their third and fourth years as chemical engineers. The work consists of two sections, 1) Survey of undergraduates who have already taken the course each subsequent semester about their self-reported knowledge retention, and 2) Work with Instructional Designers to reformat the course such that knowledge retention can be enhanced in the areas where students are weakest, and 3) help students retain knowledge through priming quizzes in future core chemical engineering courses. This ‘priming’ quiz will also serve as an assessment method for whether course changes has helped long term knowledge retention. We will discuss what students forget as they complete their undergraduate career, and strategies to improve long term knowledge retention.
References:
1. Craig et al., Hippocampus, 2015. 25 (9).
2. Lang, J.M., Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass, 2016.
3. Tran, Van Dat, International Journal of Higher Education, 2014. 3(2).