2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This Work in Progress Paper outlines the development and initial implementation of a Chemical Engineering activity embedded in a first-year engineering design (FYED) course. The goal of this activity was two-fold: to reinforce foundational concepts learned in the design course while simultaneously introducing students to important concepts relevant to real-world chemical engineering applications. The activity was developed by the Chemical Engineering department with the FYED faculty to meet the needs of various stakeholders: the students, who need motivation, skill development, and exposure to major options; the FYED course faculty and staff, who must meet curricular goals with the resources available to teach 1000 students; and the Chemical Engineering department, which aims to introduce foundational chemical engineering concepts, foster chemical engineering thinking, clarify the nature and scope of the field, and create effective pathways for student outreach and recruitment.

The FYED course sequence at Rutgers University services over 1000 first-year students each semester. This two-course sequence focuses on incorporating aspects of data literacy and analysis into the engineering design process. FYED also provides engineering departments at Rutgers opportunities to reach students through co-developed course materials. These materials reinforce the practical applications of taught concepts while allowing departments to engage students who are still making choices about majors.

The first year is critical for engineering students, who must understand the path through the remaining engineering curriculum while choosing from several different majors and developing skills for future coursework. Recognizing this, we designed an activity to fit into the early FYED curriculum. At this stage, students are considering how data is collected, visualized, and incorporated into the problem-solving process. The developed activity uses pressure and its effects on materials as a framework for practicing these skills.

Students were given an experimental setup with marshmallows, a hand pump vacuum, calipers, and an electronic scale. We introduced students to how chemical engineers study the structure of materials, including food products, and asked them to investigate the “fluffiness” of marshmallows using pressure concepts: what causes it, and how it could be replicated using alternative food products.

Students measured marshmallow dimensions and mass using calipers and scales, then the marshmallow was exposed to a vacuum inside of the hand pump chamber. As the marshmallow expanded, the students estimated the maximum dimensions observed. Subsequently, students observed and measured the size and mass the marshmallow shrunk to after its internal structure broke down, after which it was reintroduced to ambient pressure.

Students recorded their marshmallow measurement dimensions, as well as the ambient pressure, in a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet calculated volumes and densities of the marshmallow from these dimensions, as well as an estimate of the pressure achieved in the vacuum chamber and the amount of air that escaped from the marshmallow after the experiment was over.

During the experiment, students were asked to consider what their data showed about the structure of marshmallows. Data compiled and cleaned across all sections was then provided to students in a subsequent course session for data visualization and analysis.
This activity benefits all stakeholders:
Students:
- Connect essential skills to possible engineering careers.
- Learn about a possible major.
- Get hands-on experience with multiple phases of the data collection and analysis process.
- Consider multiple variables for data analysis while solving an engineering problem.
FYED Instructors:
- Have a cost-effective hands-on activity that can be scaled to the large enrollment of the class.
- Tie together multiple concepts in a single activity.
- Connect back to an earlier activity later in the course to establish a conceptual through-line.
Chemical Engineering Department:
- Introduce students to chemical engineering and its scope.
- Expose students to foundational chemical engineering concepts early in their academic journey.
- Introduce engineering solution methods and apply them in a chemical engineering context.
- Demonstrate the relevance of chemical engineering principles to everyday materials and phenomena.
- Engage first-year students through meaningful, hands-on outreach.
- Create effective pathways for student recruitment by showcasing the discipline.

Future work will include refining the activity to better meet objectives, administering a post-activity survey to gauge student perceptions, and analyzing assessment data to evaluate the efficacy of this activity in achieving course learning objectives.