Innovative Teaching

ConcepTests and Peer Instruction:

The objective of engineering education is to prepare students to apply the important concepts in their field to real situations. ConcepTests and Peer Instruction allow students to formulate their own ideas, explain their thoughts to their classmates, and get immediate feedback from the instructor on difficult concepts or misconceptions they have during lecture. This creates dialog that helps students better understand material presented in class.

The Chemical and Biological Engineering is developing a library of ConcepTests for core chemical engineering courses. Currently, we have a large number of ConcepTests for thermodynamics and reaction kinetics. Faculty who would like access to our library of materials can contact Professor Falconer at john.falconer@colorado.edu.

Additional Recourse on ConcepTests and peer instruction can be found at the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative and at the Physics Education Research Group at the University of Colorado.

Screencast Videos:

Screencasts are digital recordings of the output from a computer monitor, including narration. They can show example problems, present mini-lectures on important topics, explain how to use software packages, and describe ConcepTests in more detail than class time allows. Faculty in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have used Screencasts since 2008 for courses ranging from freshman level general chemistry to graduate level reaction kinetics. They are often similar to material presented in class, but students can go through them at their own pace and time – pausing to work calculations on their own, replaying sections that are difficult to understand, and watching the video weeks later to review material.