(546c) Envisioning the Future of Chemical Engineering Education

As the chemical industry continues to evolve and change to meet the needs of today’s society, it is essential that we prepare chemical engineering students for the diverse set of challenges that they will encounter. Our students need to recognize opportunities, apply their technical knowledge, build professional skills such as communication, leadership, and teamwork, and use creative thinking to solve complex problems. One pedagogical approach that can help motivate our students while developing the aforementioned skillsets is game-based learning. Games are beneficial in that they can immerse learners within diverse contexts while pushing them to work to the edge of their capabilities. Games also have the additional benefit of being able to provide safe spaces for students to experience failure without encountering the real world consequences resulting from choices made. This seminar will discuss the use of both physical and digital based games for the education of chemical engineering students. Research into the effectiveness of the game implementations will be shared along with best practices for use of these game-based strategies in the classroom.