Challenging Students and Solving Problems with Basic Tools, Testing Students’ Attitudes

Abstract

As will quickly be appreciated, the skills required to solve the problems presented in this chapter are mainly the basic subjects of mathematics, chemistry, biology, and physics. They do not venture beyond the subjects learned (or rather what should have been learned) in high school. Some of these problems are very basic, but they require the wit, ingenuity, and, especially, a methodology that a good student of chemical or bioprocess engineering must have. The key to solving these problems is first the a good attitude and then a reliable method.

In this chapter, the ultimate goal is to teach students to express, in a mathematically sound way, various everyday situations that they have more than likely faced and will likely encounter with increasing frequency when they start their professional careers. With patience and effort and following the proposed advice, students will develop expertise in solving problems. It is critical and fundamental that students be able to interpret and “translate” statements and express them as a mathematical model for their resolution.

In this chapter, we include different types of exercises that will familiarize students with engineering problems. More importantly, however, the problem sets will prepare students to formulate mathematically more complex problems. The type of problems presented here may seem somehow unrelated to chemical and bioprocess engineering, but their importance lies primarily in the fact that they will help to prepare students to pose and formulate problems in mathematical terms.

This chapter has a large number of challenging problems. To teach and empower students to face up to and solve problems, 2 examples and 19 solved problems are included. Finally, students will be able to assess their own progress and have their capabilities challenged by 86 proposed problems.