TY - JOUR
T1 - Particle Sampling and Analyses Using Computer-Based Approaches
AU - Abdullahi, Adnan
AU - Henderson, Emily Erin
AU - Ozis, Fethiye
N1 - Funding Information: Jean M. Andino is a faculty member in Chemical Engineering as well as Civil, Environmental, and Sustainable Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU). She also serves as the Director of the Western Alliance to Expand Student Opportunities (a National Science Foundation Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation program). Dr. Andino earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering Sciences from Harvard University and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology. Prior to being recruited to ASU, she was on the faculty at the University of Florida, and also worked for 2 years at Ford Motor Company in both their Chemistry and Chemical Engineering departments. Prof. Andino is the recipient of the 2017 Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers STAR Educator of the Year award, a Fulbright US Scholar award in Renewable Energy (for work in the Republic of Panamá during her sabbatical from ASU), and a National Science Foundation CAREER award, among many other local and regional awards. She is also a registered Professional Engineer who volunteers with the National Council of Examiners in Engineering and Surveying. Publisher Copyright: © American Society for Engineering Education, 2022.
PY - 2022/8/23
Y1 - 2022/8/23
N2 - Environmental sampling and analyses are often limited by the availability of equipment or environmental conditions. Nevertheless, there exists a need to expose students to opportunities to carry out routine data collection and analysis, to think about the plan for sampling, and to evaluate the findings. The collaborative project that is described in this paper focuses on simulation of the sampling of an air pollutant, particulate matter. Faculty at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Arizona State University (ASU) collaborated to enhance the teaching of Air Quality Engineering (AQE) in their institutions. Basic information regarding ambient particles, including their sources, size distributions, and methods of collection were first introduced. Jointly prepared assessments including an individual knowledge assessment, a group report/reflection, in addition to the individual feedback on the activity itself provided data for analyses. Students were able to undertake the process of virtual particle sampling for a variety of sources and locations by using new tools that were created in Excel with added Visual Basic Application (VBA) routines. A resulting image of the virtually collected particles was post-processed by using a Matlab-based program that was developed specifically for this project. Both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were performed. The data analyses revealed the extent to which students were able to achieve the expected learning outcomes from the activities that were made available to the students at the two institutions. Specifically, the online assessments of content knowledge resulted in average scores of 74% (at NAU) and 89% (at ASU) on the 11-question assignment, thereby signifying good individual knowledge of the content. Additionally, students' perceptions of the activities were captured, and revealed that students found the activity interesting, engaging, and useful in promoting their learning of particles in the air. From a pedagogical perspective, this collaborative project was able to fuse traditional classroom-based basic teaching and learning of concepts with an applications-based activity in air quality engineering courses that are not set up as laboratory courses. The techniques that are discussed in this paper are ones that can be translated to other courses so that a deeper exploration of concepts and their connections may be enabled through more hands-on but flexible exploration for sampling and analyses.
AB - Environmental sampling and analyses are often limited by the availability of equipment or environmental conditions. Nevertheless, there exists a need to expose students to opportunities to carry out routine data collection and analysis, to think about the plan for sampling, and to evaluate the findings. The collaborative project that is described in this paper focuses on simulation of the sampling of an air pollutant, particulate matter. Faculty at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and Arizona State University (ASU) collaborated to enhance the teaching of Air Quality Engineering (AQE) in their institutions. Basic information regarding ambient particles, including their sources, size distributions, and methods of collection were first introduced. Jointly prepared assessments including an individual knowledge assessment, a group report/reflection, in addition to the individual feedback on the activity itself provided data for analyses. Students were able to undertake the process of virtual particle sampling for a variety of sources and locations by using new tools that were created in Excel with added Visual Basic Application (VBA) routines. A resulting image of the virtually collected particles was post-processed by using a Matlab-based program that was developed specifically for this project. Both qualitative and quantitative data analyses were performed. The data analyses revealed the extent to which students were able to achieve the expected learning outcomes from the activities that were made available to the students at the two institutions. Specifically, the online assessments of content knowledge resulted in average scores of 74% (at NAU) and 89% (at ASU) on the 11-question assignment, thereby signifying good individual knowledge of the content. Additionally, students' perceptions of the activities were captured, and revealed that students found the activity interesting, engaging, and useful in promoting their learning of particles in the air. From a pedagogical perspective, this collaborative project was able to fuse traditional classroom-based basic teaching and learning of concepts with an applications-based activity in air quality engineering courses that are not set up as laboratory courses. The techniques that are discussed in this paper are ones that can be translated to other courses so that a deeper exploration of concepts and their connections may be enabled through more hands-on but flexible exploration for sampling and analyses.
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M3 - Conference article
SN - 2153-5965
JO - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
JF - ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition, Conference Proceedings
T2 - 129th ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition: Excellence Through Diversity, ASEE 2022
Y2 - 23 August 2022
ER -