Contextualized Thermodynamics by means of Power Plant
Analysis
Julia Thompson, Purdue University
CAP 695
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http://
www.tva.gov/power/images/coalart.gif
Table of Contents
Overview ....................................................................................................................3
Benefits and limitations ............................................................................................................................................ 3
Course description and enduring understandings ....................................................................................... 4
Definitions ....................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Content ......................................................................................................................6
Table 1. Course outline .............................................................................................................................................. 7
Figure 1 Concept map ..............................................................................................................................................10
Assessment............................................................................................................... 11
Table 2. Learning Goal Matrix .............................................................................................................................11
Figure 2. Pellegrino’s assessment Triangle ....................................................................................................16
Pedagogy .................................................................................................................. 17
Statement .................................................................................................................................................................. 17
Overview ................................................................................................................................................................... 17
Objective one:
Present the material ......................................................................................................18
Objective two:
Make the material understanding and engaging ............................................18
Objective three: Cultivate a comfortable environment ............................................................................19
Alignment ................................................................................................................. 20
Appendix 1: Syllabus ................................................................................................. 21
Reference: ................................................................................................................ 26
2
Overview
This project focuses on the creation of materials which are presented in real life
context and integrated into Purdue’s ME 200 course, introduction to
Thermodynamics, which is taught within the mechanical engineering department.
Engineering thermodynamics is often considered to be a technical heavy course
with little social connections. During casual discussions during at a women in
engineering dinner, I asked some women who had gone through ME 200 about their
experience in the course, it was apparent that students were comfortable with the
concept of a heat engine, knew the formulas, recognized that heat came into a
system and was transformed to work but many contextual problems, such as the
concept that coal, natural gas or uranium would ultimately be the heat delivered
into the system was not apparent to them. This connection is an important one,
given our many of out main challenges for engineers in out society involve energy
and its effect on society (National Academy of Engineering, 2010).
Benefits and limitations
In addition to the important awareness that students will gain, there are many
other benefits of incorporating contextual problems in curriculum. Some of these
include that the contextual problems:

provide opportunities to relate course content to ABET criteria, such as the
“broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering
3
solutions in a global and societal context.” (Engineering Accreditation
Commision, 2009)

help increase motivation and interest in students, especially women.
(Holman & Pilling, 2004; Kilgore, Atman, Yasuhara, Baker, & Morozov, 2007;
Stinner, 1995)

potentially increase learning. (Holman & Pilling, 2004; Moreno, Reisslein, &
Ozogul, 2009)
One preliminary study suggests that learning is best achieved when first
addressed in an abstract manner (Moreno, et al., 2009). I infer that this correlates
to the limited amount of information an individual can hold in working memory. I
plan and take this research into account by first introducing each topic with abstract
version prior to transferring the content to a contextual example.
Course description and enduring understandings
As mentioned above, this material will be introduced to Purdue University ME
200 course. The students of this course consist of sophomore mechanical, civil,
aerospace, industrial and biotechnical engineering students. This course has over
500 students and is taught in 5 sections. The exams are consistent among the whole
course; however, the teachers have the opportunity to present the core concepts in
any manner.
The content that is proposed integrates social, environmental and economic
impacts as well as design through a detailed case study of the university’s power
plant. The data that was gathered for the in class example problems and the some of
the homework was data gathered from the power plant on Purdue’s Campus.
4
Thermodynamics course was chosen due to its large impact potential due to
number of students and broad base of disciplines. There is intent that the content,
assessments and pedagogy of this course can be disseminated to other
thermodynamic courses, pulling in data from their own power plants or detailed
documented case studies of power plants.
The enduring understanding of the course is an awareness that thermodynamics
is integrated into society in many ways. The subjects they will need to know are
how thermodynamics is used in modern engineering context of Purdue’s power
plant, how to apply thermodynamics theoretical knowledge on that contexts, and
how specific thermodynamic advancements impacted society, the environment and
the economy. An area that the students will need to be familiar with is historical
aspects of different specific areas of thermodynamics and how society, the
environment and the economy are interconnected to one another.
Definitions
Two terms that will be used through out the paper are contextual and abstract.
This paper defines contextual problems as problems which describe a technical
element in relation to societal use and/or impact. An example of this is: “A tank at
an oil refinery in California is required to keep a temperature of 150 degree F to
reduce the amount of VOCs…”
This paper defines abstract problems as problems which describe a technical
element with little or no relation to societal use and/or impact. An example of this
is: “A tank is at 150 degree F…”
5
Content
There are two main components of this course, the technical component and the
contextual component. The technical structure of the course is taken from
Mechanical engineering, ME 200 course (Purdue University, 2010). This is course
consists of definitions, the first law of thermodynamics, the second law of
thermodynamics, and cycle analysis. ME 200 is consistent with introductory
thermodynamics courses taught at other universities (Goplen, 2003; Townsend,
2007). The aim of this proposal is to structure the contextual portion of the course
around the technical component. This allows a direct comparison in assessment of
technical knowledge and allows the material to be disseminated to other programs.
This project will be adding additional context to the first three sections, (first ten
weeks of the course) which include the definitions, the first laws of
thermodynamics, and the second law of thermodynamics sections. The contextual
portion aims to add a system thinking perspective the current technical material to
allow students to understand how the concepts influence the economic, social, and
environmental factors of the power plant on campus.
As mentioned in the overview section, the reasons to make the changes to the
current curricula is that contextual material

provide opportunities to relate course content to ABET criteria, such as the
“broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering
solutions in a global and societal context.”(Engineering Accreditation
Commision, 2009)
6

help increase motivation and interest in students, especially women.
(Holman & Pilling, 2004; Kilgore, et al., 2007; Stinner, 1995)

potentially increase learning. (Holman & Pilling, 2004; Moreno, et al., 2009)
Since the concepts of thermodynamics are difficult to where students have many
misconception (Streveler, Miller, Nelson, Geist, & Olds, 2008). Each concept will be
introduced with an example presented in an abstract manner, initially separated
from social context to better enhance learning (Moreno, et al., 2009). But as core
concepts become more familiar to the students, the material will be presented in a
more contextualized manner to increase engagement and motivation.
It is worth mentioning at this point that the content will be revisited and
examined after each class session as a reflection exercise of the instructor as
described by Palmer (1998).
Table 1 below gives an overview of the technical material that will be reviewed
in the course and the corresponding contextual subjects that will be covered. About
every two weeks there will be a formal discussion group where students will be
sectioned off into teams and asked to discuss how the technical material relates to
the social, environmental and economic material. The discussion groups will create
a space for students to be assessed for the learning objectives of the course. The
section will end with a group project where students will be asked to examine the
effects of a failure of a contextualized problem.
Table 1. Course outline
Content (Existing)
Context (Purposed)
 Week 1 - Syllabus, systems,
 Introduction to the importance of
definitions, Units, specific volume,
thinking of social, environmental
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pressure, Temperature, problem
solving



Week 2- Mechanical concepts of
energy, Expansion/compression
work, other examples of work



 Week 3- Total energy, internal
energy, heat transfer, Energy
balance for closed systems,
Energy analysis of cycles





and economic topics
Discuss the power plant on
campus
Introduce common units used
within America and other
countries for pressure, heat, etc.
Field trip to power plant
Discuss what type of work is
being done by the power plant.
i.e. Create electricity
Give examples of what other
processes convert heat energy to
work, presently and historically.
Give abstract examples of energy
balances equations and articulate
it what systems it can be used
Map PV diagram to power system
on campus
Give energy example of furnaces
Introduce the general concept of
efficiency in a power plant
system, by explaining areas of
waste, such as heat warming air
around the furnace
Discuss in groups governmental
policy to increase efficiency and
reduce emissions
 Week 4 - Evaluating properties,
Property tables, Property tables
(continued)
 Give examples of steam data out of
the furnace, out of the turbine,
going into the radiator, and
entering the furnace as liquid
 Week 5 - Specific heats,
incompressible substances,
Compressibility chart and factors,
ideal gas model
 Give the radiator as an example for
steam coming in and water
leaving.
 Discuss the social/ environmental/
economic implications of Purdue
creating electricity and excess
steam as a heating/cooling source
rather than purchasing electricity
and using a boiler.
8
 Week 6 Ideal gas properties,
polytropic processes, Control
volume analysis - mass
conservation, Control volume
analysis -energy conservation
 Give examples on the difference of
an ideal system and data collected
from a compressor.
 Week 7- Nozzles, diffusers,
/Turbines, compressors, pumps/
Heat exchangers, throttling
devices
 Get data and pictures of these
devises at Purdue’s power plant
system
 Discuss social/ environmental/
economic of changing the
efficiency of multiple items in the
system.
 Correlate the second law to the
power plant, by discussing the
efficiencies of the plant.
 Give examples of heat inputs and
out puts of the system.
 Week 8- System
Integration/Introducing the
second law,
irreversibilities/Thermodynamic
cycles and second law
 Week 9 - Temperature scales,
maximum performance
measures/ Carnot cycle, Clausius
inequality and its significance




 Week 10 - Entropy as a property /
T-ds relations, entropy change for
incompressible substances/
Entropy change for ideal gases



Look at the temperatures that are
being used in the system.
Calculate the current and
maximum efficiency of the plant
Compare current plant to a carnot
cycle plant
Give assignment to students and
have them discuss in class
Explain the history of entropy.
Look entropy in the furnace and
turbine
Reflect on assignment
9
Figure 1 Concept map
Figure 1 is a concept map of the proposed contextual section of
thermodynamic. The emphasis is on the contextual problems that integrate the
technical material with relevant economic, social, and environmental impacts. The
contextual problems will draw upon student’s personal experience of public
discourse on energy and create an experience while touring Purdue’s power plant.
Examples in the course will include the steam system, individual mechanical units,
the overall efficiency of the plant and the entropy of the plant. Each of the
contextual examples will be embedded within the four sections of the technical
material outlined by the mechanical engineering course.
10
Assessment
As mentioned in the overview section, the enduring understanding of the course
is an awareness that thermodynamics is integrated into society in many ways. This
awareness will be developed through out the course within the contextual sections.
The learning objectives that link the content to the material are, that students will
be able to:
 identify social, economic and environmental impacts of a contextualized
problem.
 deconstruct a contextualized problem into an abstract form in order to solve
the problem.
 analyze efficient alternatives when designing a thermodynamic system
These learning objectives reinforce the enduring understanding desired in the
course by linking the technical components of thermodynamics with the social
context.
The Learning Goal Matrix (Table 2) outlines each of the learning goals and
identifies the assessment mechanism and the evidence that will be implemented to
insure that students have attained the specified outcome.
Table 2. Learning Goal Matrix
Learning Goal
Assessment
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Students will be able
to identify social,
economic and
environmental
impacts of a
contextualized
problem.
General: Contextual Problem with written response
Claim: Students will be able to identify two implications of a
technical context problem in each of the three sustainable
categories: social, economic an environmental
Task: Students will be given a problem where the a furnace
efficiency is given and told that the burner is clogged, so
particles of coal are not fully burnt before exiting the
furnace. The students are then asked to identify two social,
economic and environmental impacts of each category(6
total). For extra credit, identify impacts that were not
explicitly stated in class.
Evidence: Students will describe the peoples affected by the
collapse burners, such as possible health effects and the lack
of power produced by the facility, any costs of fixing paid by
the university and the environmental impacts of releasing
un-burnt hydrocarbons into the atmosphere. This addresses
a higher-level cognition as defined by Blooms taxonomy,
through analyzing a system. The students answer will be
rated on rubric from 0-3 for each of the 3 categorize
 Students will
be able to
deconstruct a
contextualized
problem into
an abstract
form in order
to solve the
problem.
0- No response/ irrelevant
1- mentioned there is an effect but gives no details of an
example (such, “the plant will loose money,” but does not
state why)/ or only lists one example
2- Lists two examples stated in class
3- List impacts that are relevant to the scenario, but were
not mentioned explicitly in class.
General: Thermodynamics contextualized problem
Claim: Students will be able to take contextualized problem,
deconstruct it into symbolic energy balance of a power plant
terms abstract form to the core technical material
Task: Given a set of variables, such as water flow rate, water
temperature into a furnace, coal mass rate, coal energy
density, flue gas mass rate and steam mass rate. Students
will be asked to Identify the components, which are the
energy in, and the energy out of the furnace.
Evidence: Students will be able to correctly correspond the
water and coal into the system is referred to as Qin and the
flue gas and steam produced is Qout. This addresses a lower
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level of Blooms Taxonomy, understanding. If students are
able to identify the heat input into the system, they get full
credit, if not, they get no credit.
Students will be able
to analyze more
efficient alternatives
when designing a
thermodynamic
system
General: Multi-part Contextualized problem
Claim: Students will be able to identify key areas for
efficiency, such as heat exchangers and condenser boilers
Task: Students will be given a problem where the a furnace
efficiency is given. The student will be asked to point out
key efficiency measures which are commonly used by
industry and to do a calculation on the resulting energy
savings. This will be an open-ended project.
Evidence: Students will identify heat recovering systems,
insulating potentials, and high efficiency furnaces and do the
calculations to calculate the energy savings and the
corresponding carbon reductions and the simple economic
pay back. The student will be assessed based on the realistic
the solution. They will be expected to have researched the
potential measures and draw upon information given to
them from lectures in the course. The rubric will be multipart and will be created by the instructors prior to be
beginning of the course.
A helpful model that connects three areas of assessment is Pellegrino’s
assessment triangle. The model identifies cognition, observation and interpretation
as three interrelated parts of the assessment process. Pellegrino (2001) defines the
cognition portion as the theory on how the student will learn the material, the
observation as the task that the student will accomplish to show they have mastered
the learning goals and the interpretation as the methods used to measure the
observation.
13
Within this course the learning theory, cognition corner, is identified as situated
learning theory. Situated learning theory states that knowledge must be
demonstrated in an authentic manner to enhance learning. The learner starts at a
beginners place in a “community of practice” and then moves towards expert with
their experience within the community(Lave & Wenger, 1991). This learning theory
is appropriate for this courses, since the primary aim is to situate the
thermodynamic technical material in a context that engineers often use the
technical material, a power plant, and how this context is related to other relevant
social dimensions.
The other two corners, observation and interpretation, can be mapped from the
Learning Goal Matrix above. The observation is associated with the task section
within the matrix. The interpretation section corresponds to the evidence gathered
from the section. Each of the learning objectives identifies the method of
assessment or planned assessment. This course identifies Blooms taxonomy
(Krathwohl, 2001) as being the metric to base proper evidence required by the
participant. This taxonomy classifies the process in which students learn, going
through six cognitive dimensions: remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate
and create. As outlined in the evidence of learning goal one, students are given a
hypothetical situation and asked to identify potential environmental, social and
economic impacts. This assessment falls within the analyze and evaluate portion of
Blooms taxonomy.
14
Since the primary learning theory is based on situated learning, the
contextualized problem sets were chooses to be the best method of assessing
students on these learning objectives.
15
Figure 2. Pellegrino’s assessment Triangle
16
Pedagogy
Statement
Pedagogical view of learning and teaching
I feel strongly feel that as we enter the classroom, we are not just in the role of
student and teacher, but we bring in all of who we are. I see that students must
draw upon their own knowledge and experiences while teaching material, and I
must draw upon my own knowledge and experience while teaching the material in
order to make a connection.
Instructional Methods
As an instructor, I feel that it is my responsibility is to present the material,
create a learning environment, instigate learning from the student and make clear
guidelines on what is expected from the students. It is my belief that if a student is
to learn, they must be engaged in the material and with the processes. I will call
upon a variety of techniques in order to create the environment and instigate
learning, as described later on within the section below. The instructor also needs
to provide time and recourses in order to insure that students can address any
questions or misconceptions that arise during their learning process. I will hold
office hours, have tutoring rooms available and am reachable via email to address
such concerns.
Overview
This section will go over the responsibility and goals of the instructor, and how
best to address the classroom environment. The three pedagogical objectives for
this course are:
17
1. Present the technical material
2. Create a learning environment by engaging students in the technical and
non- technical material
3. Cultivate a comfortable environmental and open for questions and safe to
respond with an incorrect answer.
Objective one:
Present the material
The technical material will be presented by the means of direct instruction. The
instructor will follow the Transaction Model of Direct Instruction as defined by
Huitt, Monetti, and Mummel (2009). In the model, direct instruction consists of a
presentation, practice, assessment and evaluation and monitoring and feedback.
Within the presentation, there are five key sub parts, a review of earlier material,
a summary on what will be learned, an explanation on why the material is relevant,
an active explanation of the material and opportunities for student engagement by
asking questions regarding the material presented to them. The following four steps
of the transaction model are covered within the following two objectives.
Objective two:
Make the material understanding and engaging
Active learning
To get student engagement of the class, a portion of each class will utilize active
learning. Felder and Brent (2009) define active learning broadly as “anything
course-related that all students in a class session are called upon to do other than
simply watching, listening and taking notes.” This method brings breaks in lecture
18
and engages the student to solve problems that are covered by the course both
alone and in front of the course and have mindful discussion of material.
Informal groups as defined by Smith (1996), will be an integrated part of the
course, where they will be task oriented, chosen three times within the semester by
the professor. These groups will be used for the in class activities and some in class
quizzes.
An active learning approach that will be utilize in the course is to solve an
example problem, slightly changing the question, and then having student solve and
call them for answers. The students will be called upon by the instructor, and then
followed by asking for volunteers. This result in the student having to pay attention,
since the instructor may call on a student at any time, and addresses any questions
or concerns they have about the material.
Discussion about the material is important in when making connections to
students own lives. Technical material can be presented in abstract form, but when
students are asked to look at the social context such as environmental and social
implications of technology discussions are more needed. This will be done through
small group exercises. Where the technical material will be presented in context,
the solution solved and students will be asked to look at some economic,
environmental and social considerations, and write down the thought of each
category. This will then be taken to a whole class discussion. The contextual
analysis will take place about every two weeks.
Objective three: Cultivate a comfortable environment
19
Thermodynamics is a subject that is difficult to learn, and when students are
called upon to give solutions to problems, it must be a comfortable for them to give
an incorrect answer. Riley (2003) incorporated pedagogies of liberation within her
thermodynamics course and specifically discussed with the course that it was “ok to
be wrong” and gave examples of scientists who had misconceptions, but where still
able to make valuable contributions to science. Riley found this was received well
amongst the students and eased the comfort level in the class room.
In order to create a comfortable learning environment, the concept of being “ok
to be wrong” will be addressed early in the course and outlined in the syllabus.
Alignment
The enduring understanding of the course is that students will gain an
awareness that thermodynamics is integrated into society. The content is set up in a
way that gives an in depth relevant examples of how the technical component of
thermodynamics is used within the power plant system and the social impacts
resulting from the plant. As an assessment, students are asked to identify the social
impacts of a problem set in a power plant and are expected to be able to identify
common variables when presented to the student in context. The pedagogy of the
course includes direct instruction of technical material, active learning exercises and
discussion of social impacts of material.
20
Appendix 1: Syllabus
The potion of the syllabus I created is highlighted in yellow.
ME 200: Thermodynamics I
Contextualized Thermodynamics by means of Power Plant Analysis
Instructor:
Julia Thompson
thomps87@purdue.edu
ARMS 1337
Purpose:
The purpose of the course is to introduce students to basic thermodynamic concepts and
connect the technical material to social relevance through contextual problem statements.
Objectives: The objectives of this course are as follows:




To provide a thorough understanding of the basic concepts of classical
thermodynamics;
To apply the basic concepts of classical thermodynamics to the solution of
practical problems;
To develop the skills necessary for a systematic approach to problem solving for
contextual problems which link technical material and societal impacts
Develop independent and critical thinking techniques
Textbook: Moran, M.J. & Shapiro, H.N., Fundamentals of Engineering
Thermodynamics (6th edition), John Wiley, 2008.
Course Description: This course will introduce the participant to the fundamental
thermodynamic material as well as corresponding contextualized examples. The main
technical sections of the course include: 1) definitions, 2) 1st law of closed systems, 3) 1st
law of open systems, 4) 2nd law and 5) Entropy. Within each section there will be
example problems of sub-systems within Purdue University power plant. The student
will be expected to learn the technical material presented in the course as well as
participate in discussions of the social implications of the contextual examples and
complete the contextual problem.
Pedagogy Statement: As an instructor, I feel that it is my responsibility is to present
the material, create a learning environment, instigate learning from the student and make
clear guidelines on what is expected. It is my belief that if a student is to learn, they must
be engaged in the material and with the processes. I will call upon a variety of techniques
21
in order to create the learning environment including active learning, were students will
be called upon, sometimes randomly, with the class and have classroom discussions as a
class and within groups. As the instructor, I also see it is my responsibility to provide
time and recourses to insure that students can address any questions or misconceptions
that arise during their learning process. I will hold office hours, have tutoring rooms
available and am reachable via email to address such concerns.
Expectations of Students: Students are expected to have a familiarity and be
comfortable while working with technical material. All students are required to have
completed prerequisites listed below. Within the contextual portion of the course, it is
expected that the student has little to no experience directly linking the societal impacts to
technical material. Students are asked to participate in the discussion, keep an open
mind, have respect to their peers and think outside the box.
Comfortable learning environment: Students will be called on to solve problems and
give answers and opinions at random. When this happens, it is acceptable for students to
respond to an incorrect answer, and there will be no consequence for the student. Having
an incorrect answer is part of the learning process of defining a correct one. Students are
expected to be paying attention and attempting to solve the problem, but if they come up
with an incorrect answer, this will be looked on as a learning opportunity for the whole
class.
Prerequisites: The material in ME 200 is based on the understanding of: (1) calculus,
including ordinary differentiation, integration, and partial differentiation; (2) physics,
including Newton’s laws, concepts of work and energy, simple DC circuits, gravity, and
simple electricity and magnetism; and (3) chemistry, including concepts of moles, molar
mass (molecular weight), and the ideal gas law. Consequently, students must have
successfully completed CHEM 115 and PHYS 172, in addition to MA 261 before or
concurrent with enrollment in ME 200. If you cannot meet these requirements you
should discuss your situation with a professor.
Thermo-number: Each student is assigned a four-digit thermo-number during the first
week of class. The student is expected to include this number, which is used for
identification purposes, on all homework assignments and examinations.
Contextual Assignments: There will be multiple contextual problem samples that will
test the student’s ability to relate the social, environmental and economical impacts to
technical problem sets. The problems will be situated within the context of Purdue’s
power plant as discussed in class. Some of these problems will be open ended and the
grading of these assignments will be based on a rubric that will be shown to you, and
explained, prior to the quizzes.
Homework Assignments: The course website is
22
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME200/. The website provides a detailed listing of the
topics to be covered in each lecture, along with the reading and homework assignments
for the entire semester. Homework problems are illustrative of the general material and of
problems found on examinations. However, exam problems are designed to test your
understanding of thermodynamics so they may differ from the homework problems
assigned. In addition to the weekly reading and homework assignments, you should
review your class notes on a daily basis. The student is responsible for all material listed
in the syllabus and discussed in lecture. Finally, the instructor may veer from the course
syllabus or may not have time in lecture to cover all the material listed in the syllabus. If
this occurs the student is still responsible for all the material that is listed in the syllabus.
Homework: Homework problems consist of problems assigned from the textbook and
special problems (SP) made up by the instructors. They are assigned each lecture period
for you to work outside of class. You should attempt to solve the assigned homework
problems before each lecture period. This helps you to formulate questions about the
material and concepts to be covered in lecture and also helps you to understand the
lecture material. When working all homework problems (special problems and textbook
problems), you must follow the problem solution format outlined below to receive full
credit. Typically, homework problems will be collected every Friday. If there is no
lecture on Friday or in some other circumstances, the instructor may change the
homework collection day as necessary. No late homework is accepted. All homework
problems will be collected. Special problems will be graded carefully. Majority of the
homework grade is determined based on your performance on the special problems. The
textbook problems will be graded to check if they are completely solved and if the
procedure outlined below is followed in the solution. Detailed solutions to problems
assigned from the textbook are posted on the bulletin board outside room ME 161 and
left there for as long as space is available. A file of solutions for assignments up to the
current one is kept by Marilyn Morrison in room ME 100. Students can study these
solutions at any time that Marilyn Morrison is there (8:00-12:00 and 1:00-3:00), but may
not remove the solutions from ME 100. Copying homework directly from a friend or
from a file or from a solution manual (or other such resource) will be considered
cheating, and will be handled the same manner as cheating on examinations (See below).
Examinations: There are three one-hour examinations and one two-hour comprehensive
final examination. Make-up hourly examinations are not given unless the student has a
conflicting examination. If the student has a conflicting examination, he/she must make
arrangements with the instructor prior to the ME 200 exam. If the student is ill (with
acceptable medical proof from a physician), has an emergency (with proof), or has prior
approval of your instructor to miss an examination, the student’s grade for the missed
examination is the weighted average of the remaining two one-hour examinations. In all
other cases the student must contact the instructor and will most likely receive a zero for
the missed examination.
Make-up final examinations are only given in case of a registered conflict. The student
must resolve this conflict with the instructor prior to the scheduled final examination in
23
ME 200. The one-hour examinations are held in the evenings on the dates indicated on
the website. The comprehensive final examination is given during final examination
week, at a date, time, and location to be announced. All examinations, including the final,
are closed book and closed notes. A list of basic equations will be provided. A similar
equation sheet will be provided to you at the time of examination.
The student should bring to each examination a calculator that works and one in which
the batteries will not go dead during the examination (The instructors do not bring extra
calculators to the examinations.), pencil(s), eraser and a straight edge for help when
drawing control volumes.
Important note: The use of PDAs, Blackberry-type devices, cell phones, laptop
computers, or any other sources of communication (wireless or otherwise) are strictly
prohibited during examinations. Doing so is cheating. If you bring a cell phone or other
communication device to the examination, they must be turned off prior to the start of the
exam, stored below your seat, and only picked up as you leave the examination room for
the final time. They are not to be turned on again until after you have exited the
examination room. Otherwise it will be considered a form of cheating and treated as
such.
Examination Grading: The problems will be set up so that the Given and Find are
provided. Points are deducted if you do not list your assumptions, indicate what the
system looks like, and what basic equations you have used. In addition, you will lose
points if you do not provide sufficient detail during your analysis so that the instructor
can understand what you have done and why you have done it (i.e., which terms have
been dropped from any and all basic equations, as well as your justification for dropping
those terms). Finally, you must carry units through during your analysis, and must avoid
sign errors in all energy quantities, plus correctly identify the direction of work and heat
terms. Problem solutions that cannot be followed because of illegibility will also lose
points. Any form of dishonesty (including cheating) on an examination, as defined by
Section III.B.2 of the University Regulations, results in a grade of zero for that
examination and a letter sent to the Dean of Students recommending that you be placed
on academic probation. After more than one instance you will receive a failing grade for
ME 200 and a letter will be sent to the Dean of Students recommending that you be
expelled from Purdue University. Any dishonesty on the final examination will result in
a zero on the final examination and the final examination will be given the 50%
weighting when calculating the final grade.
Quizzes: In-class quizzes are at the discretion of your instructor and will be used to
monitor attendance and understanding of the material covered in previous lectures. As
well as test the contextual knowledge gained in the course
Help: There are two main sources of help available outside of the lecture period.
The first is the tutorial room and the second is your instructor’s office hours. Tutorial
room hours will be posted outside ME 242 (the tutorial room) and on the bulletin board
outside of ME 161. Your instructor’s office hours will be announced by your instructor
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during the first week of classes. When you bring a question to the tutorial room or to your
instructors’ office, the TA/instructor will ask to see what you have accomplished and
where you got stuck. In particular, they will ask you what it is you are trying to find (i.e.,
what basic equation you think you should be using), what information you were given (to
determine if you have an equal number of equations and unknowns), and what
assumptions you have made (to help reduce the number of unknowns to equal the number
of equations, and to eliminate terms in the basic equations). If you have not completed
these steps you will only receive a suggestion as to which step(s) have not been
completed. The tutorial room is not for obtaining easy answers. It exists only to assist
you in the process of learning thermodynamics.
Grading: Your course grade is based on the higher score obtained from the following
two distributions:
Three One-hour Examinations 50% 30%
Final Examination 30% 50%
Homework 10% 10%
In-Class Participation and Quizzes 10% 10%
Your instructor reserves the right to employ the left hand distribution should you miss
any of the one-hour examinations; this eliminates the need for any make-up exams. Note
that the above grading scheme allows you to still get a good grade for the course, even if
you do poorly on one examination but well on all others If you have a conflict with an
examination, please see your instructor in advance for individual guidance. Course
grading will not be more stringent than a straight-scale (90-100 for an A, 80-90 for a B,
etc.). Grade break scores vary from straight-scale, and may be curved, but this won’t be
known until the end of the semester. Grade break scores may vary somewhat from one
division to the other. The instructors expect and require that you attend all classes. Your
instructor may take attendance or give in-class quizzes at any time and use these for the
in-class participation portion of the grade. Cheating on the quizzes or attendance will
result in you receiving a grade of zero for the entire in-class evaluation portion of the
semester grade.
Campus Emergency Policy: In the event of a major campus emergency, the course
requirements, deadlines, and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be
necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. In such an event,
your instructor will advise you of the new course policy by using remote communication
such as class email. If you are feeling uncomfortable with flu-like symptoms, you should
not come to class and immediately consult with a doctor. Keeping such an emergency in
mind, your instructor may be able to excuse you for homework, quiz, or an exam, if you
can provide the necessary medical proof. The number of such excused homework
assignments and quizzes will be determined by your instructor. However, if you are
found to be taking dishonest advantage of this policy, you will receive a failing grade for
the entire course.
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2010, from http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/me/images/Goplen/351syllabus.pdf
Holman, J., & Pilling, G. (2004). Thermodynamics in Context. Journal of Chemical
Education, 81(3), 373-375.
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Context: A Study of First-Year Engineering Students Journal of
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Instruction: Do Abstract or Contextualized Representations Promote
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National Academy of Engineering. (2010). Grand Challenges for Engineering
Retrieved April 25th, 2010, from http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/
Purdue University, M. E. (2010) Retrieved April 11, 2009, from
https://engineering.purdue.edu/ME200/
Riley, D. (2003). Employing Liberative Pedagogies in Engineering Journal of
Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 9(2), 137-158.
Smith, K. (1996). Cooperative Learning: Making "Groupwork" Wor. New
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Stinner, A. (1995). Contextual Setting, Science Stories, and Large Contest
problems: Toward a more Humanistic Science Education. Humanistic
Science Education, 79(3), 555-581.
Streveler, R. A., Miller, R. L., Nelson, M. A., Geist, M. R., & Olds, B. M. (2008).
Developing an Instrument to Measure Engineering Student
Misconceptions in Thermal and Transport Science Retrieved from
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Townsend, J. (2007). ENGR3350: Thermodynamics
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