A Project Based Learning (PBL) Approach Involving PET Recycling in Chemical Engineering Education

Abstract

The recycling of waste plastics is considered as one of the strategies to tackle the issue of environmental pollution caused by commodity plastics all over the world. Recently, many universities have incorporated topics related to recycling and plastics waste management into their curricula at different levels to increase awareness as well as to develop new recycling technologies. In this study, one of the most important waste recycling problems is given as the project for the undergraduate students of chemical engineering to analyze the effectiveness of the project-based learning (PBL) approach in the school curriculum. A team of students was assigned with the task of recycling post-consumer polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles through an experimental and design approach. From the experimental data, students designed a recycling plant with a proposed capacity to produce 1 ton of recycled granules per day through the project-based learning approach. Evaluation of the project was carried out at various stages and it was found that the students acquired the required skills and applied them effectively. The outcomes of the present study clearly establish that the problems which have societal impacts, such as waste management, environmental pollution, etc., can be effectively communicated to the student community through the PBL approach, which can lead to increased motivation and enhanced critical thinking abilities.Recycling 2019, 4, 10 2 of 16 working, and effective communication [1]. This learning strategy helps to engage a group of students and helps them to learn how to learn.There are many learning styles, especially for engineering students. The conventional method of reading from textbooks and memorizing information will not help the students to achieve the required skill sets for an engineering career. Across the world, many new strategies were thought developed, and case studies and active learning were suggested as alternative learning strategies. The case study method was adopted basically in the social sciences and life sciences as it progresses through surveys among the stakeholders [2]. The conclusions are derived from the analysis of the various surveys and customers. However, it has a serious drawback, as the design is rigid, and the questions cannot be changed once the case is framed. Therefore, the actual results may not reflect the ground reality after the duration of the survey [3].The active learning strategy involves students more directly in the learning process, as opposed to the conventional methods. English scholar R. W. Revans introduced the term active learning for the first time and described it as follows: "In active learning, students participate in the process, and students participate when they are doing something besides passively listening" [4].There were many definitions of active learning. In short, active learning engages students by having them doing things related to learning and thinking about what they are doing while they are doing it [5]. Project-based learning is a w...

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