Background
In their offerings of CH E 358 Separations, Drs. Lamm and Jarboe developed materials that emphasized decision-making related to existing separation process scenarios. They did this, in part, to address student needs for content that more closely align with what entry-level chemical engineers actually do in the workplace. In 2019, the team migrated these materials into an open handbook with the thanks of a Miller Open Education Mini-Grant.
Project activities
The project began in June 2019. Samuel Rothstein, a graduate student in Chemical and Biological Engineering, was hired to migrate the equation sheets to the Pressbooks platform. Sandeep Kumar, an undergraduate majoring in Landscape Architecture, was hired to convert the schematics in lecture slides into high-quality illustrations for the handbook. PIs Monica Lamm and Laura Jarboe met weekly with the students to review progress and answer technical questions. The PIs developed the handbook structure, proofread the text and illustrations, and corrected the typesetting for consistency in notation between chapters.
In the fall semester of 2019, Monica Lamm continued to refine the handbook and later worked with Abbey Elder and Harrison Inefuku, librarians who work in the Iowa State University Digital Press, to complete the final steps for publication.
Citation: Lamm, M.H. and Jarboa, L.R. (2021). Chemical Engineering Separations: A Handbook for Students. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Digital Press. Retrieved from https://iastate.pressbooks.pub/chemicalengineeringseparations/
Further development
This project will see additional updates over time.