Support of modeling in process-engineering education
An objective of the Process Technology curriculum at Wageningen University is to teach students a stepwise modeling approach in the context of process engineering. Many process-engineering students have difficulty with learning to design a model. Some common problems are lack of structure in the design activity, "getting lost" in the abundance of available mathematical equations that describe similar processes in different situations and problems with correctly typing the equations into the modeling software. To reduce these problems there is a need for a set of educational tools to support students when learning how to design models. This paper describes a set of tools that can easily be integrated within a web-based learning-management system. The tool set is based on a 5-step modeling approach. The design and use of two tools of the set are described in detail: ModelComposer and ModelRunner. ModelComposer supports the student when composing a mathematical model. ModelRunner lets the user execute experiments with the model. The tools were used in a case study to get student and teacher feedback. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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