Transforming University Utilities into Laboratory Resources

The use of only traditional laboratories for practical work in undergraduate education suffers from drawbacks such as costs, maintenance and bench-scale operation. To overcome these challenges, we considered the use of sustainable and scalable resources without substantial costs. Thus, for undergraduate education we are developing a set of University operating facilities that normally support our School infrastructure, such as, a boiler, a cooling tower and a compressor. These utilities are already in place, are routinely maintained, are amenable for imparting practical experience, and are operable with variable capacities. During this project we incorporated instrumentation to measure process variables and pedagogical tools to enable learning. The pedagogical tools are designed to enable constructive alignment between learning outcomes, the learning/teaching activities and assessments. Our preliminary findings show considerable promise.