Completion of a full year of Chemistry.
Students in 10th grade must be concurrently enrolled in a full year science course
This course is a non-mathematical introduction to chemical engineering as illustrated through the roasting and brewing of coffee. The curriculum for this course is designed by engineers, involving hands-on coffee experiments that demonstrate key engineering principles. The curriculum includes material balances, mass and heat transfer, fluid mechanics, conservation of energy, environmental considerations, and colloidal phenomenon. The course culminates in an engineering design competition that involves a classic engineering optimization problem.
Students will:
- Develop skills in critical thinking, process steps, and project design.
- Design experiments and analyze data in developing a claim, evidence, and reasoning communication.
- Articulate and analyze the energy transformations that occur through the process of coffee production.
- Develop an understanding of the processes involved in engineering design from reactant components to final product.
Experiments involved in this course are:
- Reverse engineering a drip coffee brewer.
- Process flow diagram and mass balances for coffee.
- The pH of coffee and chemical reactions.
- Measuring the energy used to make coffee.
- Mass transfer and flux during brewing.
- Coffee as a colloidal fluid and the effect of filtration.
- Design competition.
Students will participate in many lab investigations. Labs and projects make up the majority of assessments, with some summative labs and projects. The course will conclude with an engineering design project at the end of the semester.
“Introduction to Chemical Engineering is an exciting elective. Through the course, you learn about different chemical concepts like flux while making coffee. The course allows for a lot of freedom in picking projects you want to research and conducting your own investigations. However, Intro to Chemical Engineering is ultimately a lab-based course, so be ready to write many lab reports!”
- Lauren Tse (Class of 2025)
Intro to Chemical Engineering allowed me to learn about the applications of chemistry in the process of harvesting, roasting, and brewing coffee. At the end of the semester, you get to design your own coffee brew as well, competing with other student groups to create the best-tasting coffee, which is really fun. Overall, this course helped me with my lab writing and data analysis skills.
- Andrea Kim (Class of 2023)