Applying the significant-digit law to simplify grading of chemical engineering students design projects

ABSTRACT

The grading of chemical engineering capstone design project student reports represents a considerable burden on educators, due to the detailed calculations undertaken by students. The reports represent the accumulation of calculations into material and energy balances, detailed process and mechanical designs, process control as well as economic analysis. To facilitate these calculations, most students utilise computational programs and detailed spreadsheets. Hence, the verification of the resulting mathematics behind the generated data requires significant time commitment. To simplify this verification for grading, the significant-digit law was applied here to chemical engineering student design project reports. The use of this law enables large-scale data sets to be quickly analysed to establish if the data has been manipulated or errors exist. The significant-digit law was successfully shown to apply to chemical engineering students’ design project reports, with four abnormal student reports identified that deviated from the law due to fraud/errors in their design calculations. Importantly, applying the significant-digit law enabled a rapid approach to verifying the mathematics within the design project reports. This reduces the time burden on educators, enabling them to focus on ensuring the correct design equations and procedures have been applied.

KEYWORDS:

• chemical engineering design
• grading
• significant digit law
• calculations

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Colin A. Scholes

Colin A. Scholes is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He is an expert in clean energy processing and membrane science. He is also a passionate engineering educator to people from disadvantage backgrounds.