(166e) Alternative Lab Reports - Engineering Effective Communication

For many chemical engineering undergraduate programs, the laboratory sequence allows students to experience the application of chemical engineering outside of the classroom.  Typically, the results of these experiments are analyzed and written up in a classic laboratory report format.  Although writing laboratory reports is a valuable skill, today’s engineers are expected to report their results and express their findings in different forms of oral, written, and visual communication. 

We have introduced a new initiative at The Cooper Union in the senior chemical engineering laboratory sequence that provides the students with a range of skill-sets that prepares them to communicate successfully on a professional level in different contexts and environments.  As a baseline, students were expected to submit 2 laboratory reports a semester, written on the level of a scholarly journal article.  To develop and stretch their communication skills, students used their laboratory experiences to submit executive memos to company CEOs, formulate grant proposals to government agencies. and created posters that convey their results in a visual setting. Students also made oral presentations tailored to a variety of key audiences of different scientific and corporate backgrounds. 

The Cooper Union’s CONNECT (Cooper’s Own No Nonsense Engineering Communication Training) Program, also initiated as part of this laboratory sequence in 1996, partnered this initiative, providing students with feedback and specialized training in both written and oral communication as well as graphics.

In this presentation we will illustrate student work using these report alternatives, indicate how we assessed their effectiveness, present examples of the feedback and specialized training stimulated by the students’ work and outline the lessons learned as we move on to our next year.