(208c) Getting Cheme to Stick: Using Stickers to Demonstrate Chemical Engineering Fundamentals for Family Audience

Despite the vast impact chemical engineers make in all facets of modern life, the basics of chemical engineering are not commonly known, particularly to young ages. Mechanical and civil engineering are introduced early in life as hands-on building activities. Motivated by a visiting student group ages 4-16 and their parents, an outreach activity was developed to introduce the fundamentals of chemical engineering in an approachable and age-inclusive way using stickers. Stickers offer a tactile, low-cost, and colorful way to visualize key chemical engineering processes.

Embedded in a mock lecture in a traditional classroom, a notebook-style handout was provided to each participant including a set of colored circle stickers. The lecture highlighted 5 fundamentals of chemical engineering: Chemical Engineers Mix, Chemical Engineers Separate, Chemical Engineers React, Chemical Engineers Design, and Chemical Engineers Work at Different Scales. A blank process unit diagram was paired with the first three and length and time axes for the last concept. Colored stickers were used to visualize the general mass balance concept for mixing, separating, and reacting. Personalized stickers for different scale products from molecules to the world were designed and placed along the length and time plot. The young participants were able to follow directions by sorting colors and counting stickers, and the older participants had a visual and took in more of the supplemental content of the lecture activity.

The initial feedback from the outreach activity is positive from parent responses on their understanding of the concepts and their children’s perceived takeaways of the activity. Future work to formally assess the impact of stickers as a tool to engage a wide age group and measuring their understanding of chemical engineering basics is underway.

Using stickers to visualize succinct statements of what chemical engineers do is an effort to introduce this profession to younger ages in a mixed-aged setting, such as family-oriented events.