An Engineering Approach to Teaching Biotechnology Concepts

Biotechnology concepts will be a key skill set for future chemical engineers. However, when biological concepts are conveyed to chemical engineering students in a traditional manner, the students often end up lacking the ability to translate these ideas to engineering applications. This discrepancy arises in part from the different way in which engineering students think and approach problems relative to their natural science colleagues. Due to this, the chemical engineering department of Texas A&M has introduced a new course in biology which emphasizes student ability to apply biological concepts to solving engineering problems. Results from survey evaluation of student ability to apply learned biotechnology concepts to new problems indicates that the application oriented approach to teaching biotechnology concepts is effective and should be further developed.