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Challenges Of Teaching Thermodynamics For Biotechnology Engineering Students

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Challenges in teaching thermodynamics for biotechnology engineering students

Praphulla Rao1,*, Prathibha N2

1,2 B M S College of Engineering, Bangalore, Karnataka

* Corresponding author. Tel: +91 9036471963, E-mail: praphulla.rao@gmail.com

Abstract—The disciplines of physics, biology, and chemistry have adopted highly diverse approaches and strategies on thermodynamics education. Many studies have addressed the problems in making the students understand the fundamentals in thermodynamics. Students tend to memorize the equations without the knowledge of their applications and therefore forget them soon after their exams. This paper talks about the challenges of teaching thermodynamics course to biotechnology students. It also highlights some of the teaching learning methods adopted in some universities in order to make the students develop interest and understand the role of thermodynamics in biotechnology. The course outcomes attainment for the thermodynamics in department of biotechnology, BMS college of Engineering, has also been compared for the last two academic years. A social learning platform called “Wiksate” has been introduced at the institution level, where thermodynamics has been chosen as the course from department of biotechnology, to see if it helps the students easily learn the basics of thermodynamics.
Keywords—thermodynamics; biotechnology engineering; challenges; teaching learning methods
I. INTRODUCTION
The science of thermodynamics deals with

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