General Card #4353
Permeating Entrepreneurially Minded Learning (EML) in a New Civil Engineering Elective Course: Part I – Boom!
Summary
Incorporating curiosity, connections, and creating value (3Cs) into an innovative new elective course on analyzing structures subjected to explosions
Description
Course Background
We live in an increasingly volatile world and there is a growing need for engineering analysts who can address safety and security issues emanating from CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and high-yield Explosives) threats. Undergraduate engineering students are rarely exposed to this area of study. If any, electives covering natural hazards, such as earthquake and wind, get priority. Motivated by my experience of attending one of the 2023 KEEN National Workshops (refer to card #4013), I piloted a new innovative elective course that incorporates KEEN’s EML learning in the College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University aimed at senior undergraduate, accelerated BS/MS, and first-year graduate students. The course has three primary objectives: understanding loads generated from explosions, applying those loads on simple building/ship structural systems, and articulating protective strategies for saving lives or operation continuity. I supplemented the classroom teaching by inviting exceptional speakers from government agencies (DoD-Defense Threat Reduction Agency; DoD-Explosive Safety Board), consulting companies (Protection Engineering Consultants; Applied Research Associates), and academia (a GMU colleague).
Specifics of this card – Boom!
This is the first card describing my lesson-plan design and implementation of EML during the first week of classes. I decided not to pack the first week with technical jargon, mathematical equations, physics principles, or review problems from prerequisite classes. I wanted to focus on mindset learning and elevate the desire for learning while not expecting every student to become a defense analyst. I was transparent in my syllabus in that the course includes KEEN EML student outcomes (students do not like surprises!).
In an ideal world, one could start the course by demonstrating an actual explosion test live, but this requires extraordinary safety measures, coordination, and the almighty $$. I resorted to a virtual lab called YouTube supplemented by videos from my research endeavors. These were more than adequate for a pilot offering of this new course. I asked students to watch one of my favorite lectures of all time, “Explosive Science with Chris Bishop”: https://youtu.be/uFQdcKJUijQ . It is a 1-hour engaging video aimed at K-12 students, but I feel anyone would get a thrill from it. I aimed to cultivate or enhance curiosity through a historical narration of the discovery of high explosives, elicit the connections between prior elementary chemistry & thermodynamics knowledge and this new course, as well as prepare the first homework assignment focused mainly on the students’ observation of physical phenomena through historical narration. No math yet!
Curiosity
- Demonstrate constant curiosity about our changing world
A kitchen accident: Gunpowder is the oldest explosive that has been around for many centuries before the discovery of nitrocellulose. As the story goes, Christian Friedrich Schönbein loved experimenting in his home kitchen. In 1845, he accidentally spilled a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid in his kitchen and wiped it with a cotton apron. He rinsed the apron and hung it up near the stove to dry. The apron burst into flame and disappeared in a flash. He realized the cellulose had somehow reacted with the acids to create an explosive material. This was considered a pivotal moment that changed the history of modern explosives.
Homework question: [Curiosity] Describe the differences you observed between the gunpowder and nitrocellulose explosions.
Assessment: Students’ ability to relate their observations to basic chemistry or thermodynamics knowledge on exothermic reactions, rate of burning, and the importance of oxygen content.
Homework question: [Curiosity] Describe the differences you observed between the gunpowder and nitrocellulose explosions.
Assessment: Students’ ability to relate their observations to basic chemistry or thermodynamics knowledge on exothermic reactions, rate of burning, and the importance of oxygen content.
- Explore a contrarian view of accepted solution
Airbags to our rescue or detriment: Do you know a small explosion occurs when airbags are inflated? A collision is a rapid event. Therefore, an airbag must deploy ~10-20 milliseconds. This will require a large bag to be filled with gas (nitrogen) instantly during an accident. Hence, cars have compressed gas canisters (sorry to break it to you: you have been carrying a small “explosive” every day in your car). While the conventional wisdom is that airbags are generally safe and effective at saving lives, the contrarian view is that airbags have considerable risks. We can list many positives on the conventional wisdom side. However, the contrarian view gained more traction in the early 2000s because one of the largest automotive-parts manufacturers changed the chemical used to inflate airbags from sodium azide to ammonium nitrate. This change caused airbags to start to deploy explosively, injuring and even killing car occupants. This ultimately resulted in the largest automotive recall in US history.
Homework question: [Curiosity] Explain the mechanism behind the inflation of airbags in the video.
Assessment: Students' ability to describe the decomposition of a chemical substance used in an airbag into a gaseous product (e.g. sodium azide into sodium metal and nitrogen gas in the video).
Homework question: [Curiosity] Explain the mechanism behind the inflation of airbags in the video.
Assessment: Students' ability to describe the decomposition of a chemical substance used in an airbag into a gaseous product (e.g. sodium azide into sodium metal and nitrogen gas in the video).
Connections
- Integrate information from many sources to gain insight
A link to the prior kitchen story: Continuing with the previous story, in 1847, Ascanio Sobrero wondered what would happen if he reacted glycerol with the mix of acids used in Schonbein’s kitchen experiments. His hypothesis was glycerol and cellulose shared chemical features so they may produce comparable outcomes when mixed with the acids. The results were remarkable and led to the discovery of nitroglycerine. This is widely regarded as the birth of an explosive category called high explosives. However, nitroglycerin was very sensitive and could not be used for practical applications immediately until a safe way of handling, storing, and detonating it was invented.
Homework question: [Connections] Describe the differences you observed when a few drops of nitroglycerin were subjected to a blow torch versus a few drops placed on filter paper were hit with a hammer.
Assessment: Students’ ability to differentiate between slow burning and detonation (with an eye towards the need for a detonator to handle chemical instability).
Homework question: [Connections] Describe the differences you observed when a few drops of nitroglycerin were subjected to a blow torch versus a few drops placed on filter paper were hit with a hammer.
Assessment: Students’ ability to differentiate between slow burning and detonation (with an eye towards the need for a detonator to handle chemical instability).
- Assess and manage risk
Useful things can be scary at first: Ascanio Sobrero was frightened by his discovery and even kept it a secret for many months. He assessed that nitroglycerine is extremely dangerous and impossible to handle. A few years later, Alfred Nobel wanted to solve the problem of nitroglycerine’s instability and dramatically increase the scale of production for practical uses by managing associated risks. In his early period of experimentation, a few of Nobel’s factories blew up and he lost many people including his brother. Regardless, he continued his quest and made two exceptional discoveries marking the turning point in the modern use of high explosives.
Homework question: [Connections] What are the two inventions mentioned in the video that solved the larger problems of safe storage, handling, and practical use of high explosives?
Assessment: Students’ ability to describe the discovery of dynamite (facilitated the safe transport and handling of nitroglycerine) and a detonator (needed for controlled explosion).
Homework question: [Connections] What are the two inventions mentioned in the video that solved the larger problems of safe storage, handling, and practical use of high explosives?
Assessment: Students’ ability to describe the discovery of dynamite (facilitated the safe transport and handling of nitroglycerine) and a detonator (needed for controlled explosion).
Creating Value
- Identify unexpected opportunities to create extraordinary value
In a nutshell, Alfred Nobel was a chemist, engineer, innovator, and businessman. He had more than 350 patents. His work impacted both civilian and military areas, including mining, construction, and artillery etc. In later years, even doctors emulated his work (and Soberor’s initial findings) and developed medicines. For example, nitroglycerine tablets are prescribed to treat chest pains caused by reduced blood flow. Body cells convert the nitroglycerine to nitric acid to dilate (expand) the blood vessels; Do you see a connection with airbags “expanding” due to a release of gases after detonation? But there is another angle of creating value here: celebrating those who deliver the greatest benefits to humankind.
Homework question: [Creating Value] The Nobel Prizes are briefly mentioned in the video. Describe the relationship between explosive science and the Nobel Prizes.
Assessment: Student’s ability to articulate socio-economic value derived from Nobel’s work during his era and for future generations of inventors.
Homework question: [Creating Value] The Nobel Prizes are briefly mentioned in the video. Describe the relationship between explosive science and the Nobel Prizes.
Assessment: Student’s ability to articulate socio-economic value derived from Nobel’s work during his era and for future generations of inventors.
- Persist through and learn from failure
Alfred Nobel's inventions involved several trials and errors. There is a trove of information about his attempts. He experimented with cement, coal, sawdust, etc. before discovering the addition of a white powder from a naturally occurring rock (kieselguhr) stabilizes nitroglycerine and naming the mixture, dynamite. Similarly, he went through several iterations before perfecting the use of copper capsules of mercury fulminate triggered by a fuse for initiating detonations.
Potential questions:
-[Creating Value] Research and summarize why cement and coal did not work for Nobel’s search for an appropriate stabilizer.
-[Creating Value] Research and summarize at least 2 different process iterations Nobel undertook before he used copper capsules of mercury fulminate.
Potential questions:
-[Creating Value] Research and summarize why cement and coal did not work for Nobel’s search for an appropriate stabilizer.
-[Creating Value] Research and summarize at least 2 different process iterations Nobel undertook before he used copper capsules of mercury fulminate.
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