Whats quite interesting to me is the fact that, although under a blanket term of "Thermodynamics", every engineering discipline at the UW seems to have vastly different thermodynamics coursework. Ours was focused on understanding how interactions between chemical species influences properties of the mixtures, and how we can optimize different properties by chaining the mixtures of chemical species. And while we touched on heat engines and Carnot cycles briefly, it was interesting to see how friends in Mechanical engineering or Materials Science had their material weighted differently.
One aspect of this class which I thought made it very interesting was the fact that it was a "flipped classroom." Our homework was to watch pre-recorded lectures on a weeks worth of material, and in class we worked in table groups on problem sets. I thought this was a refreshing change of pace, and really put an emphasis on collaborative problem solving. Once we all had a foundation from watching the lectures on our own time, we were able to come together and piece through concepts and apply what we had learned. There was definitely more than one instance where I would not have been able to solve a problem or understand a concept without having one of my peers explain it to me. I hope to experience more classes like this during my schooling.
One aspect of this class which I thought made it very interesting was the fact that it was a "flipped classroom." Our homework was to watch pre-recorded lectures on a weeks worth of material, and in class we worked in table groups on problem sets. I thought this was a refreshing change of pace, and really put an emphasis on collaborative problem solving. Once we all had a foundation from watching the lectures on our own time, we were able to come together and piece through concepts and apply what we had learned. There was definitely more than one instance where I would not have been able to solve a problem or understand a concept without having one of my peers explain it to me. I hope to experience more classes like this during my schooling.