An integrated numerical visualization teaching approach for an undergraduate course, Flow in Porous Media: An attempt toward sustainable engineering education

Abstract

AbstractThe complexities of observing flow phenomena in porous media have made it difficult to teach the course, Flow in Porous Media, to undergraduate students majoring in petroleum engineering. In this study, we propose an integrated numerical visualization teaching (INVT) approach that is based on MATLAB Pdetool, graphical user interface, and Visual Basic Programming. The effectiveness of the INVT method was evaluated in two ways: First, via statistical analyses of the examination grades of two groups (experimental and control groups) of selected undergraduate students from the school of petroleum engineering, after a carefully designed INVT tutorial program was conducted on the experimental group, and finally, by interviewing the selected students to ascertain their psychological wellbeing. The following results were obtained: (1) From the statistical analysis, it was observed that the grade distribution, arithmetic mean, median, and maximum scores of students in the experimental group were relatively higher, suggesting that the INVT approach was effective and suitable for the majority of the students. (2) The interviews revealed that the INVT method provides students with a better classroom experience and help them identify their area of interest. (3) The INVT method will provide other benefits, such as cost‐saving, greener classroom​s, decrease carbon footprint, talent and skill enhancement, and achieve sustainable development goals for education. This paper introduces an effective teaching method for environmental and sustainable energy education. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time the INVT method is adopted in teaching a petroleum engineering professional course.