Teaching engineering at a research university. Problems and possibilities

Resumen

I have taught chemical engineering for the past 34 years. I entered the profession in 1969 with the standard training in pedagogy that most professors receive----none----and by default proceeded to do unto my students as had been done unto me. I prepared my lecture notes and transcribed them onto the board for the students to copy, sometimes asked questions, occasionally got answers from a few of the more fearless students, and gave tests on which the class average hovered around the low sixties with some grades below 20.