Inclusion of an Introduction to Infrastructure Course in a Civil and Environmental Engineering Curriculum

Civil infrastructure refers to the built environment (sometimes referred to as public works) and consists of roads, bridges, buildings, dams, levees, drinking water treatment facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, power generation and transmission facilities, communications, solid waste facilities, hazardous waste facilities, and other sectors. Although there is a need to train engineers who have a holistic view of infrastructure, there is evidence that civil and environmental engineering (CEE) programs have not fully addressed this increasingly recognized need. One effective approach to address this educational gap is to incorporate a course related to infrastructure into the curriculum for first-year or second-year civil and environmental engineering students. Therefore, this study assesses the current status of teaching such courses in the United States and identifies the incentives for, and the barriers against, incorporating an introduction to infrastructure course into schools’ current CEE curricula. Two distinct activities enabled these objectives. First, a questionnaire was distributed to CEE programs across the United States, to which 33 responses were received. The results indicated that although the majority of participants believe that offering such a course will benefit students by increasing the breadth of the curriculum and by providing a holistic view of CEE, barriers such as the maximum allowable credits for graduation, the lack of motivation within a department—either because such a course did not have a champion or because the department had no plans to revise their curriculum—and a lack of expertise among faculty members inhibited inclusion of the course in curricula. Second, three case studies demonstrating successful inclusion of an introduction to infrastructure course into the CEE curriculum were evaluated. Cases were collected from Marquette University, University of Wisconsin-Platteville, and West Point CEE programs, and it was found that the key to success in including such a course is a motivated team of faculty members who are committed to educating students about different aspects of infrastructure. The results of the study can be used as a road map to help universities successfully incorporate an introduction to infrastructure course in their CEE programs

Deliberate Development of Creative Engineers

The ability of engineers to create and innovate is an essential part of delivering design value. The engineering profession has made this clear in The Engineer of 2020 and it is also a central part of the Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge, 3rd Edition. Many programs provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate creativity and innovation in their capstone projects but few provide foundational instruction or opportunities to hone creativity skills throughout the curriculum. Inspired by the need to develop creative and innovative engineers and encouraged by the literature about how the necessary skills and attitudes can be developed through education, this paper describes how creativity has been deliberately and explicitly integrated in a required senior-level civil engineering course. Although early in implementation and assessment, the data suggests that integrating creativity into existing engineering courses is viable, does not detract from the traditional technical content, and is appreciated by students. The authors argue that we must aggressively continue to develop creative skills through targeted actions across our curriculum and this paper suggests potential areas for future development in this endeavor

An Integrated Approach for Engineering Mechanics and Design

As part of a major curriculum update undertaken over the last three years, the United States Military Academy at West Point has implemented a new course sequence in statics, mechanics and material science. This sequence involves teaching an introductory engineering course, CE300, to both engineering majors and non-majors, followed by CE364, a mechanics + material science course that is taken by those students majoring in Civil or Mechanical Engineering. The sequence integrates statics, mechanics of materials and a lesson block on material science; information that is traditionally separated across two or more courses, making it difficult for students to form the key connections between statics, mechanics and materials that are the bread- and-butter of the working engineer. Through tight coordination of these two courses, significant advances have been made in student attitudes, capabilities and, perhaps most importantly, engineering perspective. This sequence, CE300 + CE364, was created in response to curriculum changes arising from the Department of Civil & Mechanical Engineering’s slow-loop assessment process and a desire on the part of the Academy to implement a complete revision of the undergraduate engineering experience for non-engineering majors. CE300 – Fundamentals of Engineering Mechanics and Design became the first course in engineering for both majors and non-majors. This large change in the earliest part of the student’s engineering experience suggested two questions - could this course truly serve both engineering and non-engineering students and could the tight coordination of the two-semester pair of courses be effectively implemented? This paper explores these questions, the answer to which we believe is a resounding “yes!” CE300 is now the first course of a two-course sequence in basic statics and solid mechanics and builds the foundation in mechanics and design for all civil and mechanical engineering majors. The key finding of this effort, expanded on in this paper, is that by combining statics with introductory mechanics of materials, CE300 now includes exciting elements of design that are not generally taught in a traditional statics course. For instance, where students were previously constrained to answer only what forces acted on the members of a truss, they can now attach something more physical to that computation and get the feeling of accomplishment that comes with actually designing something by choosing an appropriate a material type and size for the truss member based on stress and/or deformation requirements. The second course in the sequence was originally CE364 – Mechanics of Materials and although it maintained its original name, the content now includes a more in-depth coverage of mechanics of materials and an introduction to material science, content that had previously been simply missing from the civil engineering curriculum. The result is a well-blended sequence of courses that provides an exciting introduction to engineering and gives engineering students the opportunity to begin the exciting process of design within the first five weeks rather than waiting for follow-on courses. This paper discusses the approaches and content of both courses as well as the linkage between the two. Assessment data related to student achievement and perceptions is also analyzed, and suggestions for further improvement of the sequence are included

Watching Videos Improves Learning? Effective Use of Short, Simple, Instructor-Made Videos in an Engineering Course

This paper summarizes the initial implementation of short, instructor-created tutorial videos in our introductory engineering course, Fundamentals of Engineering Mechanics and Design, and includes quantitative support for the conclusion that using these videos improves academic performance and students’ attitudes. This paper also includes an explanation of how to create the videos using inexpensive and easy-to-learn resources, outlines our lessons learned, and concludes with a discussion of best practices

Effect of Supplemental Instructional Videos on Student Performance in Engineering Mechanics Class

Short, instructor-created videos were introduced to a junior-level engineering mechanics class for use as a supplementary resource. The videos focus on a single course concept and demonstrate appropriate problem-solving technique. This technique was found to appeal to students across a variety of majors and learning style preferences and was shown to be effective regardless of a student’s past academic history. Many students realized modest to moderate improvement in performance on homework assignments and exams by using the videos as a review. Based on student feedback and access patterns, the videos are shown to serve as a valuable supplement (but not a replacement) for traditional in-classroom instruction. The future of digital content libraries and virtual environments for learning is also discussed

Let’s Break Stuff! A refit of the mechanics sequence of courses to inspire student inquiry

There is a growing consensus that our students need to build a different set of skills during their college experience than was necessary in decades past. In addition to technical knowledge, graduates of engineering programs must enter the workforce inspired and able to engage in design activities, creatively solving problems, learning on their own, and comfortably navigating the information-rich environment we live and work in. There is also a growing body of knowledge concerning how to most effectively teach modern students – highlighting the value of student-centered learning, active learning experiences, and effective integration of technology. After an internal assessment, the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the US Military Academy determined that the initial sequence of mechanics courses provided the technical content our students needed but required updating in some important ways. First, mechanics was being taught isolated from the broader design process. Secondly, there was no integration of computer programs to begin the education of our students on their effective use (and understanding their limitations). Finally, students were largely asked to demonstrate that they could repeat a calculation they had seen worked in class rather than creating or discovering their own solutions, failing to provide the time, space and inspirational structure necessary for students to apply their knowledge in a way that demonstrates a broader understanding. For these reasons, the department conducted a radical overhaul of two courses: MC300 (Fundamentals of Engineering Mechanics and Design, which combines statics and introductory mechanics topics) and MC364 (Mechanics of Materials). The rethinking of these courses included many hands-on learning activities in place of instructor demonstrations, specifically designed to inspire the students to engage with acquiring the knowledge they need rather than waiting for it to be ladled into their brains. Many of these were designed to lead to student discovery of mechanics principles. The courses now also integrate computer aided design software to begin teaching students how to effectively use these powerful resources. Including CAD software was also intended to assist in the development of engineering judgment through assignments that required students to investigate the effect of changing parameters, allowing them to see the results in a visually rich computer environment. This paper describes the assessment that led to the changes, provides an overview of the changes made, and reports initial assessment data related to the changes. Syllabi of the two courses are included along with explanations of hands-on learning activities and CAD implementation

On-Demand Learning – Augmenting the Traditional Classroom: Details on the Effectiveness of Short, Simple, Instructor-Made Videos in an Engineering Course

In the spring of 2007, short, focused, instructor-made videos intended to supplement classroom presentations were successfully incorporated as an additional learning resource in the last half of a fundamentals of engineering course at the United States Military Academy. Based on the success of this introduction, the use of these videos was dramatically expanded in the same course for the Fall 2008 semester. A detailed study of the effectiveness of this resource was undertaken, and this paper reports the effectiveness of this resource on academic performance and student perceptions of learning. We discuss usage trends and preferences throughout the semester as students discovered and acclimated to having additional instruction available whenever and wherever they were studying. The paper also discusses the usage of the video resource based on learning styles and previous academic performance. It is clear that visual or sequential learners are not the only ones who like this resource; the videos were equally used by global and verbal learners. Another concern addressed is the hypothesis that growing the use of video will lead students to abandon textbooks and other traditional resources in favor of watching videos and “pattern matching.” This concern proved invalid during the semester – students still used multiple resources to study and prepare assignments, including their textbook. The observation from Spring 2007 that watching these videos improves students’ perception of learning as well as their academic performance was corroborated on a broader scale in Fall 2008. The academic benefit is quantified using a predictor of performance based on students’ grade point average at the start of the semester. It is shown that those students who made use of the videos improved their academic performance as compared to those who chose not to use the videos. The authors conclude that significant benefit can be gained by creating and posting short, simple, instructor-made videos