Efforts to attract quality and diverse students into civil engineering have given rise to engineering camps aimed at secondary school students. Innovative topics such as soil liquefaction and sustainability are typically studied in depth within civil engineering graduate programs. However, worldwide attention to these topics has been generated throughout society through recent natural events such as the earthquake in New Zealand and storm surge effects in New York and New Orleans, along with the on-going issue of global warming. These phenomena have been connected in a way to begin educating secondary school students, while simultaneously encouraging an interest in engineering. This connection was accomplished through the development and implementation of two teaching modules, targeting 13 to 16 year old students. The soil liquefaction module is aimed at familiarizing students with the term as well as fundamental engineering concepts related to the topic. Experiments were conducted both on a small-scale shake table available at select universities and a widely available teaching device for fluidized beds. Students took various measurements and made calculations of soil density before and after liquefaction. For the sustainability module, the students were introduced to key concepts related to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. Two activities were implemented with regards to ecological footprint and green building. Students calculated their ecological footprint based on a survey of lifestyle-related questions and compared their impacts to average values in developing countries. In addition, they completed a case study assessment of exemplary green buildings and developed a concept map depicting the project's applicability to the triple bottom line goals. To simplify the task of implementing the modules, detailed procedures for the experiments and activities, along with worksheets for the students have been developed for interested instructors. The modules have been tested at Bucknell University during the summers of 2011 and 2012, and survey assessment results from student evaluation confirm that the modules are effective in meeting the defined objectives of each topic. The overall goal of the assessment was to establish student learning in the modules.
展开▼
