Collaborative Research: Development and Testing of a Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering Concept Inventory

该项目正在开发环境工程概念清单（FEECI）的基础知识，并在十所美国大学校园进行第一轮测试，要求本科FEE课程。 项目目标还包括进一步完善和传播FEECI。这项工作的预期成果是一个有效的，可靠的工具，用于评估概念的理解，在核心课程的土木和/或环境工程。这样一个工具将发挥重要作用，评估根据ABET标准的方案认证，并提供了必要的技术，形成评估的教学方法和教学框架的FEE课程。另一个重要的成果将是发展团队的形成，一个强大的教师社区，在使用FEECI培训，并致力于改善FEE教学。在线德尔菲研究FEECI开发团队的14名成员-一组来自10所大学的教师谁教FEE课程多年。开发团队正在确定FEE中关键但容易引起学生误解的概念;2.学生访谈和头脑风暴会议，以产生一个关键的概念，从学生的角度列表（类似于教师生成列表的指南）; 3。根据前两个里程碑和FEECI的一套多项选择题草案，编制一份协调一致的概念清单;4. FEECI的最终测试版在环境工程科学教授协会（AEESP）夏季会议上开发团队成员的面对面会议期间完成;5. 2011年秋季和2012年春季，在十个校区的学生中试用FEECI;6.使用来自十所参与大学的数据对FEECI的有效性和可靠性进行统计分析;正在根据测试数据分析、学生访谈和专家同行评审来完善FEECI问题草案;正在准备文件以使用FEECI并指导对其应用结果的解释。

This project is developing a Fundamentals of Environmental Engineering Concept Inventory (FEECI) and doing the first round of testing at ten US university campuses with required undergraduate FEE courses. Project goals also include further refinement of the FEECI and its dissemination. The expected outcome of this work is a validated, reliable instrument for assessing conceptual understanding in a core curriculum course for Civil and/or Environmental engineering. Such an instrument will play an important role in assessment for programmatic accreditation under the ABET standards, and provide a needed technique for formative assessment of instructional methods and pedagogical frameworks in the FEE curriculum. Another important outcome will be the formation of the Development Team, a strong community of faculty, trained in the use of the FEECI and dedicated to improving FEE instruction.Specific activities and milestones of this project include:1. On online Delphi study of 14 members of the FEECI Development Team - a group of faculty members from ten universities who have taught FEE courses for many years. The development team is determining the concepts in FEE that are critical but prone to misconception among students;2. Student interviews and brainstorming sessions to generate a list of critical concepts from the students' perspectives (similar to the guidelines for the faculty generated list); 3. A reconciled list of concepts based on the first two milestones and a draft set of multiple-choice questions for the FEECI;4. A finalized beta version of the FEECI completed during a face-to-face meeting of the Development Team members at the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors (AEESP) summer meeting;5. A trial use of the FEECI to students at ten campuses in fall 2011 and spring 2012;6. A statistical analysis of validity and reliability of the FEECI using data from the ten participating universities;The draft FEECI questions are being refined based on analysis of test data, student interviews, and expert peer review; Documentation is also being prepared for using the FEECI and guiding the interpretation of the results of its application.