Development and Assessment of Full-scale Experiential Learning Opportunities in Structural Engineering

土木工程师负责设计，建造，维护和改造我们国家的基础设施。一支准备充分的劳动力队伍对于这一基础设施的持续运作和改善至关重要。全国各地的土木工程项目在学习过程中利用小规模的动手项目和/或大规模的概念项目。然而，小规模的实践项目有时会限制学生准确预测结构的容量和性能的能力。此外，土木工程专业的学生很少有机会看到实际建造或测试的大型概念项目，因为其规模和必要的测试能力。让学生有机会体验全尺寸结构部件的设计和测试，对他们理解结构工程概念至关重要。因此，有一个显着的需要，让学生体验更多的真实世界，动手学习的机会，与适当的规模，成功地说明结构行为。该项目将为本科生提供大规模的动手学习机会，这将增加他们进入劳动力市场之前的概念理解。学生将有机会在圣刘易斯大学和罗斯-休曼理工学院的四门课程中设计、建造和测试各种结构部件。在这个项目中获得的知识和开发的资源将被广泛传播，以积极影响其他土木工程项目。该项目将改善STEM学习和学习环境，并帮助培养未来的专业STEM劳动力。更具体地说，该项目有三个主要目标：（1）在圣刘易斯大学和罗斯-休曼理工学院的结构工程课程中开发和实施小规模和全面的体验式学习模块，（2）评估学生的学习和对本科教育的影响，（3）传播研究结果和资源，在全国各地的同行机构产生更广泛的影响。将开发和实施体验式学习模块，使学生能够可视化的行为和准确预测的能力和结构部件的故障模式。这些模块将广泛传播，供其他工程方案使用。体验式学习模块对学生学习的影响将通过比较学生的学习成绩，课程结束时的调查结果和工程考试数据的标准化基础进行评估。将编制教育材料并传播评估结果，以确保可持续性和可向同行机构转让。拟议项目的成果将导致一套完整的经验学习模块与结构工程沿着与学生学习和参与项目的有效性进行全面评估。

Civil engineers are responsible for the design, construction, maintenance, and renovation of our nation's infrastructure. A well-prepared workforce is crucial for the continued operation of and improvement of this infrastructure. Civil engineering programs across the country utilize small-scale hands-on projects and/or large-scale conceptual projects in the learning process. However, small-scale hands-on projects sometimes limit students' ability to accurately predict the capacity and performance of a structure. Furthermore, civil engineering students rarely have an opportunity to see a large-scale conceptual project actually built or tested due to the size and the necessary testing capabilities. An opportunity for students to experience the design and testing of full-scale structural components is essential to their understanding of structural engineering concepts. Thus, there is a significant need for students to experience more real-world, hands-on learning opportunities with appropriate scales that successfully illustrate structural behavior. This project will provide undergraduate students with large-scale hands-on learning opportunities that will increase their conceptual understanding before entering the workforce. Students will have the opportunity to design, construct, and test a variety of structural components in four courses at Saint Louis University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Knowledge gained during this project and resources developed will be disseminated widely to positively impact other civil engineering programs. This project will lead to improving STEM learning and learning environments, as well as aid in building the professional STEM workforce for tomorrow.More specifically, there are three primary goals for this project: (1) to develop and implement small-scale and full-scale experiential learning modules in structural engineering courses at Saint Louis University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, (2) to assess student learning and impact on undergraduate education, and (3) to disseminate findings and resources for wider impact at peer institutions across the country. Experiential learning modules will be developed and implemented to allow students to visualize the behavior and accurately predict capacities and failure modes of structural components. Such modules will be disseminated widely for use by other engineering programs. The impact of the experiential learning modules on student learning will be assessed by comparing students' learning performance, end-of-course survey responses, and standardized fundamentals of engineering exam data. Educational materials will be created and the assessment results disseminated to ensure sustainability and transferability to peer institutions. The outcomes of the proposed project will result in a fully developed set of experiential learning modules related to structural engineering along with a full assessment of the project's effectiveness on student learning and engagement.