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

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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.