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bioremediation. At the University of Cincinnati, we have developed a series of courses to introduce engineering students to the principles of biology. These courses include, “Introduction to Environmental Engineering,” required of all third year civil engineering students. In the senior year, civil engineering students who have opted for a concentration in environmental engineering also take, “Chemistry and Biology of Environmental Systems.” Both of these courses are intended to introduce engineering students to basic tenants of biology and to help provide a link between biology courses taken during the second and third years of high school and college-level biology courses. The third course in our series is offered as a split-level to both seniors as well as graduate students. This course is entitled, “Biological and Microbiological Principles of Environmental Systems,” and the main emphasis is to introduce microbial biochemistry and physiology. The capstone course, entitled, “Molecular Biology in Environmental Engineering,” is a split-level course offered to both seniors and graduate students. Enrollment is not limited to only civil and environmental engineering students, and we encourage the participation of students from engineering, the life sciences, and medicine.

“Molecular Biology in Environmental Engineering,” has been supported by funding from the National Science Foundation to Professor Daniel B. Oerther (DUE-0127279). The purpose of the NSF support included the purchase of additional laboratory equipment and the further development of a digital lab manual distributed to students via DVD-ROM.

The success of “Molecular Biology in Environmental Engineering,” has been documented previously in a number of refereed publication (1, 2, 3, 4). Rather than repeat the details outlined in those documents, we propose to describe the broader impacts of this course for the education of environmental engineers, in particular, and engineering students, in general.

Details of the NSF CCLI-sponsored project.

Project objective. The objective of our Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Innovation (CCLI) proposal is the development and evaluation of proof-of-concept educational materials exposing undergraduate students in Civil Engineering to state-of-the-art advances in Environmental Biotechnology research and genome-enabled environmental science and engineering.

Specific aims. To meet the objective of the project, we are addressing six specific aims (SA) over a period of two years, including: 1. We converted preliminary teaching materials from our successful Pilot Course, “Molecular Biology in Environmental Engineering”, into a seamless electronic format that is presented to students as an interactive Web-based learning instrument. 2. We utilized existing course content and the new teaching materials developed in SA1 to teach Proof-of-concept Course I in the Spring of 2002 with a mixture of undergraduate students in Civil Engineering and graduate students in Environmental Engineering and Science. 3. We evaluated the success of introducing undergraduate students to genome-enabled research through an inquiry-based laboratory exercise and lecture-discussion sessions. 4. We are in the process of modifying the course content and teaching materials developed in SA1 in response to the student evaluations collected in SA3.

Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education

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Oerther, D. (2003, June), Nsf Ccli: Developing A Molecular Biology Lab Course In Environmental Engineering And Science Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12314