Conference Session

Assessment Issues in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Gayle Davis, United States Military Academy; Michael Butkus, United States Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

ethical considerations in an engineering design problem could begraded definitively with a grading rubric and thereby rendering a value or score as a part of theABET assessment, much like quizzes or homework grades. Inculcation of engineering ethicscould then be assessed as students’ progress through the engineering program. Secondly,develop a mechanism to help students reflect upon and appreciate social and cultural issuesfollowing study abroad experiences. This might be accomplished with a reflective essay.Shuman et al.9 suggests that globalization and cultural awareness through study abroad programsdevelops individuals with a broader understanding and tolerance towards social issues that couldaid in future ethical decision making processes

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Daniel Lynch, Dartmouth College

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

the ASCE Body of KnowledgeIn 2008, ASCE released the second edition of the Body of Knowledge (BOK2) for CivilEngineersvii. Reflecting the Visions of ASCE and NAE, BOK2 requires that all Civil Engineersmaster sustainability: Page 13.1129.3 The 21st century civil engineer must demonstrate an ability to evaluate the sustainability of engineered systems and services, and of the natural resource base on which they depend; and to design accordingly.There are specific requirements for both academic undergraduate preparation, and for early-career development; these are summarized in Table 1.Clearly, the notion of Natural Resources pervades these

Conference Session

Assessment Issues in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Debra Reinhart, University of Central Florida

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

, students, and society. TheEnVEBOK reflects our profession’s responsibility to address societal challenges withintelligent and practical solutions. It will help to prepare students for an unknown future;to have the skills necessary to learn and apply principles to new problems and make themost of new opportunities.Input from stakeholders is essential to a successful EnVEBOK. Throughout 2008, theTask Force will be seeking input through various means including the EnVEBOKwebsite (www.cecs.ucf.edu/BOK), presentations, emailings, and publication of articles. Page 13.383.5The development of the EnVEBOK is a continuous process of testing and improvement.As it is

Conference Session

Assessment Issues in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kevin Bower, The Citadel; William Davis, The Citadel

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

adopted, uniform BOK program outcomes were alignedwith each course goal. Consistent levels of expected student competence were thenestablished, after which two types of useful data aggregations were possible. The highestorder of data aggregation was created at the department-wide curriculum level where allcourses and course goals were reflected across 1-15 ASCE-BOK outcomes and atassigned 1-6 Bloom’s competency levels. Furthermore, sub-aggregations were producedfor discipline specific courses within the major curriculum concentrations includingenvironmental, structural, transportation and geotechinical. This allowed a more detailedanalysis of student learning and instructional continuity across interconnected courseswithin a meaningful context of

Conference Session

Innovations to Curriculum and Program

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Kurt Paterson, Michigan Technological University; Michelle Jarvie, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

to gain insights regarding the motivations ofminority students to study environmental engineering, as reflected by thequestions asked by the students.MethodsIn the summer of 2007, Michigan Technological University held a week longEngineering Explorations summer camp for minority high school studentsconsidering engineering as a major in college. Nine gender separated groups eachattended the hour and a half session about environmental engineering andwastewater treatment. The males were in four groups of 7-10 students each,including a total of 35 male students. The male students were composed of 30African Americans and 5 Hispanic students. The females were in five groups of 6-8 students each, resulting in a total of 36 females. The female

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Curtis Larimer, University of Pittsburgh; Michaelangelo Tabone, University of Pittsburgh; Matthew Mehalik, University of Pittsburgh; Kim Needy, University of Pittsburgh

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

, graduate students andundergraduate students.A detailed project evaluation plan has been developed consisting of both assessment of thevarious outcomes associated with the project goals as well as an overall evaluation of thestudents who have participated in the program. A host of assessment tools will be utilized suchas rubrics and reflective journals, the specifics are too detailed for discussion in this paper. Toaddress the larger, overall success of the project, the number of students who participate in theprogram and go on to matriculate into either a graduate program or the workforce will betracked. The academic performance of each student will also be investigated after they completethe program.This paper discusses the challenges with

Conference Session

Service - Learning Projects

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Heather Wright, Michigan Technological University; Linda Phillips, Michigan Technological University; James Mihelcic, Michigan Technological University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

includes Page 13.793.9notes and reactions to their experiences. Students document the appropriate ABET criteria forthe noted project task, observation or lesson. ABET summary reports are utilized in lieu of adaily learning log for the on-campus portion of the ISD course. These summary reports requirethe students to reflect on how each of the ABET criteria are met.For the purpose of our assessment program, we have focused on a sample of responses that relateto the five ABET criteria that were used to develop our survey questions: 3d, f, h, i, and j. Thefollowing is a summary of the past ISD student assessment relate to evaluation of in

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Courses

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

David Reisdorph, the GreenTeam Inc.

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

Next Week: Trade, Gender and Poverty.WEEK 7: Topic: Developed Countries & Developing Countries Discussion: Different socio-economic priorities of Developed Countries & Developing Countries. Are countries homogenous? What is the feasibility of Developing Countries creating and supporting a national SDO system? What is the significance for standards development in ISO? ASTM? What are the unique issues, if any, for island nations? How are these reflected in the SDO process?WEEK 8: Break, no classWEEK 9: PROJECT - PART 1 DUE. Topic: Standards Development – How? Discussion: This is the mundane part of the course. However, it is necessary to understand

Conference Session

Sustainability and Engineering Programs

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Qiong Zhang, Michigan Technological University; Julie Zimmerman, Yale University; James Mihelcic, Michigan Technological University; Linda Vanasupa, California Polytechnic State University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

active learningGetting Experience Reflective Dialogueinformation &ideas‚ lectures ‚ take apart of common household ‚ students and faculty‚ textbooks products to identify and sort material collectively make decisions on‚ seminars from types course structure and rules guest speakers ‚ convert energy ‚ end of class discussions on the‚ collaborative ‚ use softwares (e.g., SimaPro, EIO- course materials and learning websites LCA) to perform life cycle analysis problems ‚ case-studies ‚ 1-minute tests ‚ role play

Conference Session

Innovations to Curriculum and Program

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Ralph Ocon, Purdue University; Opal McFarlane, Hadady Corporation

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

TestBefore discussing environmental concerns and to assess learning, students were given a pretestbefore beginning the topic and posttest after discussing the case studies. The questions asked onboth test were the same and reflect a sample of the various creative thinking and environmentalissues covered in the case study discussions. Table 4 lists the results from last semester’senvironmental pretest and posttest, and Table 5 lists selected questions asked on the pretest andposttest. Incidentally, the results from last semester’s pretest and posttest were consistent withthose of previous semesters.Table 4: Results from the environmental pretest and posttest for OLS 350 (Fall 2007)Pretest: Posttest:Number of

Conference Session

Innovations to Curriculum and Program

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado at Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

: Engineering for 13 13 7 EDC 14 15 EDC Developing Communities 23 uncertain 48 uncertain (EDC), sustainability, etc.The final assignment in 2006 and 2007 (HW6) required students to write a reflective essay onEVEN. The students were asked to indicate if they were interested in earning a degree in EVEN,and the sub-topic of greatest interest. The percent of the students stating an interest in varioussub-discipline areas is shown in Table 4. In 2006, 21% of the students stated that they wereunlikely to select EVEN as their major. Of those interested in EVEN, results indicated asignificant shift in stated areas compared to homework 1, although almost half were simplyuncertain

Conference Session

Innovations to Curriculum and Program

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela Bielefeldt, University of Colorado at Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

important to recognize cultural differences. Future studies will expand on thiswork by surveying more students and try to combine the quantitative responses to these surveyswith qualitative information that reflects cultural competency.AcknowledgmentsThe authors recognize Marie L. Miville for providing the MGUDS-S survey and scoring guide.This material is partially based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation underDepartment Level Reform Planning Grant No. 0431947. This material is also based on worksupported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. ESI-0227558, which funds the Page 13.345.11Center for the Advancement of

Conference Session

Environmental Engineering Undergraduate Research

Collection

2008 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

James Lambrechts, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

of the original Shawmut peninsula was atfirst derived from nearby hills of the peninsula. Early earthmoving was done by hand and horse,picks, shovels and horse carts. The composition of the fill reflects its source. Glacial till thatblanketed some portions of the Boston peninsula is composed of a wide range of soil types, andis considered “well graded”. It is most often predominantly sand, but with goodly portions ofgravel and fines (silt and clay). Outwash deposits on the other hand are almost entirely sand,with localized gravelly zones. And soil dredged up from the tidal mud flats would be mostly silt,but may also include some fine sand and clays. In most cases the muds contain some amounts oforganic matter.The massive filling of the Back