designs. Additionally, Eppes and Milanovic observe that integrativecapstone experiences feature conspicuously in many programs’ student outcome assessmentevaluations, which are so important for accreditation, like ABET, and program rankings.11 It isin the interests of the student and the higher education institution, then, to offer the best seniorintegrative engineering experience possible. Assessing students’ professional growth through near open-ended design can be difficult.Student reflections are often used to address this problem. Student reflections can serve twopurposes benefitting the student and the curriculum assessor in turn. Reflections give studentsthe opportunity to consider alternatives, understand professional practices, and
styles of active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, visual/verbal andsequential/global before instruction of the case study. The results confirm that the majority of thestudents were active, sensing, visual and sequential learners. These characteristics are ideal forthe use of cases and hands-on interactive instruction. Overall, the students found the use of casesmore engaging and the cases elevated their interest in laboratory discussions and course content.External evaluation of the student reports suggest that the use of cases did not significantlyimprove the quality of the student laboratory reports, however, student interpretation andanalysis of data slightly improved. Purpose of Study Laboratory courses
electrical engineering. In addition, eachfaculty member had some limited amount of experience overseas. The consulting engineer hadextensive experience with EWB teams and in developing engineering solutions worldwide.The concept of “Do No Harm” was woven throughout the course by exposing students tointernational case studies. One class per week was dedicated to considering success ofhumanitarian engineering projects and the unfortunate frequency of failed – though well-intended – projects. Assignments forced the students to reflect upon positives and negatives andincorporate the best in their plans. Additionally, the students were challenged to develop a designand prototype to transport water from a creek on campus considering appropriateness
able to quickly learn how to use new instruments with capabilities designed to meet thespecific needs of an Environmental Engineering laboratory and only a small amount of class timewas spent explaining how to use the Virtual Instruments. In another study, to reinforce thelecture portion of the course and address the concerns over reflective experiences in cooperativeeducation opportunities in a mechanical engineering curriculum, Peters et al18 introducedmathworks® simulation exercises. The redesigned lab experiments provided a positiveexperience for the students while meeting the course objectives. This type of platform may behelpful to meet the objectives of distance education programs remotely which seems to be arecent trend with increasing
, sediments, and tastes and odors. They calculated on the cost to treat one liter of water,and reflected on which scenarios would be most appropriate for each of the purification methodsused in class.In a follow up class, the instructor created a table that the class collectively completed thatincluded the method, whether the method was effective at removing various contaminants. Aguided discussion on water quality and the biological, chemical, and physical contaminants thatcontribute to water quality ensued.Seven purification in total were used: solar water disinfection (SODIS), ultraviolet (UV)disinfection using SteriPEN, membrane filtration using the LifeStraw family size hanging filter,boiling, filtration using a Katadyn filtration system
(2010-2012) (2013-2015) 4.14 4.24 Overall Assessment 4.22 4.03 Score 4.22 4.24 Average 4.19 4.17 Standard Deviation 0.04 0.12Table 3. Assessment of the capstone course final project grades. The data reflect studentperformance before and after implementation of 3D printing. Assessment values are basedon a Likert scale of one to five, with five representing the maximum positive score
counting instruments shown in Figure2. The device uses sensors running across the roadway to count the number of vehicles that passover that given section. Figure 2 California Traffic Counting DeviceThe annual average daily traffic, or AADT, is the average count based on the number of daysdata was collected. The counts only reflect weekday counts, and collections are not made onmajor federal holidays.[7] Peak hour counts reflect the average maximum hourly counts of thegiven routes. In the San Diego metro areas, these peak times are between the hours of 7:00amand 9:00am and 5:00pm and 7:00pm.Predictive ModelingBefore data visualization, the automobile traffic data needs to be converted to greenhouse gasvolumes and used
mapsseemed useful to judge the success of different instructional methods, and provided anassessment of students’ sustainability knowledge.IntroductionIt is important for engineering students to consider sustainability in their designs. Sustainabilityshould be among the standard criteria used to judge the quality of design options.13 Sustainabilityis a complex idea, and therefore multiple criteria are likely needed to reflect a sustainable design.The ABET Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) program-specific criteria for civil,architectural, and environmental engineering require educational content related tosustainability.1 However, proposed changes to the general ABET EAC outcomes appear to placeless emphasis on the importance of
, some students described their intent to leave engineering due to the restrictivecurriculum and/or a desire for more balance between technical and non-technical courses. Thesethoughts were revealed in their reflective essays at the end of the semester. For example, onestudent described a desire for balance between technical and non-technical coursework: Currently, I am unsure of whether or not I want to continue with the environmental engineering program and become an engineer. Prior to attending CU, I was convinced I was going to become an engineer and save the world…[but] I do not like how technical my course schedule is. As I learned when I did [the course plan] for [environmental engineering], there are relatively
. Principles of Sustainable Development 2. Introduction to Sustainable Smart Cities 3. Low Carbon and Renewable Energy Systems 4. Managing Natural Resources and Sustainable Smart Cities 5. Green Infrastructure and Transportation 6. Green Buildings 7. Health & Livability 8. Smart Technologies for Cities & Buildings 9. Big Data & Smart Cities 10. Research Methods & Project PlanningCapstone Research Project– during the capstone research project the students will design andimplement a piece of research that will enable them to reflect on the knowledge and skillswhich they have learned during the taught modules and apply them to a real world problem orissue. This research may
courses. The largest increase in the median, 19 points, was in courseA3, the one-credit seminar course fully focused on sustainability via readings that primarilyfocused on social science aspects. There were similar increases of 14-15 points in the medianconfidence of students in the A1, B1, and C1 courses. The smallest increase of ~3 points wasfound in the Introduction to Environmental Engineering course (A2); sustainability was only asingle lecture in that course. It is evident that 13-36% of the individual students in each coursedecreased in their average confidence in sustainability knowledge (Table 8). As discussedpreviously, some students started the semester 100% confident, so a decrease among thosestudents would be appropriate and reflect