Conference Session

The Senior Experience: Capstone and Beyond

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Jennifer Large Seagrave

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

: Responding to Needs of Industry in a Capstone CourseAbstractResearch has shown that consulting engineering firms need newly graduated junior engineers tobe skilled in communication, especially writing. In response to this plea from the civilengineering industry in Salt Lake Valley, University of Utah has designed a capstone course inits Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering that focuses on written, oral and teamcommunication besides technical and design elements. The course incorporates communicationinstructors from the CLEAR program who collaborate with faculty, lecture in the class, consultwith students and assess assignments in an effort to ensure a higher level of communicationcompetency in graduates.IntroductionUndergraduate

Conference Session

Feedback and IT: Improving Student Learning

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Thomas Steinborn, Darmstadt University of Technology; Joerg Lange, Darmstadt University of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

curriculum. This teaching method encouragessenior students to arrange their tasks to meet their individual schedule limitations. But even atthis stage students have problems to manage their tasks: 19% wrote that they had difficultiesresulting from the freedom in time and place.In contrast to the many advantages that were seen, 39% wrote that they missed the personalcontact to the lecturer. The possibility to ask questions in the moment they arise, thediscussion with the lecturer, the whole area of verbal and non-verbal communication isseverely reduced. To write the questions and post them to the forum, where they are availablefor all peers was a severe disadvantage for 24% of the participants.The motivation of the participants was manifold. It

Conference Session

The Senior Experience: Capstone and Beyond

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

John Niehaus, University of Cincinnati; Anant Kukreti, University of Cincinnati

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

topics intended to guide students in their senior capstone design project andas they approach their transition from student to young engineers beginning a professionalcareer. Expert practitioners, some of whom are part of the IDS industry advisory team, areinvited to give one-hour seminars on following topics: • Introduction to the IDS Project Selected Page 11.1008.5 • Writing Reports and Giving Presentations • Environmental and Permitting Aspects of the Project Table 1. Suggested Outline for Final Report • Title page with date • Cover letter (from team to client) • Acknowledgements

Conference Session

Civil Engineering in the Classroom

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Philip Parker, University of Wisconsin-Platteville

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

forconsistent grading and serves as a guide to students when writing the lab. One significant time-saving technique was to make this grading sheet available on the course web site, and require itsuse as the laboratory report cover sheet. Thus, I did not have to print out copies of the gradingrubric and attach them to each student’s report.I have often resisted using a grading rubric. If the rubrics were very prescriptive and detailed, Ifelt that the report degenerated into a “fill-in-the-blank” report. It left no room for studentcreativity, imagination, or even thinking. On the other hand, using a very vague and open-endedrubric resulted in the best students scoring well; this of course isn’t necessarily a problem, butdoes not provide the weaker

Conference Session

Civil Engineering in the Classroom

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Luciana Barroso, Texas A&M University; James Morgan, Texas A&M University

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

, undergraduates in this courseare encouraged to attend and offered a small amount of extra credit for writing a summary of thekey topics. These summaries indicate that the students do follow the key ideas presented in mostcases, and the better students frequently come and discuss the ideas with the instructor afterclass.This exposure to cutting edge design and research opens the students to the possibilities forresearch. The projects also increase student confidence that they can successfully tackle largerproblems that deal with advanced topics. Two undergraduate students who took the course in theFall of 2002 were recruited to participate in research on structural health monitoring. Very fewundergraduates participate in undergraduate research within our

Conference Session

Where are We Going? The Future of Civil Engineering Education

Collection

2006 Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Allen Estes, U.S. Military Academy; Ronald Welch, U.S. Military Academy

Tagged Divisions

Civil Engineering

teach this body ofknowledge. It concludes that civil engineering faculty must be scholars, effective teachers,practitioners, and role models. While true, there are a number of complex issues that arise suchas whether it is possible for one person to possess all of these attributes, whether such a modelbest serves the projected trends in civil engineering education, and whether these needs areapplicable to and can be enforced for non-traditional, non-university civil engineering programs.As a new committee (BOK-2) has formed to write the second edition of this document, theASCE Committee on Faculty Development is revising the “who should teach” chapter for thiseffort. This paper discusses some key issues that are relevant to the civil