A Pre-College Civil Engineering Course: Fostering Interest in Engineering Among High School Students and Developing Future Engineering Educators

Morgan R. Broberg; Jose Capa Salinas; Danielle N. Wagner

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Conference: 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Baltimore , Maryland
Publication Date: June 25, 2023
Start Date: June 25, 2023
End Date: June 28, 2023
Conference Session: Teaching Tools: Student Experience and Reflection (NEE)
Tagged Division: New Engineering Educators Division (NEE)
Page Count: 13
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--42460
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/42460
Download Count: 183

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Paper Authors

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Morgan R. Broberg Purdue University orcid.org/0000-0003-2406-8117

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Morgan Broberg is a Research Engineer at the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI). She received a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Purdue University and a B.S. in Engineering from LeTourneau University. Her research interests include modeling, analysis, and design of steel-concrete composite systems and effective teaching in civil engineering.

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Jose Capa Salinas Purdue University

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Jose Capa Salinas is a Ph.D. Student in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering department at Purdue University. He did his undergraduate degree at Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja. His research interests include drone bridge inspection, routine and fracture critical (NSTM) inspections, the behavior of structures, earthquake engineering, student success, difficult concepts in engineering, and engineering education. He is a young member of the TRB Standing Committee on Seismic Design and Performance of Bridges and holds a Remote Pilot UAS license.

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Danielle N. Wagner Purdue University

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Danielle is interested in enabling transparent communication between different members of society, often with an environmental focus to increase access to natural resources. She is currently a graduate student in the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University pursuing a PhD in Architectural Engineering with a focus in indoor air quality. She has had several opportunities to engage in education with undergraduates and community members, and has recently been honored to be able to practice advising undergraduate service-learning teams. She was formerly a co-instructor for this weeklong Civil Engineering summer course for high school students, where she enjoyed creating interactive activities to build student’s intuition of the indoors and built environments.

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Abstract

The development of the engineering workforce is a priority of engineering educators across disciplines. Domestically, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that approximately 25,000 new civil engineers will be needed each year of this decade. Given recent infrastructure legislation, many more civil engineers will likely be required to design, build, and maintain these proposed projects. Well-developed pre-college engineering curricula have been proven to increase student enrollment in engineering majors. However, these benefits depend on effective classroom technologies, tools, and techniques. This multi-year study looks at a one-week college-level course intended to foster interest in engineering among high school students and equip future engineering educators (graduate students who serve as instructors in the course) to use the current best practices in the classroom effectively. High school students should leave this course with a greater understanding of civil engineering as a field that presents real-world problems and offers innovative solutions, significantly impacting people’s lives. Instructors should leave this course with real-world practice in applying innovative teaching methods for student impact. This course allows graduate student instructors to develop independent and authentic engineering class content while engaging with high school students to enhance their knowledge and interest in the field. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of this course over three years in two areas: (1) fostering interest in civil engineering among high school students, motivating more students to pursue this path in college, and (2) training graduate students (future engineering educators) on best practices for student engagement, knowledge transfer, and course design. Many data sources are reviewed for this study, including student artifacts, instructor lessons, and pre-and post- course reflections. These longitudinal data include the period impacted by COVID-19. As such, this evaluation also considers the effects of transitioning to online-only delivery, in-person teaching with COVID-related restrictions, and traditional on-campus instruction.

Key findings include the growth in civil engineering knowledge for each cohort regardless of delivery method. Learners consistently identified innovative activities like debates and live demonstrations as the most impactful for student learning. They identified hands-on activities and field visits as the most engaging and memorable. At the end of each course, instructors self-identified as gaining knowledge of research-based educational methods, greater ease in teaching and managing a classroom, and confidence in assessing student learning. The innovative teaching approach to pre-college education has encouraged new cohorts of high school students to pursue engineering as a career and current graduate students to pursue engineering education as a profession.

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Broberg, M. R., & Capa Salinas, J., & Wagner, D. N. (2023, June), A Pre-College Civil Engineering Course: Fostering Interest in Engineering Among High School Students and Developing Future Engineering Educators Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--42460

TY - CPAPER
AB - The development of the engineering workforce is a priority of engineering educators across disciplines. Domestically, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that approximately 25,000 new civil engineers will be needed each year of this decade. Given recent infrastructure legislation, many more civil engineers will likely be required to design, build, and maintain these proposed projects. Well-developed pre-college engineering curricula have been proven to increase student enrollment in engineering majors. However, these benefits depend on effective classroom technologies, tools, and techniques. This multi-year study looks at a one-week college-level course intended to foster interest in engineering among high school students and equip future engineering educators (graduate students who serve as instructors in the course) to use the current best practices in the classroom effectively. High school students should leave this course with a greater understanding of civil engineering as a field that presents real-world problems and offers innovative solutions, significantly impacting people’s lives. Instructors should leave this course with real-world practice in applying innovative teaching methods for student impact. This course allows graduate student instructors to develop independent and authentic engineering class content while engaging with high school students to enhance their knowledge and interest in the field. This paper evaluates the effectiveness of this course over three years in two areas: (1) fostering interest in civil engineering among high school students, motivating more students to pursue this path in college, and (2) training graduate students (future engineering educators) on best practices for student engagement, knowledge transfer, and course design. Many data sources are reviewed for this study, including student artifacts, instructor lessons, and pre-and post- course reflections. These longitudinal data include the period impacted by COVID-19. As such, this evaluation also considers the effects of transitioning to online-only delivery, in-person teaching with COVID-related restrictions, and traditional on-campus instruction.

Key findings include the growth in civil engineering knowledge for each cohort regardless of delivery method. Learners consistently identified innovative activities like debates and live demonstrations as the most impactful for student learning. They identified hands-on activities and field visits as the most engaging and memorable. At the end of each course, instructors self-identified as gaining knowledge of research-based educational methods, greater ease in teaching and managing a classroom, and confidence in assessing student learning. The innovative teaching approach to pre-college education has encouraged new cohorts of high school students to pursue engineering as a career and current graduate students to pursue engineering education as a profession.
AU - Morgan R. Broberg
AU - Jose Capa Salinas
AU - Danielle N. Wagner
CY - Baltimore , Maryland
DA - 2023/06/25
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - A Pre-College Civil Engineering Course: Fostering Interest in Engineering Among High School Students and Developing Future Engineering Educators
UR - https://peer.asee.org/42460
DO - 10.18260/1-2--42460
ER -