Paper Authors

Abstract

NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract

Session 3649

Assessing the Impact of the Concrete Canoe and Steel Bridge Competitions on Civil Engineering Technology Students

Valerie L. Sirianni, Kerin E. Lee, Matt D. LeFevre, James W. Lindholm Abi Aghayere, Maureen Valentine Rochester Institute of Technology

Abstract

The new accreditation criteria (TC2K) of the Technology Accreditation Commission of ABET require an assessment of Program Intended Learning Outcomes. Some of the learning outcomes required by the “a” through “k” and the Civil criteria of TC2K include leadership skills, teamwork skills, project management skills, communication skills, and design and construction skills.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the American Institute for Steel Construction (AISC) sponsors regional and national concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions on an annual basis. The Civil Engineering Technology (CET) students at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) have participated in these competitions for the past nine years. These competitions give students a chance to apply what they have learned in the classroom.

To assess the impact of the concrete canoe and steel bridge competitions on student learning and development, the authors carried out a survey of current students and graduates of the CET program at RIT who have been members of the concrete canoe and steel bridge teams. The issues addressed in our survey include the following: impact of these activities on leadership skills, communication skills, teamwork skills, design and construction skills, project management skills, confidence levels, students’ enthusiasm for the profession, and a positive image and exposure for students and CET programs.

In this paper, we discuss the results of this survey and some of the challenges to student participation in these non-credit activities at RIT, and present some suggestions for enhancing the level of student participation.

Introduction

The new ABET criteria requires engineering technology students to develop a certain set of skills at the time of graduation; these skills include design, communication, teamwork, project management and leadership.1 One way these skills could be acquired and enhanced is by participation in student project teams such as the concrete canoe and steel bridge teams and competitions. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Master Builders, Inc., and the American Institute of Steel Construction sponsor these competitions annually. Approximately

“Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education”

• Citation

• Format
  • APA
  • APA - LaTeX bibitem
  • MLA
  • MLA - LaTeX bibitem
  • Bibtex
  • EndNote - RIS

Aghayere, A. (2003, June), Assessing The Impact Of The Concrete Canoe And Steel Bridge Competitions On Civil Engineering Technology Students Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--11563