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Board 40: Work in Progress: Generative AI to Support Critical Thinking in Water Resources Students

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Conference

2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Portland, Oregon

Publication Date

June 23, 2024

Start Date

June 23, 2024

End Date

July 12, 2024

Conference Session

Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL) Poster Session

Tagged Division

Civil Engineering Division (CIVIL)

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/46987

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Paper Authors

biography

Miguel Andres Guerra Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0002-7496-3753

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MiguelAndres is an Assistant Professor in the Polytechnic College of Science and Engineering at Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ. He holds a BS in Civil Engineering from USFQ, a M.Sc. in Civil Engineering in Construction Engineering and Project Management from Iowa State University, a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering with emphasis in Sustainable Construction from Virginia Tech, and two Graduate Certificates from Virginia Tech in Engineering Education and Future Professoriate and from USFQ in Structures for Construction Professionals. MiguelAndres’s research includes Architectural and Civil Engineering Project Management, Sustainable and Resilient Urban Infrastructure, and the development of engineers who not only have strong technical and practical knowledge but the social awareness and agency to address global humanitarian, environmental, and social justice challenges. For him, social justice is a concept that should always be involved in discussions on infrastructure. Related to STEM education, Miguel Andres develops disruptive pedagogies for STEM courses as a tool for innovation, and assessing engineering students’ agency to address climate change. Currently, MiguelAndres is working on a framework to support and conduct undergraduate research.

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Abstract

Students' practical exposure to real-world situations in the context of sanitary topics is often constrained. Visiting relevant projects is logistically challenging due to project scale, location, or underground/above-ground nature. Generative Artificial intelligence (AI) applications can be supporting tool to contextualize issues for students. Generative AI has been developing over the course of these last decades, but in the past few years has taken more importance in higher education, specifically in engineering majors such as Civil Engineering. The purpose of this study is to explore how generative AI can be used to support critical thinking development in water resources and sanitary students. For this, students were assigned to introduce the prompt of a video into a generative AI app and to ask the app to summarize the main points. The activity consisted in an interaction with the app through questions and answers in fostering critical thinking abilities. The types of questions asked were guided by the professor in order for students to arrive to a third level of critical thinking. After the activity, students were given a survey about their perception of the activity. Data analysis consisted in content analysis regarding student responses, and content analysis of the student interaction with the app to measure how deep in critical thinking students arrived. The sample size consisted in 30 senior students and 25 junior students of Civil Engineering students from the XXXXXXXXXXXXXX from the water resources and sanitary courses. We discuss the possible factors driving these outcomes and explore the avenues academia could take to incorporate the results. Implications for research and practice are provided.

Duran Ballen, S., & Abril, D. E., & Guerra, M. A. (2024, June), Board 40: Work in Progress: Generative AI to Support Critical Thinking in Water Resources Students Paper presented at 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Portland, Oregon. https://peer.asee.org/46987

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