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Innovative Collaboration to Provide Hands-On Educational Opportunities for Engineering Students: Integrating Habitat for Humanity into a First Year Course

Introduction

In recent years, much has been written about the many potential benefits resulting from a freshman- these benefits, however, many institutions have been unable to add such a course to their engineering curricula for a variety of legitimate reasons. At the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the creation of a new program in Construction Management as well as the conversion of the traditional Civil Engineering Technology Program from 2 to 4 years to accommodate freshmen allowed for the development of a new course series on construction methods and materials. Primarily intended for 1st year students, these introductory courses are relatively consistent at schools across the nation and typically address the history, physical properties, behavior, and application techniques of basic construction materials. The course texts are also generally similar in scope and address the same array of topics. Traditionally, each major topic, normally represented by a chapter in the text, is covered during a week or two of classroom instruction (2 4 lectures). While this methodology may be considered adequate for academically introducing students to the basics of construction methods and materials, it fails to adequately expose the students to how all the fundamental topics are interrelated nor does it normally provide meaningful hands-on experiences on real job sites. This paper reports on the results of a project that targets the course in to affect an evolutionary transformation marked by active-learning by augmenting instruction with real-world hands-on construction experience at local job sites. This paper discusses the integration of student involvement in a nonprofit, ecumenical housing program known as Habitat for Humanity.

The Courses: and

The course (ETCE 1121) is an introduction to the basic construction methods and operations typically employed on engineering projects. It is listed as a 3-credit hour course with two 75-minute lectures each week. Topics include basic construction and civil engineering technology, identification and selection of construction equipment and techniques, and an overview of the components and processes used in construction regarding concrete, steel, and wood-framed structures. Course Learning Objectives are noted in Table 1.

Consistent with the Course Learning Objectives noted in Table 2, (ETCE 1122) is sequentially a follow- studies the history, physical properties, behavior, and application of basic Selecting Basic Construction Materials, 7th Edition, by Theodore W. Marotta as the course text, topics include mineral aggregates, Portland cement concrete, masonry, wood, asphalt concrete, metals, plastics, and other materials. With an enrollment of approximately 100 students for Spring 2010, this course features two 75-minute lectures plus a 3-hour laboratory each week.

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Cottrell, D., & Cho, C., & Lu, N., & Swan, R. (2010, June), Innovative Collaboration To Provide Hands On Educational Opportunities For Engineering Students: Integrating "Habitat For Humanity" Into A First Year Construction Materials Course Paper presented at 2010 Annual Conference & Exposition, Louisville, Kentucky. 10.18260/1-2--16780