International Service Learning Projects For Senior Capstone Projects
- Conference
- Location
-
Austin, Texas
- Publication Date
-
June 14, 2009
- Start Date
-
June 14, 2009
- End Date
-
June 17, 2009
- ISSN
-
2153-5965
- Conference Session
- Tagged Division
-
Design in Engineering Education
- Page Count
-
12
- Page Numbers
-
14.790.1 - 14.790.12
- DOI
-
10.18260/1-2--5593
- Permanent URL
-
https://peer.asee.org/5593
- Download Count
-
432
Paper Authors
Scott Reichle Old Dominion University
Scott L. Reichle is an Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering Technology at Old Dominion University. His prior work experience includes work within the construction industry, engineering design and approximately 10 years as an attorney handling a wide range of matters including construction law. He has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech, a M.S. in Civil Engineering from Old Dominion University and a Juris Doctor from Loyola Law School in New Orleans. He is also a registered Professional Engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Avery Bang University of Colorado
Avery L. Bang is a Candidate for a M.S. in Civil Engineering for the University of Colorado at Boulder. She joined Bridges to Prosperity as the Director of Operations after leading a student team as project manager in 2007. She has industry experience in Structural Engineering and has international project experience in half dozen countries. She received her B.S. in Civil Engineering from the University of Iowa.
Carol Considine Old Dominion University
Carol Considine is the Civil Engineering Technology Program Director and Associate Professor of Engineering Technology at Old Dominion University. She has over 15 years of industrial experience in the construction industry. She has a B.S. in Civil Engineering from Virginia Tech, and a M.S. in Civil Engineering from University of California, Berkeley. She is also a LEED AP.
Abstract
NOTE: The first page of text has been automatically extracted and included below in lieu of an abstract
International Service Learning Projects for Senior Capstone Projects
Abstract
Service learning is being adopted in many engineering programs at various course levels. International service learning experiences can provide senior level engineering students with opportunities to practice the required skills of engineering graduates as detailed by the ABET Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs. Bridges to Prosperity is a non-profit organization that builds footbridges in rural third world communities. These design build footbridge projects require a full year for fundraising, site visit, design and construction, and provide engineering students an opportunity to practice their knowledge of globalization, sustainability, engineering design, teamwork, and leadership. A team of students from the University of Iowa completed the design and construction of a footbridge in Peru in the spring of 2008. The planning, implementation and results of this service learning project are examined.
Project Background
Starting in 2006, a group of undergraduate civil engineering students from the University of Iowa undertook a service learning project to design and construct a footbridge as an augmented senior design project, satisfying a component of the department’s required curriculum. The students were guided by the non-profit organization Bridges to Prosperity (B2P), based out of Yorktown, Virginia. Bridges to Prosperity is a volunteer based charity committed to empowering the impoverished in rural communities around the world through footbridge building and infrastructure capacitation programs.
B2P was established in 2001 by Ken Frantz. He was inspired by a photo in National Geographic Magazine of a broken bridge along the Blue Nile. Frantz traveled to Ethiopia to help repair the span. The experience of rebuilding the broken bridge and seeing first-hand the project’s impact encouraged Frantz to continue. A simple footbridge can provide opportunities for remote communities through access to schools, clinics, jobs and markets. What started as a single bridge has expanded beyond building individual footbridges to include training communities, the development of an online library of sustainable standardized footbridge methods and designs, and providing volunteer field opportunities for corporate and academic teams, as well as individuals.1
Bridges to Prosperity matches academic teams with rural economically disadvantaged international communities to build pedestrian footbridges. These projects can be completed in one academic year and within an $18,000 budget, including both construction and travel costs. A typical project requires two trips in-country, the first of which sets the framework for the project. Community leaders are asked to form a Bridge Committee, allowing the academic team to negotiate a community participation agreement and establish a communication link. Great care is taken to ensure community buy-in to the project. The first trip also is used to complete a site-survey analysis used to design the bridge. A second trip, typically in late spring or early summer is taken to complete the construction of the footbridge. Although the construction takes
Reichle, S., & Bang, A., & Considine, C. (2009, June), International Service Learning Projects For Senior Capstone Projects Paper presented at 2009 Annual Conference & Exposition, Austin, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--5593
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2009 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015