Figuras 1 y 2. Test set up for torsion in tubes for the course of strength of materials and Test set up for a pure flexion test of a concrete beam as part of the course of concrete design.
Carlos Andrés Blandón
Estructuras y Construcción
Escuela de Ingeniería de Antioquia
Envigado, Colombia
Resumen
Nowadays engineering faces problems and challenges that in general have more complications and have different characteristics compared to those presented some decades ago. Life styles and current demands require engineers with strong technical background but also with social and communication skills. Engineer are required to have strong analytical skills, they are expected to be problem solvers, flexible and capable to adjust to quick technological changes.
In addition, nowadays knowledge of each discipline on civil engineering grows a fast pace. It is no longer possible to continue including contents to the courses and it is of little use keeping same contests of several years ago just by the concern that someday students may need to apply a particular concept or technique. It has been realized that to cope with continuously evolving engineering, it is of key importance providing students with strong basic mathematical and scientific concepts but more important is helping the student to develop the capacity of learning by themselves.
Proposal for three different aspects were included in this paper including modifications to the curriculum, teaching strategies and introduction of integral application projects. Some of these proposals have been partially implemented but additional effort has to be carried out to integrate them to the entire curriculum, in particular in the line of structural engineering.
Keywords : Civil engineering curriculum, Structural engineering lab, Teaching strategies.
1. Introduction
Traditional education system was established several centuries ago with the main aim of providing education to large groups of people with the less possible resources. The idea of educating the entire population was revolutionary given that during that period of history such privilege was available for a few fortunate. This system however has shown several drawback in modern history due dramatic changes in culture and technology. Poor student grades, school desertion, poor overall retention, lack of concepts understanding and student stress are evidence of such shortcomings from modern educational system and techniques.
Moreover, it is common to hear complaints from employers about the lack of quality of recent graduated students for both technical and personal skills. Engineering education has not been the exception and this is one of the main reasons there is a global effort to generate solutions to overcome the problems of the education system. There is a need for enhancing the skills that students should have to face the present and future challenges of the profession having in mind the large amount of constrains and uncertainties of modern world.
Leading engineers from different disciplines and fields of engineering have gathered together in different occasions to evaluate the current situation of their profession and to set visions of the engineering profession including the challenges at educational level for both students and faculty.
One of the main conclusions, obtained from one of these meetings, was the importance of making aware the future engineers that they will be the only responsible for their own continual education. This means that during their time at the university, students will not only acquire the basic principles of the profession but more important they should develop the ability to learn by themselves (NAE, 2004). The findings from this meeting, which covered all engineering professions, were similar to those reported from a similar exercise carried out for the civil engineering profession (ASCE, 2007).
In particular, both references previously mentioned, discuss the skills that future engineers should have. When comparing these reports, it is found that such abilities are practically the same in both cases. Among others, the principal characteristics of the 2020 (NAE, 2004) or the 2025 (ASCE, 2007) engineer include strong analytical skills, creativity, communication and social skills, business and management abilities and highly ethical principles.
To obtain such skills, in addition to the basic principles of the engineering discipline, engineers gathered in these exercises have found that there are several issues that have to be overcome by students, institutions and faculty. All of them must make an effort to achieve the goals in these visions.
In this paper, several tasks are proposed to help achieving the vision of this new generation of engineers. The proposals are focused specifically in the courses of structural analysis and design for civil engineering. Three different issues will be discussed including course content and demands due to time reduction, practical and active learning, real cases applications.
2. Proposals for improving student performance in the field of structural engineering
The report by the National Academy of Engineering calls the attention about the fact that, in general, engineering programs demand more time and effort than other professional degrees. To cope with this fact, the same reference mentions three possible solutions which include “(a) cut out some current requirements, (b) pestructure courses to teach them more effectively (c) increase time spent in school to become an engineering professional” (NAE, 2004). These issues, among others, will be discussed in the following sections.
2.1 Modifications to civil engineering courses Modification of curriculum is one of the different strategies that should be applied to achieve the goal of educating current and future engineers towards the desired vision of engineering and more specifically, civil engineering. Such changes have already been occurring. The work of Escamilla (2009) reports the history of changes occurred since the 1960´s in the curriculum of structural engineering. In the 60´s a total of nine courses were included in the area of structural engineering but this number has been decreasing until a final number of five in the recent years. Some of the courses have been completely taken out from the undergrad level and move to postgrad courses. The most basic courses have been reorganized to achieve a more effectively and more comprehensive way.
The current civil engineering curriculum in the EIA is characterized by a large amount of traditionally guided courses given very little space for flexibility. Contents of these courses in general are very extensive in particular for the structural engineering line. There are particular cases as the line of statistics, quantitative methods and simulation which have a total of 13 credits. This line has more credits that other particular lines more directly related to civil engineering such as pavements design, transit engineering and the line of geotechnical and foundation engineering. There are courses that are no more than a “just in case one day you need it”. This is the case of the course on electromagnetism and waves which has the same amount of credits as the statics course which is a fundamental course in the line of structural engineering. This example shows little balance in the curriculum, hence it is proposed to remove the course of electromagnetism and waves.
Structural engineering line has 16 credits followed the hydraulics line with 13 credits. Even if the author of this paper is part of the structural engineering line, it is clear that there is some unbalance in the curriculum that should be reevaluated. Curriculum in universities from USA and New Zealand include several integral design courses in his program. Such courses involve designing a project from scratch including, in addition from the technical aspects, social, economic, and legislative aspects.
In this paper it is proposed to include some flexibility to the curriculum to include integral design courses. The required space could be created by simplifying contents or by removing courses. Students that show particular interest in one area could take an optative design individual course in the related field of interest during his last year under the supervision of a faculty professor.
This proposal is not based only on intuition or experience but is also based on recommendations included in documents as the one presented by the National Academy of Engineering (2004) of the United States.
In addition to providing the basic concepts required to practice the profession of engineering, courses should also work towards the development of different skills required for the civil engineer professional. EIA Curriculum could help to achieve these skills. An interesting chart showing the contribution of each course to the final goals of educations can be found at http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/undergrad/curriculum/initiative.
2.2 Modifications to teaching strategies Teaching of subjects in the field of structural engineering has been based on a traditional “talk and chalk” strategy. Some years ago this was a very valuable approach given that in many cases the class was taught by an engineer with a vast experience in the field. Class was complemented in several cases by homework to solve practical exercises. Grading of the course was mainly based on written individual examination that required intensive preparation by the student. Even if this methodology was effective in many cases it proved to have several drawbacks.
Students were rarely motivated to learn about topics different from those given by the teacher. There were very few hands on experience leaving a gap between theoretical concepts and the actual physical phenomena. Students had to adjust to the teaching system and the teacher before feeling comfortable with the courses and the classes, even if in many cases this adjustment never happened. Classes covered a subject of the course but little contextualization was given to students which were not motivated to connect and analyze problems from an overall point of view. Individual work and evaluations did not help developing social, team work and communication skills. Limited space was limited to creative activities and research on related topics.
In order to enhance the efficiency of learning several approaches and activities have been incorporated in the different courses in the area of structural engineering taught at the EIA.
These changes are guided by recommendations of experts including seminars and written
references. One of the main guides used have been prepared by the Teaching and Learning Laboratory of the MIT (2011). Based on these guides, some activities have been incorporated as follows:
· Laboratory experience “Activities that are interesting and challenging, but which also create opportunities for students to have fun, can enhance the learning experience.” (TLL, 2011).
· Reading and free essays on related topics.“Students asked to perform research activities in their assignments have expressed surprise and excitement at the challenge of doing something different from a conventional assignment; at the same time, they reported that the work was stimulating and enjoyable” (McInnis et al, 2003).
· Field trips. “Learning is essentially a matter of creating meaning from the real activities of daily living. By embedding subject matter in the ongoing experiences of the learners and by creating opportunities for learners to live subject matter in the context of real-world challenges, knowledge is acquired and learning transfers from the classroom to the realm of practice.” (Stein, 1998).
· Guest for classes in different topics. “Assessment directly contributes to learning both by clarifying what is desirable or required and by closing a feedback loop between students’ learning efforts and their achievements. Telling students what is required will assist them to direct their learning efforts.” (Isaacs, 2001).
· Integral problem homework. “Learners construct meaning out of their prior understanding. Any new learning must, in some fashion, connect with what learners already know…learners construct their sense of the world by applying their old understanding to new experiences and ideas.” (Schulman,1999).
· Social service. “…engineers in 2020 who will remain well grounded in the basics of mathematics and science, and who will expand their vision of design through a solid grounding in the humanities, social sciences, and economics. Emphasis on the creative process will allow more effective leadership in the development and application of next-generation technologies to problems of the future.” (NAE, 2004).
· Multiple class teaching strategies. “Students learn in different ways and their learning can be better supported by the use of multiple teaching methods and modes of instruction (visual, auditory, kinaesthetic, and read/write).” (TLL, 2011).
“There are many roads to learning. People bring different talents and styles of learning to college. Brilliant students in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio. Students rich in hands-on experience may not do so well with theory. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then they can be pushed to learn in new ways that do not come so easily.” (Chickering and Gamson, 1987).”
Even if it would be possible to introduce even more techniques it requires time and progressive evaluation of the achievements obtained by the methods under implementation or already implemented. In the future, additional strategies will be evaluated. In the following paragraphs, each of the methodologies under implementation and already implemented are briefly described.
· Laboratory experience includes the fabrication of simple and complex prototypes,
theoretical predictions, experimental verification, group discussion, written reports, data reduction and analysis. Laboratory guides have been developed for the courses of strength of materials, concrete design, and structural design. Guidelines for the course of structural analysis are still under development.
For the course of strength of materials, four practical laboratories have been incorporated namely (a) stress characterization and material mechanical properties, (b) torsion in tubes, (c) Beams in flexion, and (d) principal strains and stresses. Test set ups have been built from scratch and with local supplier in order to set an example to students about creativity and local engineering, even if sometimes set up does not work correctly the first time. Fig 1 shows the test set up for the lab of torsion in tubes.
The course of concrete design involves a lab on beam flexure. This requires the design, construction and testing of concrete beams. Each specimen is designed to fail under different failure modes. A prediction of the behavior is required before conducting the test. Beams are built from scratch. Students have to coordinate the construction of formwork, steel layout, fabricate stir ups and hooks, prepare concrete mix, pouring the concrete, testing the mix and testing the beam. This activity requires intense physical effort so students have at least a limited
experience about the work that has to be carried out by workers involved in construction projects. Due to the large amount of work required this lab is carried out during the entire semester. Fig 2 shows the test set up and testing of one of the beams carried out by the students.
The course on structural design involves three different lab activities including (a) response of single degree of freedom systems, (b) response of multiple degree of freedom systems, and (c) design of reinforced concrete beams with seismic detailing. Fig 3 shows a test carried out by students on a balsa wood building.
In all cases, sensors and data acquisition set up complement the lab practice. Students are introduced to this technology which nowadays is becoming more popular and can be found in diverse applications in real structures.
Even if not all the laboratories have been a success and set ups still require adjustments, students have had the opportunity to interact and close the gap between theory and real life situations. Feedback from students is scatter. Some students enjoy the activities and get involved in the ejection of the tests while there are others that would prefer to skip coming to the lab. Figures 1 to 3
Whatever the preference, lab activities constitute an important approach to achieve one of the main characteristic required for a civil engineer according to ABET. Requirements from this organization include among others “…the ability to conduct laboratory experiments and to critically analyze and interpret data in more than one of the recognized major civil engineering areas…”. (ABET, 2010).
Fig. 1. Test set up for torsion in tubes for the course of strength of materials.
Fig. 2. Test set up for a pure flexion test of a concrete beam as part of the course of concrete design.
Fig. 3. Test set up for the lab of multiple degree of freedom systems as part of the course of structural design.
· Reading and free essays on related topics is one important activity aimed to develop research, comprehension and report writing skills. It also allows students to have a broader view of the field and promote interest in topics out of the scope of the course. In this activity that is assigned to the students least once for each course, groups are formed to read and discuss about a specific topic. Some examples of contents on previous reports are: design of maritime structures, high rise buildings, architectonic concrete, structural design of dams, etc. This methodology has used only for the course of structural design.
· Field trips provide students with an insight of the real practice of engineering. At least one activity of this kind is included for each course which includes visiting existing or under construction building or bridges under the supervision of site engineers and designers. These activity helps linking the course content to real practice applications.
· Guests are invited to give lectures and share experiences in different topics related to the course. Exposing the students to talks of practical engineers test their knowledge and make them exercise the new acquired language. Guest often challenge the students to learn more about the subject and calls the attention about the concepts that should be learnt and skills that should be developed.
· Integral problem homework consists on a specific study case that has to be solved as the course advances. This activity contextualizes the students and builds knowledge step by step. Such problem has been used in the course of structural design but could be implemented as one single problem starting at the course of structural analysis.
· Social service has been included in the activities of the structural design course. In coordination with the office of risk mitigation and disaster prevention of Envigado, the students have participated in field surveys of buildings located in areas defined as zones of high vulnerability. Students have applied concepts acquired during the course of structural engineering in the evaluation of building vulnerability. Results from the survey have been used as key information for the city POT. These activities also are aimed to contextualizing the students to the reality of the city they live and to create interest in public policy and involvement
in the public sector.
· Multiple class teaching strategies are continuously used during lectures. These
methodologies include presentations, questions, practical exercises, videos, individual and group work. There is still a large amount of work to do in order to successfully achieve a balance between the different strategies and reaching the aim of enhancing student retention and understanding.
2.3 Introduction of integral application projects As previously mentioned, one of the main drawbacks of traditional teaching methodology is the difficulty to create the ability of student to connect concepts and think in an overall context.
Students are used to take and pass courses without realizing that concepts learnt will be used in the following courses. In addition, during the first years there is a poor connection between the course contents and real engineering applications.
One alternative that could be used to create a link between the different courses and motivate students from the first year of school would be direct application activities. It would be possible to exercise the inherent creativity from young students, plus the theories and concepts recently acquired, by applying all of them to an integral project that covers the different areas of civil engineering.
In the first year of school, students are involved in an activity with these characteristics in the course of introduction to engineering. Such activity could be integrated to the rest of the curriculum as it has been the case of other engineering programs offered by the EIA.
3. Conclusions
After analyzing and evaluating recommendations and guides form different sources, it is clear that it necessary to introduce modifications to the civil engineering curriculum. Proposals for modifications in three aspects were briefly discussed including modifications in the general course content, teaching strategies and introduction of courses based on integral design problems.
Even if some items on the proposal have been introduced to specific courses on the line of structural engineering, it is required to make some more integral modifications to the curriculum.
Such modifications include articulation between courses to enhance retention, balance the different areas of knowledge in civil engineering and open spaces for courses based on integral design and problem solutions.
Courses also need to clearly state, not only the technical abilities of the specific field, but how are they going to contribute to develop skills required in future civil engineering professionals including analytical and lab skills, written and oral communication, ethical principles, creativity, multidisciplinary work, understanding engineering solution in global and societal contexts and self-learning capacity among others.
4. References
ABET (2010). Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, Engineering Accreditation
Commission, Baltimore.
Uribe, J. (2009). Propuesta de una Nueva Metodología Para la Enseñanza de la Ingeniería
Estructural. XVIII Jornadas Estructurales de la Ingeniería en Colombia y VI Jornadas de Estructuras Metálicas. Bogotá, Septiembre.
Chickering, A. & Gamson, Z. (1987). Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education, AAHE Bulletin, vol. 39, no. 7, p. 6.
National Academy of Engineering (2004). The Engineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century. Washington, DC. Autor.
American Society of Civil Engineers (2007). The Vision for Civil Engineering in 2025: Based on the Summit on the Future of Civil Engineering -2025. Virginia. Autor.
McInnis, C., Freestone, R., Bafnara, A., Scoufis, M. & Pratt, C., (2009). Exploring the Nexus Between Research and Teaching in the Learning Community: First Explorations of the Research-Teaching Nexus at UNSW, The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. Editors.
Stein, D. (1998). Situated Learning in Adult Education. ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult Career and Vocational Education, Columbus OH.
Schulman, L. (1999). Taking Learning Seriously, Change, vol., 31, no. 4, p. 12.
Isaacs, G. (2001). Assessment for Learning. The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Teaching and Learning Laboratory (2011). Guidelines on Learning that Inform Teaching at MIT. Recuperado el 1 de agosto de 2011. http://web.mit.edu/tll/teachingmaterials/
guidelines.html
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario