New as a College Instructor

[Bash]

Hi all,

First I want to thanks for all information that you all shared.
I am going to start to teach Concrete Repair in local civil engineering college, and the course has a group project that the students need to finish within 5 weeks window.
My question for anybody who is teaching a similar topic, how could I design a group project for student to cover concrete repair? Could you please share any ideas?
I don't think I will be able to ask for case studies as they will not be able to get the information needed

Thanks,

[mamselle]

Welcome to the forum!

I can't answer your direct questions, but it's good to have you here.

M.

[San Joaquin]

In research methods I give them a question and ask them to apply what they have learned by designing how they would do the project in a much detail as possible.  Would that be practical for your situation?

For groups, it's important to be able to allocate credit for individual effort as well as collective accomplishment.  You can use a form of peer evaluation to support that, with a response form you design, for example.

I'm sure other ideas will flow in from this creative crowd.  Best wishes!

[Ruralguy]

They might not be able to read case studies, but could you come up with a half dozen or so pseudo case studies that represent , say, the 6 most common situations that lead to necessity of concrete repair (just off the top of my head, something like high saline environment near coast, general erosion, impact, etc.)? Have them think about it theoretically (the physics and chem behind it) , and then speak to why different types of situations need different approaches to repair (assuming they do), and then simulate the repair as best as possible (that is, have them actually repair concrete from that sort of situation). It would be nice if they could get some sort of lab measurement out of it too.

[marshwiggle]

They might not be able to read case studies, but could you come up with a half dozen or so pseudo case studies that represent , say, the 6 most common situations that lead to necessity of concrete repair (just off the top of my head, something like high saline environment near coast, general erosion, impact, etc.)? Have them think about it theoretically (the physics and chem behind it) , and then speak to why different types of situations need different approaches to repair (assuming they do), and then simulate the repair as best as possible (that is, have them actually repair concrete from that sort of situation). It would be nice if they could get some sort of lab measurement out of it too.

This gave me the idea of having them walk around campus and identify (with photographs) examples of places where concrete needs repair, and as Ruralguy suggested, discuss the likely cause of each specific type of damage (water erosion, heavy traffic, etc.) to tie in with the discussion about how to address each situation.

[Bash]

Welcome to the forum!

I can't answer your direct questions, but it's good to have you here.

M.

Thank you!

[Bash]

In research methods I give them a question and ask them to apply what they have learned by designing how they would do the project in a much detail as possible.  Would that be practical for your situation?

For groups, it's important to be able to allocate credit for individual effort as well as collective accomplishment.  You can use a form of peer evaluation to support that, with a response form you design, for example.

I'm sure other ideas will flow in from this creative crowd.  Best wishes!

Thank you, I like the idea of using form of peer evaluation

[Bash]

They might not be able to read case studies, but could you come up with a half dozen or so pseudo case studies that represent , say, the 6 most common situations that lead to necessity of concrete repair (just off the top of my head, something like high saline environment near coast, general erosion, impact, etc.)? Have them think about it theoretically (the physics and chem behind it) , and then speak to why different types of situations need different approaches to repair (assuming they do), and then simulate the repair as best as possible (that is, have them actually repair concrete from that sort of situation). It would be nice if they could get some sort of lab measurement out of it too.

Thank you! Actually what you mentioned above is very helpful
I will start to put a plan for it, I want the students to be able to identify the problem, analyze it and suggest a solution/repair

[Ruralguy]

Oh, and if you can have someone in the business (or someone additional if you already are) talk about certain aspects, that could be helpful.