Afrin, T., & Swenty, M. K., & Martin, R. L., & Newhouse, C. D. (2024, March), Restructuring VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Labs: A move worth to explore!   Paper presented at 2024 South East Section Meeting, Marietta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--45556

\bibitem{asee_peer_45556}
  Afrin, T., \& Swenty, M. K., \& Martin, R. L., \& Newhouse, C. D. (2024, March), \emph{Restructuring VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Labs: A move worth to explore! }
  Paper presented at 2024 South East Section Meeting, Marietta, Georgia.
  10.18260/1-2--45556

Tanjina Afrin, Matthew K Swenty P.E., Rebekah L Martin, and Charles D Newhouse P.E..  "Restructuring VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Labs: A move worth to explore! ".  2024 South East Section Meeting, Marietta, Georgia, 2024, March.  ASEE Conferences, 2024.  https://peer.asee.org/45556 Internet.  13 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_45556}
  Tanjina Afrin, Matthew K Swenty P.E., Rebekah L Martin, and Charles D Newhouse P.E..
  "Restructuring VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Labs: A move worth to explore! ".
  \emph{2024 South East Section Meeting, Marietta, Georgia, 2024, March}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2024.
  https://peer.asee.org/45556 Internet.  13 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_45556
author = "Tanjina Afrin, Matthew K Swenty P.E., Rebekah L Martin, and Charles D Newhouse P.E."
title = "Restructuring VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Labs: A move worth to explore! "
booktitle = "2024 South East Section Meeting"
year = "2024"
month = "March"
address = "Marietta, Georgia"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/45556}
number = {10.18260/1-2--45556}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - Starting in the Fall of 2021, the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department restructured its lab offerings. Previously, distinct lab courses were offered for Soil Mechanics, Material Science, and Water Resources.  Numerous stimuli caused the department to reconsider the content in the labs, the sequence of labs, and the timing of the labs.  Stimuli included a very tight schedule that prevented some students from taking all required labs on time, the desire to have labs that cover additional core topics in civil engineering, and faculty workload issues.  A new two-lab sequence was created for the third year of the civil engineering curriculum; the same year, students must take introductory courses in materials, structural, geotechnical, construction, transportation, and water resources engineering. Instead of having labs connected to each specific course, the restructuring connected labs with similar course content across the curriculum.  Topics in materials, structural, geotechnical, and engineering mechanics were moved to the first-semester lab course, whereas topics in geotechnical, environmental, and water resources were combined into the second lab course.
 
After three years of implementing this lab sequence, numerous observations have been made.  The logistics of mandating two labs instead of three or more has improved the scheduling conflict issue.  The labs now cover additional material on engineering mechanics, structural engineering, and environmental engineering.  In addition, more faculty are involved with the lab workload, most faculty have the opportunity to work with 3rd-year students, and the workload is more evenly distributed among faculty.  Students have also noted the labs help connect course content among different classes.  The downsides include more rigorous prerequisite requirements and the elimination of some content from previous labs.  This paper will explore the benefits and downsides of this restructuring from the faculty, accreditation data, and student perspectives.

AU  - Tanjina Afrin
AU  - Matthew K Swenty P.E.
AU  - Rebekah L Martin
AU  - Charles D Newhouse P.E.
CY  - Marietta, Georgia
DA  - 2024/03/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Restructuring VMI Civil and Environmental Engineering Labs: A move worth to explore! 
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/45556
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--45556
ER  -