Project Summary

Project Need

Faculty in Humboldt State University.s Environmental Resources Engineering (ERE) program want to revitalize two introductory courses-- Introduction to Environmental Resources Engineering and Science and Introduction to Design--to better prepare students to solve the difficult interdisciplinary problems of the 21rst century.

Project Goals and Objectives

We will redesign these courses to provide integrated, interdisciplinary approaches to solving environmental problems, including:

1. interdisciplinary presentation of environmental and human systems via hands-on team projects, field and lab experiences,
2. clear presentation of course requirements and careers available to environmental
   scientists and resource engineers, and
3. development of computational, technical communication and teamwork skills through projects, field and lab experiments.

These courses will give students the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need to be successful in their majors.

Project Approach

We will modify existing curricula to incorporate the Studio Teaching and Just-In-Time Teaching (JiTT) approaches, and PROMISE Project materials. We will use webbased course software and the new ERE Design Studio to integrate technology into the curriculum.

The project addresses NSF.s themes of diversity and integration of technology in the curriculum. The two PIs are women in a field where women are underrepresented; the PROMISE curriculum is more inclusive of underrepresented groups in SMET areas. Both JiTT and Studio Teaching require the integration of technology in the classroom. Project Dissemination: Upon project completion, course modules containing engineering curricula will be made available through course web pages, presentations at national
meetings, on- and off-campus faculty development workshops, and journal publications.

The full proposal is available as a pdf file.