Integrating construction into a civil and environmental engineering curriculum

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy integrates construction engineering into its undergraduate curricula through a cycle of initial construction experience, engineering design courses, and a capstone construction engineering course. It begins with an introductory course in hands-on construction engineering at the Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory (FERL). The program continues with two years of a rigorous engineering design curriculum, and concludes with a capstone course that ties together engineering design and construction knowledge. This approach to integration affords an opportunity for the student to develop and appreciate the many connections between engineering principles and construction practices. Throughout the five-week FERL course, students work in teams to construct projects under the guidance of Air Force enlisted mentors. At the Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory, students gain practical construction experience, forming a foundation for better understanding in their design courses. The student's civil and environmental engineering courses follow in the two years between FERL and the capstone course. In the senior-level capstone course students bring everything together by planning the construction of a discipline-specific project (environmental, structural, or geotechnical), they designed in an earlier or concurrent course. Student teams learn to provide constructability/sustainability reviews, economic feasibility studies, work activities schedules, cost estimates, and site utilization/environmental plans. Students complete the course by briefing a multi-disciplinary panel that evaluates their construction management plans. This paper describes this approach to curriculum integration in more detail, focusing on the capstone course.