Sponsor: Federal Highway Administration
PI: Robin Tuchscherer
Co-PIs: Benjamin Dymond, Joshua Hewes
Traditionally, undergraduate engineering students view their course work as a
necessary means toward a degree. At which point, they enter the workforce and learn what it
“really takes” to be an engineer. They do not necessarily view the knowledge acquired as the
important means toward the foundational theoretical and mathematical principles needed to be
an engineer. Thus, there is a need for an engineering program that provides skills which are
more likely to be transferred to engineering practice.
In response, the goal of this project is to assess "Anchored Instruction" as a pedagogical
approach for modifying the course of study within an existing undergraduate civil engineering
curriculum such that fundamental engineering knowledge is better transferred between theory
and practice. The Anchor is a highly contextualized scenario or case that would realistically be
solved in practice by a bridge designer. Students use the details from the case or Anchor to
apply theoretical concepts. This project will anchor Statics, Mechanics of Materials, and
Structural Analysis to a bridge analysis Anchor, and Reinforced Concrete and Structural Steel to
a bridge design Anchor. An additional Bridge Design elective course will be provided as a
means of measuring students’ ability to ‘transfer’ the theoretical knowledge attained in their
foundational courses.