Impact of Nanotechnology on Future Civil Engineering Practice and Its Reflection in Current Civil Engineering Education
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 137, Issue 3
Abstract
Current civil engineering education should address the need to provide a broad vision, develop the higher-order skills of future civil engineers, enable them to adopt emerging technologies, and formulate innovative solutions to complex problems. This paper introduces relevant nanotechnology developments to convey the new vision and inspire creativity in civil engineering. It also presents a pedagogical framework for integrating nanotechnology education into a civil engineering curriculum and cultivating self-regulated learning and creativity skills for civil engineering students. The pedagogical framework includes the introduction of nanotechnology innovations and other relevant innovative technologies, and explicit instructions on cognitive strategies for facilitating and inspiring self-regulated learning and creativity. It is implemented with problem/project-based learning for a cocurricular project that requires self-regulated learning and creativity. This pedagogical framework provides a model for integrating emerging technology education and higher-order skill development into existing engineering curriculum. The outcomes from the implementation of the pedagogical framework are presented, and their further improvements are discussed.
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Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Division of Engineering Education and Centers of the National Science Foundation under the grant NSFEEC-0634279. Any opinions, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We would like to thank Dr. Jin-song Pei, who provided the implementation results from the University of Oklahoma, and the project’s external advisors for their contributions and support in the implementation of the new course modules described in this paper.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 137 • Issue 3 • July 2011
Pages: 162 - 173
Copyright
© 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 26, 2008
Accepted: Mar 27, 2010
Published online: Apr 6, 2010
Published in print: Jul 1, 2011
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