Get Your Feet Wet! – Experiential Learning Activities along Lost Creek

Since 2008, Lost Creek, a stream that runs through the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (RHIT) campus, has been utilized as an outdoor lab in Civil Engineering classes. Experiential learning activities have primarily been applied to a stream restoration course as part of a baseline monitoring program for the planned restoration of Lost Creek. The course is structured around conducting weekly field labs along Lost Creek. In this environmental river mechanics / stream restoration course, students are introduced through field labs to the concepts of fluvial geomorphology, aquatic ecosystems, and sediment transport for application in restoring impaired streams. During the quarter, the students make frequent visits to Lost Creek for the purpose of collection baseline monitoring data that is used to classify channel morphology and process, analyze stream habitat characteristics, estimate sediment transport, and analyze stream stability. The data collected during this course contributes to student learning, but also contributes to a growing database of pre-restoration monitoring of baseline conditions. By integrating experiential learning activities along Lost Creek into established civil engineering courses, we strive to enhance student knowledge of open channel hydraulics and environmental river mechanics. The effects of experiential learning activities on student learning of natural stream processes and stream restoration were measured through an analysis of the Index of Learning Styles and a qualitative assessment of student comments on course evaluations. Educational outcomes of experiential learning have been quite positive based on student feedback. The students commented that they gained a lot of valuable experience when conducting field surveys of stream geometry and sediment characteristics. During summer 2014, a restoration design will be implemented along Lost Creek, and future courses will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the restoration project with respect to stream stability. An analysis of the Index of Learning Styles and student evaluation comments will continue to be examined to determine the impact experiential learning activities have on the student learning. This has been and will continue to be a unique opportunity for students to be involved in a preand post-restoration monitoring program of a real world project. Introduction to Experiential Learning Activities As defined by the Association for Experiential Education, “Experiential education is a philosophy that informs many methodologies in which educators purposefully engage with learners in direct experience and focused reflection in order to increase knowledge, develop skills, clarify values, and develop people's capacity to contribute to their communities.” The Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) highlights “experience” as a key role in the learning process. The ELT process is an integrated cycle of gaining knowledge through a Concrete Experience (CE), upon which is the basis for Reflective Observation (RO), followed by gathering these reflections through Abstract Conceptualization (AC) to develop inferences and generate new experiences of Active Experimentation (AE). Teaching a course in environmental river mechanics / stream restoration provides an opportunity to incorporate experiential learning, as the direct experience of working in the field to collect and P ge 24642.2 analyze data is essential to a deeper understanding of stream processes. Throughout the course, we participate with the students in weekly field experiences of collecting measurements and visual observations along Lost Creek, coupled with report submittals that analyze and reflect upon the work completed. Although the RHIT Civil Engineering department incorporates hands-on, laboratory activities in other courses, including Hydraulic Engineering, Environmental Engineering, and Civil Engineering Materials, these are primarily conducted in an indoor, scaled laboratory setting. Because students in CE598-01 utilize Lost Creek, a full-scale stream, as their outdoor lab, they have the opportunity to work directly with a real, natural system, as opposed to a simulated or bench-scale system. This direct learning opportunity requires them to interpret and analyze processes in a real stream instead of a hypothetical situation or case. Prior work on experiential learning in higher education stresses the need to connect student learning styles with the learning environment. Additionally, experiential learning activities create more interaction between students and their instructors outside of the traditional classroom setting, which can help with anxiety among students and help instructors become more involved with students’ reactions to these learning experiences. This is the type of learning environment we’ve worked to create in CE598-01.