Project Based Learning in Concrete Industry Project Management

A Project Based Learning (PBL) method has been implemented in a project management course that is geared towards the concrete industry. This course is a junior level course that is required for all Concrete Industry Management (CIM) students; a bachelor’s of science degree that is offered at Texas State University. A PBL method was employed that utilized an actual concrete construction project from a local construction company. The students were introduced to the construction project early in the semester by the president of the construction company. The objective of this research is to determine the effectiveness of using actual, in-the-field projects that represent what the students will encounter once they graduate. The students received photographs of the concrete construction project, engineering documents and specifications, drawings and reports in addition to an introduction and question/answer period with the president of the company that implemented the project. Additionally, included in this study is a milestone formatting technique used for the project. The students were assigned milestone deliverables to be submitted shortly after the lecture covering the required topic was completed, in addition to one project packet due at the end of the semester. This ensured the topic was fresh in their memory when the required task was due and also provides an additional opportunity to improve on their project. Pre and post questionnaire analysis were provided to the students to acquire data regarding the implemented teaching method. The results showed that the students favored both the actual concrete construction project and the milestone deliverable method. Introduction to Project Based Learning Project-based learning (PBL) involves assignments that call for students to produce something, such as a process or product design, a computer code or simulation, or the design of an experiment and the analysis and interpretation of the data. The culmination of the project is normally a written or oral report summarizing what was done and what the outcome was. Quite simply, PBL is a pedagogical model that organizes learning around projects. Thomas suggests the following attributes in regard to the question “what must a project have in order to be considered an instance of PBL?. These include: • PBL projects are central, not peripheral to the curriculum. • PBL projects are focused on questions or problems that “drive” students to encounter (and struggle with) the central concepts and principles of a discipline. • Projects involve students in a constructive investigation. • Projects are student driven to some extent. • Projects are realistic, not school like. PBL has been increasingly applied in higher education. The use of PBL helps students develop a range of skills, including problem solving, group working, critical analysis, and communication. In the past two decades PBL has found application in construction management programs. Some examples include: P ge 26262.2 • At Plymouth University, U.K. PBL was used in a sustainable building course. The project involved a real world ‘design and build’ project for a waterfront development. • At Youngstown State University, PBL was used in a first course in LEED. • At the University of Colorado, PBL was used in the construction management of community building projects. • At Indiana University – Purdue University, PBL was used in courses entitled “Mechanical Systems in Buildings”, “Construction Field Operations”, and “Foundation Systems”. In this paper the application of PBL in a project management course is described. Evolution of the Course and Details of PBL Implementation Understanding the Concrete Construction System is a required course for all Concrete Industry Management (CIM) majors and is a specialty class that is primarily focused on construction project management with an emphasis on the concrete industry. The students enrolled in this course are at the junior level and have previously taken the fundamentals of concrete and construction materials and processes courses. This course focuses on the management side of the concrete discipline. Additionally, the CIM program is a unique program, in that it specifically prepares individuals for employment in the concrete industry such as readymix concrete operations, contracting, material supply, precast and pre-stressed concrete, and engineering material quality control. The CIM program is also unique nationwide, in that there are only three other schools that offer the degree plan. The CIM program has been at Texas State University since 2009 and has been growing since its inception. The program is accredited by the National Steering Committee (NSC) of CIM, which consists of top-level executives of the national concrete industry. The NSC first developed the CIM degree in 1996 at Middle Tennessee State University and provides accreditation standards and criteria for all four schools. These accreditation criteria in turn translate into learning course outcomes that involve student understanding and application of the construction methodology, project participants, delivery methods, construction estimates and schedules. The learning outcomes ensure that the students will be successful professionally in the future. Therefore, it is important that the learning outcomes are emphasized in the course content. This teaching method is designed to accentuate the course outcomes through PBL and “milestone” task formatting. A PBL method was employed that utilized an actual concrete construction project from a local construction company. The students were introduced to the required project on the first day of class. On this day the students were provided with the project requirements and any supplemental information including a pre-project questionnaire to gauge their learning and comprehension. At this time the students were also randomly assigned to groups of three. The additional supplemental information the students received included actual photographs of the concrete construction project, engineering documents such as structural drawings and engineer’s report and assessment. On the second day of the course the project was further introduced with greater detail by the president of the construction company that implemented the project. The introduction included a question and answer session. This allowed the students to acquire a first hand knowledge of the project and access to a construction professional with over 30 years of P ge 26262.3 experience. The hypothesis was that by using an actual, in-the field project, as opposed to a textbook problem, the students learning and understanding would be enhanced. For this PBL method, the students were assigned milestone deliverables to be submitted shortly after the lecture covering the required topic was completed, as opposed to one project packet due at the end of the semester. This ensured the topic was fresh in their memory when the required task was due. Additionally, the practical relevance of each lecture topic was made apparent to the student. The realization of the one-to-one relationship between lecture and practice provides an incentive for students to treat the lecture with increased attention. The milestone deliverables were completed in the same three person groups, but were counted as homework assignments in the course. These deliverables were then graded and discussed in class and returned to the students. This allowed the students the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and be able to improve on their overall project. The project involved concrete structural rehabilitation of an equipment warehouse completed in Bastrop, TX by Gaeke Construction Inc. in 2011. The warehouse, owned and used by a local electric cooperative company, was built to store large equipment and tools. In 2010, the owners noticed large cracks in the concrete slab that was due to a substantial upheave on the slab itself. It was determined that the warehouse was built on expansive clays that, when wet, expanded and forced the concrete slab upwards and caused the slab to crack and be uneven. Gaeke Construction Inc. was then hired to fix the problem. The rehabilitation of the slab included removal of a large portion of the slab from the center of the warehouse, removing a substantial portion of the expansive clays to minimize potential future expansion, replacing the expansive clays with select fill, epoxying and sealing the existing cracks on the existing concrete footers, and casting a new slab over the newly compacted select fill. The students were walked through this entire process by the President of Gaeke Construction and had access to the existing construction documents. The overall goal of the project is to have the student teams act as a general contractor “company” that is competing to win the job for their company. Each student “company” submitted their project as if they were submitting an actual bid package to the owner of the warehouse, which in this case the ‘owner’ was the professor of the course (Torres). The winning team was selected based on overall completeness, thoroughness, and organization of their project. The students were given no formal formatting guidelines and were left to their own professional judgment on formatting and presentation. During each milestone topic lecture the students were also presented with real-world construction documents not related to the project warehouse, but could be used as formal formatting aides. Since the students were provided the opportunity to see real-world construction documents they gained the experience and an understanding of each document that they would encounter in their future career. They also learned how to formally present, organize, and articulate the necessary information required for each construction document. The project milestone breakdown is as follows: Milestone 1: Soil Characteristics and Recommendation The purpose