Making the Abstract Concrete: A Project-Based Laboratory Activity on Concrete Manufacturing for Civil Engineering Students

ABSTRACT

We explored whether a project-based approach and experiential-learning activity would improve learning of complex concepts related to concrete manufacturing in the workplace. We designed a group-based laboratory activity, followed by student-peer teaching and marking and a final report writing task, based on the job of a concrete technician/engineer in a concrete production plant. An action research approach was used to assess student satisfaction (N = 269), their perception of the learning experience, and the impact on their grades. There were four data sources Observations made by lecturers and TAs, standardised student evaluations, a targeted survey, and course grades. We correlated measures of student peer -teaching with academic output. Students were satisfied overall with the activity and their perceptions of experiential-learning were positive. The student peer-teaching activity needs improvements. Despite extra online-learning resources provided to compensate for Covid disruptions, students were more satisfied with the in-person activity than with the on-line counterpart. Our positive results suggest that student learning about concrete manufacturing improves when complex theory is integrated with practical learning activities using a project-based approach. We will further modify and integrate learning activities based on these results in our new multi-disciplinary learning spaces.