This is an introductory course where students begin to develop the entrepreneurial mindset as they are introduced to, and explore, the specialty disciplines within the civil and architectural engineering and construction management disciplines. Individual lessons introduce students to a specialty within each discipline. Lessons include an introduction to the specialty, examples of typical activities within each discipline, hands-on activities, experiments, videos, games and site visits, engineering problems and a larger project application of the specialty. Sustainability considerations and ethical implications are discussed within each lesson. The term project is a large team project introduced early in the term connecting each discipline to a larger project.

The course contains 15 lessons. One of the lessons is provided in the Folders as an example. This example is taken from the environmental and water resources engineering lesson that occurs mid-way through the term. 

Typical Lesson Structure

Introduction to the engineering skillset. Introduction to a design specialty within civil and architectural engineering and construction management, and the roles a professional may have in industry. (50 minutes)

• Introduction may be the students first exposure to a design specialty
• Purpose is to help students understand more defined roles an engineer may have in industry
• Sustainable design concepts related to the design specialty are incorporated
• Ethics concepts related to the design specialty are introduced

Development of the engineering skillset. Introduction to engineering theory used to solve engineering problems within the design specialty and examples of engineering problems a professional would be responsible for solving. (50 minutes)

• Introduction of the theory utilized in a design specialty. The theory incorporates mathematics and science from the program curriculum into specialty specific engineering equations.
• The engineering theory is applied to engineering problems within the design specialty. A series of example problems are presented and solved.

Development of the entrepreneurial mindset. Applications of the engineering specialty outside the classroom, in a real-world environment. (50 minutes)

• Applications of the engineering specialty are demonstrated through hands-on activities, videos, experiments and design tools in the classroom and on the project site
• Actual design problems are presented and solved in the classroom
• Activities open the student’s curiosity by exposing different solutions and applications

Make connections. Application of the engineering specialty in the course design project. (50 minutes)

• Engineering solutions are applied to the course design project to encourage students to make the connection between the engineering design specialty and theory, to a real-world engineering project
• Students evaluate the impact of their design choices
• Students work as teams to solve project application problems