Weeklong summer course introduces civil engineering to high schoolers

Over the summer, the Lyles School of Civil Engineering offered its newly-created one-credit course for high school students: Resiliency and Sustainability in Civil Engineering — Not just Buzzwords. The class attracted students from all around the world interested in learning more about the field.

"This was a great opportunity for our school to increase high school students' exposure to civil engineering in a way none of them have experienced before," said Sue Khalifah, Lyles School of Civil Engineering student experience director and course coordinator. "At Purdue, incoming first-year engineering students don't really get to experience what civil engineering is all about until their sophomore year. With this new summer course, our goal is to show students how diverse the field is and how it touches upon just about every facet of our daily lives."

The weeklong course covered topics related to hydrology, structures and transportation and strongly emphasized collaboration and interaction. Students were regularly placed into six-person teams and tasked to solve a problem and present their solutions to the class. PhD students Morgan Broberg, Abhinav Gupta and Abdullah Jalal Nafakh were instructors for the course. The three said they were able to take a lot from this experience and learned quite a bit themselves.

"Teaching this course increased my interest in possibly teaching civil engineering as a professor," Nafakh said. "This experience gave me a great sense of accomplishment in seeing the students grasp the material."

Purdue's Summer College for High School Students Fun-Sized courses were supposed to be held on the West Lafayette campus. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the team transitioned to an all-online format.

"This did not come as a complete surprise after campus closed in the spring, so we started working on the possibility of developing an online version of this course well ahead of time," Khalifah said. "We were in constant contact as we worked out how to keep the class as engaging as we planned."

Laboratory tours turned into virtual tours, guest speakers delivered pre-recorded messages, guest tour guides delivered live virtual tours from various landmark locations on campus, team projects became video conferences and the course instructors all learned more about video conferencing software than they ever imagined.

"I think we all pretty much became Zoom masters," Broberg said. "We used the video software as well as we possible could have. Honestly, I think the biggest issue we faced was finding the right time to hold the class for students who all lived in different time zones."

Gupta, who is set to earn his PhD in May, said he is interested in seeing the course develop further and intends to assist until he graduates.

"This was such a great experience for me and for the students," he said. "There is even greater potential for this class, and I am looking forward to seeing how much better it can be in the years to come."

The course will be offered again July 11–16. Developing Infrastructure for Tomorrow: An Introduction to Civil Engineering allows students to explore the multifaceted field of civil engineering and learn how to identify the needs of tomorrow's communities. Visit the website for more information and to register.

"The way the instructors kept us engaged and talking is one of the best ways to learn. This class really broadens people's perspectives and builds some skills that are important in real life."
- Class participant