Background A state university's Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) programs initiated curricular reform efforts that incorporated systems thinking and service learning as part of a National Science Foundation Department Level Reform (DLR) grant. Purpose(Hypothesis) The purpose of this study was to examine changes in students' perceptions of engineers' social responsibilities and technical knowledge that were influenced by the programs' DLR curricula reforms. A secondary goal was to test the validity and reliability of a student attitude survey. Design/Method A longitudinal, concurrent, mixed method study was implemented over a four‐year period. A survey was developed and administered to 125 graduating CEE seniors. Qualitative analyses included open‐ended survey responses and interviews with faculty, students, and focus groups. Results Student attitudes declined during the first two years of implementation with students citing dissatisfaction with course changes. Yet, no statistically significant difference was found for students' self‐reported technical knowledge and social responsibilities by graduating class or major. Female students, however, showed a positive statistically significant difference in their self‐perceptions of increased technical knowledge and engineers' social responsibilities. Adoption of new language was noticeable for students in the Class of 2009, indicating that concepts of systems thinking and service learning were beginning to be assimilated. The student attitude survey was determined to be a valid and reliable instrument. Conclusion Students caught in the middle of program reform are likely to resist change and express dissatisfaction. Assessments of student attitudes allowed implementers to evaluate their reform efforts' successes and shortcomings and enabled them to adapt and modify their strategies accordingly.

No abstract

No abstract

[1] Groundwater biogeochemistry is adversely impacted when municipal solid waste leachate, rich in nutrients and anthropogenic compounds, percolates into the subsurface from leaking landfills. Detecting leachate contamination using statistical techniques is challenging because well strategies or analytical techniques may be insufficient for detecting low levels of groundwater contamination. We sampled profiles of the microbial community from monitoring wells surrounding a leaking landfill using terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP) targeting the 16S rRNA gene. Results show in situ monitoring of bacteria, archaea, and the family Geobacteraceae improves characterization of groundwater quality. Bacterial T-RFLP profiles showed shifts correlated to known gradients of leachate and effectively detected changes along plume fringes that were not detected using hydrochemical data. Experimental sediment microcosms exposed to leachate-contaminated groundwater revealed a shift from a b-Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria dominated community to one dominated by Firmicutes and d-Proteobacteria. This shift is consistent with the transition from oxic conditions to an anoxic, iron-reducing environment as a result of landfill leachate-derived contaminants and associated redox conditions. We suggest microbial communities are more sensitive than hydrochemistry data for characterizing low levels of groundwater contamination and thus provide a novel source of information for optimizing detection and long-term monitoring strategies at landfill sites.

No abstract