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This semester, A.B. engineering major Nicholas Keppel ’08 (Coplay, Pa.) is working on independent research with Arthur Kney, associate professor of civil and environmental engineering, to explore and develop the framework for software that might aid in the education of civil engineers.
The software, Brownfield Action, is a web-based, interactive, 3-D digital space and learning simulation in which students form environmental consulting “companies” and work together to investigate contaminated real estate.
Keppel and Kney have been collaborating with Peter Bower, senior lecturer of environmental science at Barnard College, and the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. The program has been in use at Barnard for six years and, in that time, has been established as a highly successful pedagogical model for teaching introductory environmental science. Along with Barnard and Lafayette, it is also currently in use at Connecticut College.
In Brownfield Action, students conduct a Phase One Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) by reconstructing a detailed narrative of their site’s contamination. How successfully and cost-effectively each student “company” achieves this is up to how they navigate the program’s diverse forms of evidence, including socio-historical information and a diverse set of measurement tools to probe the 3-D dataset comprised of over two million data points.
While there is essentially only one “correct” answer or reality, the location and source of the contamination, there are countless ways students can reach this conclusion. The variations are entirely dependent upon how they gather, store, and manipulate their data. Brownfield Action provides valuable practice at tackling the complexity and ambiguity of a large-scale interdisciplinary science problem.
Keppel is working to develop three variations of the course. The first variation will be an introduction to ESAs for Introduction to Environmental Engineering, taught by Kney. Being taught in one class lecture and two laboratory periods, it will give students a brief understanding of how to go about doing an ESA by interfacing with the virtual program.
The second variation will be to implement a stronger presence of the virtual program in an ESA course taught by Kney. Keppel will work to put together daily class lectures and exercises that will better integrate the virtual program with class activities.
Finally, Keppel will put together a series of lectures and activities for professionals that might be interested in learning how to do ESA as defined by ASTM 1527, a standardized approach used by the industry. Keppel will be working with an outside consultant, Newton Engineering, to construct a short course appropriate for professionals.
Keppel is also working with an evaluation specialist at Columbia to develop tools to judge the effectiveness of these designed lectures and activities. Current tools that have been identified are simple questionnaires for students.
Kney became involved with the development of the Brownfield Action program after attending a workshop in 2001. He thought there was “a direct application of the program in [his] classes” and has been working with the program ever since.
He feels that this is a great experience for Keppel. “Nick’s work is significant in many ways. Nick has better defined who he is and what he wants to become and the virtual program for ESA is the first of it kind. I think it will help students and professionals better prepare and understand how to go about doing ESA.”
“This project is one that Nick really enjoys and one that I believe has helped him better define what it is he would like to do with his life,” says Kney. “Being a water guy, I kind of look at this moment in Nick’s life as a ‘watershed’ moment. I am very proud of what Nick has become.”