Applying Project Based Learning in an Undergraduate Design and Construction Program at Appalachian State University

Project based learning (PBL) fully engages students in the subject area, promotes teamwork, transdisciplinary collaboration, allows student teams to engage and solve community design problems and can ultimately lead to broader student worldviews. PBL, however, presents significant curricular challenges, including project definition and meaningful student assessment.

The authors began the process of exploring PBL through a National Science Foundation Transformation Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (TUES) award. The program was piloted for two semesters under the TUES award and has now completed its eighth semester overall operating as a special curricular track in parallel with an existing, traditional curricular program in Building Science. With four years of dedicated PBL program experience to inform their efforts, the authors are currently reworking the existing Building Science program curriculum to fully integrate a PBL capstone during the senior year while establishing a clear curricular path, creating a sound base of projects, and maintaining resource limits that include, but are not limited to, facilities, materials and personnel.

In this paper, the authors discuss their successes and difficulties with implementing PBL in an undergraduate design and construction program by reviewing twelve years of both spontaneous and planned project based PBL experiences in an undergraduate design and construction program.