An Innovative Approach to Teaching Water Resources Design

A first semester, senior level civil and environmental engineering course, Water Resources Design is, for most, the first experience for students at Florida Gulf Coast University in working with non-trivial design projects. To make the course experience as transferable as possible to future graduate engineering employment, students learn and apply hydraulic software to project development and execution. The course takes an innovative case study approach with 5 design projects required with rotating teams assigned to each project. The projects are taken from "real world " engineering problem assignments which impart to students an appreciation of the constraints and uncertainties inherent in the design process. Project 1 necessitates a quantification and comparison of Capital costs and Operation and Maintenance Costs; Project 2 involves sizing of pipes, pumps and storage for a water distribution system; Project 3 requires a water treatment plant analysis to address two plant operation problems; Project 4 simulates a watershed; and the final design project is a detention pond design. The students soon realize that although there are specific goals to be met in a design, there are also inexplicit objectives requiring an evaluation of engineering uncertainties and engineering judgment in decision