Education/Outreach


CBBG faculty and students are dedicated to using their research to inspire future civil engineers and inform the public. A variety of CBBG educational and outreach activities occur at UCD, from training graduate students to promoting diversity in engineering.

Encouraging CBBG Graduates to Connect Research to Education

A newly developed course introduces graduate students to education concepts, such as active learning and assessing student outcomes, so that they can develop effective, purposeful outreach activities. In the course, students work alone or in teams to develop K-12 or undergraduate educational modules related to their research.


Picture 1_ Watershed & Contour Map Module at Picnic Day 2016Picture 2_ Make Your Own Earthquake Module in Action at Picnic Day 2016


Girls in Engineering

A primary motivation of CBBG outreach activities is to increase the number of women in civil engineering by understanding and reducing barriers to entry. In Summer 2016, the CBBG is implementing a summer day camp and a workshop for middle school teachers. Both week-long events will introduce participants to center related research topics through the educational modules developed by graduate students and discuss strategies for reducing barriers to women in engineering.

The Girls Saving the World through Sustainable Engineering Day Camp will be held from July 25 to July 29, 2016 (2016 Flyer). The 2016 camp is full. Information about future events will be posted on this site.

Sustainable Engineering Workshop for Middle School Teachers (2016 Flyer) will be held from July 18 to July 22, 2016 at UC Davis. Collaborations between K-12 teachers, faculty and graduate students will lead to engineering lesson plans that align with grade-specific criteria in the Next Generation Science Standards.


Undergraduates Opportunities for Research

Center faculty and graduate students mentor undergraduates each summer through a NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program, which provides an opportunity for students from other universities to participate in research at UCD. Graduate students involved with the CBBG Student Leadership Council (SLC) have developed curricular materials to introduce REU students to CBBG research areas.

REUs at UC Davis

  • Alana Erickson (2016), Mentors: Doug Nelson and Charles Graddy, “Tracking Change in Microbial Communities and Activities During Biocementation Treatment”
  • Chelsea Obeidy (2016), Mentors: Jason DeJong and Michael Gomez, “Self-Equilibration of Biocementation Improvement in Heterogeneous Soils”
  • Mark Santiago (2016), Mentors: Jason DeJong, Dan Wilson and Matt Burrall, “Exploring Novel Foundation Designs Inspired by Tree Root Topology”

Sharing Knowledge through Webinars

Faculty and students at all four universities participate in webinars on technical and professional development topics. Recent webinars featuring UCD presenters are listed below.

  • Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment by Prof. Alissa Kendall
  • Geotechnical Centrifuge Modeling by Dr. Dan Wilson

Outreach Activities

Picnic Day 2016: UCD Geotechnical and Water Resources graduate students run four hands-on activities for kids (and parents) to learn about watersheds, earthquake waves, and designing safer buildings.

Picture 3_ Future Engineers Retrofitting Buildings for Earthquakes during Picnic Day 2016

Picture 4_ Demonstrating the Impact of Different Types of Earthquakes during Picnic Day 2016


 

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