Location
Arlington, Virginia
Date
15 Aug 2008, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
Abstract
It is well understood that geotechnical engineering is a branch of civil engineering that requires most engineering judgment. However, the question remains, how to effectively convey this to the students who are used to learn from typical lectures, using textbook approach, i.e., explanation of basic concepts by the course instructor, solution of a lot of example problems with assumed parameters having straight forward steps and definite answers, solution of additional similar problems by students as a part homework assignments, and traditional exams. Case histories of geotechnical failures could play an invaluable role in training the geotechnical engineers for 21st century. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) offers a unique 3 credit hour course on geotechnical engineering in professional practice which is entirely based on practical aspects of geotechnical engineering. The course contents include learning from geotechnical engineering case histories. This paper presents information about the course and how case histories are used to train geotechnical engineers at SIUC.
Department(s)
Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
Meeting Name
6th Conference of the International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Publisher
Missouri University of Science and Technology
Document Version
Final Version
Rights
© 2008 Missouri University of Science and Technology, All rights reserved.
Creative Commons Licensing
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Document Type
Article - Conference proceedings
File Type
text
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Kumar, Sanjeev, "Geotechnical Failures: an Excellent Tool to Teach Geotechnical Engineering" (2008). International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering. 9.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/icchge/6icchge/session11/9
Geotechnical Failures: an Excellent Tool to Teach Geotechnical Engineering
Arlington, Virginia
It is well understood that geotechnical engineering is a branch of civil engineering that requires most engineering judgment. However, the question remains, how to effectively convey this to the students who are used to learn from typical lectures, using textbook approach, i.e., explanation of basic concepts by the course instructor, solution of a lot of example problems with assumed parameters having straight forward steps and definite answers, solution of additional similar problems by students as a part homework assignments, and traditional exams. Case histories of geotechnical failures could play an invaluable role in training the geotechnical engineers for 21st century. Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) offers a unique 3 credit hour course on geotechnical engineering in professional practice which is entirely based on practical aspects of geotechnical engineering. The course contents include learning from geotechnical engineering case histories. This paper presents information about the course and how case histories are used to train geotechnical engineers at SIUC.
