Sampling in the Field: A Case Study of Connecting Theory to Practice

The connection between practice and theory is essential in promoting student engagement, perception, and understanding, yet in lab exercises students are often given an artificial sample lacking in any real world connections. Although experimental procedures performed in the lab may provide cognitive benefits for students, the theory behind the methods might be lost when no connection is made to real world scenarios. One way to overcome these limitations is through applications and experiences for students at the undergraduate level through field work. This paper presents an effort to introduce junior and senior civil engineering students to real world based problems through the use of developed field studies, redefining the current pedagogy of lab studies. Students from three different lab sections of an introduction to environmental engineering lab course visited different locations along the Canyon Lakes system located in Lubbock, Texas that acts as a final cleaning step for discharged wastewater, and they were tasked to sample the lake water and take in field test results for certain water quality parameters. The locations along the lake were chosen in order for students to see a contrast in water quality parameters along the flow of the system. Samples were taken at the site of discharge, one section in the middle of the system, and one section towards the end of the lake system. Students were given background information and asked to develop a study question to be used across all three lab sections. Students over the semester analyzed their field sample for different water quality parameters and determined whether the lake system’s water quality parameters were affected as you traveled down the watershed. Data collected from their sample was then gathered into a larger data set representing data from all three lab sections and the three lake sites. Students were then given the task of analyzing and reporting the data throughout the semester. To examine the relationship between field work and student attitudes and perception on field studies, students in an environmental engineering laboratory course were assigned a reflection paper before and after performing the field work exercise. Further reflection was given by the instructor of the lab course on student’s performance, attitudes, and the instructor’s perception of the field study. Final results revealed a positive response by both students and instructors in regard to field studies being implemented in lab courses.