Opening the classroom to the geo-profession: Web-based class projects on Geoenvironmental Remediation prepared by University of Michigan students are available for everybody to review!

Students from the University of Michigan who are taking this semester the graduate level course CEE 549 on “Geoenvironmental Engineering” have prepared their class projects on “Geoenvironmental Remediation” online.  Instead of having students prepare a class project report to himself, Prof. Zekkos, the instructor of the course, paired one geotechnical and one environmental student and asked them to prepare a project on the Internet. The student deliverable is now available to be read, reviewed and edited by research experts and experienced professionals in each remediation technique worldwide!

Each project has an “Add a comment” box at the bottom that allows the visitor, whether he/she is knowledgeable on the topic, to provide comments.  Any technical, editorial or other comments submitted online during the next two weeks, i.e., by next Wednesday 3^rd of April, will be addressed by the students. Students will have to respond to them and incorporate the necessary changes to their project. They will then finalize their project and also create a video. The web-based report and the video will remain online indefinitely providing useful technical content for geoenvironmental professionals worldwide.

“The motivation for this initiative is the research findings that students are more motivated, find a class more appealing, and learn better when class projects have an impact beyond the classroom and are viewed by more individuals than the instructor. I feel like I am opening my classroom to the world and so all that is exciting for me and the students” says Professor Zekkos.

Participating student teams and topics are:

• Sophia Aliotta & Josh Colley – Bioremediation
• Vidhya Ramalingam – Electrokinetic Remediation
• Lizzie Grobbel & Zhijie Wang  – Solidification
• Jonathan Hubler & Ken Metz – Soil Washing
• Adam Lobbestael & Elaine Wild - Vapor Extrusion
• Ian McCreery & Lukas Vander Linden  – Thermal Desorption
• Zhi Li & Tianshu Zhang – Vitrification
• Stefano Bruni & Darin Mcleskey – Phytoremediation
• Heidi Pence & Lauren Zwang - Permeable Reactive Barriers
• David Quintal & Margarita Otero – Impermeable Barriers

The class projects are available here.

The web-based platform that was used was developed by Geoengineer.org with partial funding from the ASCE Geo-Institute.

Source: Geoengineer.org