Competition as an Innovative Student-centered Learning Method for Open-ended Laboratory Work

One of the courses introduced to second year students of Civil and Structural Engineering program at the Department of Civil and Structural Engineering is Civil Engineering Materials and Technology. One of the learning method components is the laboratory work where students do practical work in designing and testing concrete. Improvements on method of handling the laboratory work have been done to facilitate student-centered learning process. One such method is to give open ended project. Meanwhile, a small number of the second year students are actively participating in sustainable concrete cube, concrete canoe and concrete Frisbee competition held by American Concrete Institute (ACI) Malaysia Chapter, Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia and Universiti Teknologi Petronas Malaysia. Analysis on the cognitive, psychomotor and affective domain of learning achieved by these few students, the department decided to adopt this innovative student-centered learning for Civil Engineering and Materials Technology course laboratory work.