International Water Development

Undergraduate course, University of California -- Berkeley, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2018

I designed the curriculum for and led a for credit, pass/fail course for lower division Berkeley undergraduate students.

Course Description

This course addresses all aspects of design, analysis, construction, sustainability and finances of water distribution and purification systems in developing countries. It begins with an examination of fundamental design tools such as AutoCAD, and the capabilities and limitations that exist in development engineering. Water flow and distribution are evaluated across the entire system, and students will learn how to conduct water quality testing. The construction as well as the operations and maintenance of the system will be studied. Fundraising and economic concerns will also be considered. Students work in teams to design, build and implement a functioning water distribution system for one of two international Projects.

Responsibilities

Curriculum design, course lecture creation, creation of homework assignments, grading and course management.

Evaluations

No official evaluations were required for this course, however I collected feedback to improve my teaching. Full results are available in materials below. Students were anonymously asked questions to rate on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best.

Question	Average Score
Did you learn new skills or information as a result of the course?	3.87
Did you find that the homeworks made you think critically/helped you learn more about the material or development in general?	3.26
How would you rate the quality of the instructor?	4.33
How would you rate the quality of the course, given the limitations that exist?	3.6
Did you like the final project/find it productive and helpful for you and the team?	4.1

Selected Quotes: “I thought the final project was really effective in getting us to research a topic and simultaneously contribute to EWB as a whole. Loved Tyler he was a fantastic teacher” “I think that the homework was informative and actually forced me to learn things.”

One of the things I most learned from the comments was that making certain lectures more interactive wouldve been helpful. Also working on homework materials that require more critical thinking.