High intense rainfall causes floods. Flooding in vulnerable river systems results in huge property damages. Proper understanding of watershed hydrology and river flow hydraulics is essential to flood plain management and mitigation. As a part of the civil engineering curriculum, students learn about these concepts. It is very difficult to create a lab module for a severe flooding scenario. However, new technological developments have made this possible. In this research study, a virtual 3D lab module was created for a watershed called the Little Calumet River System, located in Indiana. This river system drains to the Lake Michigan Watershed. Covering both urban and rural areas, this system was very severely flooded during the 2008 storm Ike. US Army Corps constructed a levee system for more than 20 miles inside the Indiana territory to mitigate the flood.
For this watershed system, a watershed rainfall runoff model was developed and calibrated using HEC HMS software and the hydraulic model was developed using HEC RAS software. Using the results of these simulation models, a virtual 3D model was developed in Unity 3D platform. Several scenarios were simulated. The model allows students to develop the simulation model and print the results in a text file format. The 3D model can then be run using these simulation results.
This 3D module was used in CE 34200 Hydrology and Hydraulics course as a lab module at Purdue Calumet. Simultaneously, at three other universities namely University of Kentucky, Florida Atlantic University and University of District Columbia, the lab module was used. Using pretest, posttest and surveys, the students were evaluated in all the four universities.
Using four semesters of data collection, an analysis of the use of the 3D module was conducted. A total of 128 students participated in the study. Forty-five students were in a control group that did not use the 3D modules, while 83 students were in the treatment group that used the 3D module. Among the total participants, 84% were male and 16% were female. The following research questions guided the research study:
1. Did students who used the 3D module demonstrate greater learning gains than those who did not use the module?
2. Did students who used the 3D module have more favorable perceptions of the instruction than those who did not use the module?
3. What were the perceptions of the learning experience of students who used the 3D modules?
4. For those students who used the 3D module, what factors impacted their learning and their perceptions of their learning experience?
Using SPSS, a statistical software tool, the data were analyzed and the present results indicate the following:
1. Students who used the 3D module performed better on questions requiring application of knowledge than students who did not use the 3D module.
2. Use of the 3D module itself did not appear to significantly impact students’ perceptions of their learning experience.
3. Students who used the 3D module rated their experience with the module highly.
4. Vast majority of participants who used the module described the lab module as interesting and enjoyed interacting with it.
5. Vast majority of participants who used the module felt that the 3D lab module enhanced their learning and helped them to link new knowledge with previous knowledge.
6. Majority of participants who used the module were satisfied with the 3D lab module and would like the opportunity to use 3D technology to learn about other topics.
Acknowledgement: We acknowledge the NSF TUES Program for supporting this research.
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