Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado

Boot Camp style learning offers students unique opportunity to get up to speed on precast quickly

At the University of Colorado, the faculty was looking for unique was to bring industry into the classroom without disrupting the natural flow of the class schedule and limited time available in the curriculum. The faculty devised a new model they call the “Boot Camp” and brought in a slew of precast concrete industry professionals to help introduce students in the engineering and construction management schools to a variety of precast ideas and concepts over the course of a 8 week class. Even with Covid protocols, the class was still able to take place and industry members were able to be on campus in person. Twelve students were enrolled in the program, so social distancing was possible, although difficult because student’s natural inclination is to huddle together to work on projects in the boot camp format. To reduce the “huddling” around paper drawings, professors Rebecca Atadero and Mohammed Meheny put the project on compter. For Meheny, the biggest challenge this year was not being able to give students the in-the-field experience on job sites that they typically get in the Boot Camp. The program is paying off. Mehaney reports that he has heard from students who say how grateful they are because when they get assigned to a precast project they feel they may know more about precast than other people on the job. Even more experienced workers. “Our program is more about construct