Designing maths-based STEAM activities for civil engineering curricula

This work-in-progress innovative practice describes a set of pedagogical activities designed for students of 1
^st
, 2
^nd
and 3
^rd
year of civil engineering programs. The pedagogical project has a twofold aim: i) infusing fabrication, coding and instrumentation in civil engineering courses and ii) fostering motivation and creativity among students by merging STEAM and Maths. For this purpose, a set of hands-on activities described herein encompasses concepts of calculus (functions, curves and derivatives), concepts of surveying (construction and measurement using sensors and microcontrollers by means of a fabrication of a low-cost Lidar) and concepts of algorithmic programming in which measurement and programming are blended together. Three workshops coupled with multimedia documents are prepared. Firstly, a workshop related to programming mathematical curves and derivatives in the coding platform Processing whose aim is to reinforce coding skills to our students. Secondly, a workshop related to the development of the Lidar using electronic prototyping boards such as Arduino whose aim is to introduce instrumentation skills to them. Thirdly, a workshop related to the use of algorithmic programming design platforms such as Grasshopper whose aim is to couple measurement and coding together. These activities are conceived for formal infusion in the next generation of civil engineering courses to be deployed at our school from 2020 onwards.