2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The offering of broad-based infrastructure engineering courses has grown considerably over the last decade, with the energy sector – and specifically electricity – being a critical topic. Although students’ lives are inextricably dependent upon electricity, and the practice of civil engineering both relies on and creates electrical infrastructure, personal experiences generally do not provide for direct, physical, or visual observation of the fundamental concepts underlying our electrical infrastructure. Consequently, educators have a challenge when it comes to building upon existing knowledge of energy and electricity in the classroom. To help address this challenge and grow essential knowledge of energy infrastructure in civil engineering students, the authors leveraged multiple tenants of the Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEEd) model of pedagogical theory to develop a novel hands-on demonstrator for the direct observation of a typical household electrical system using a single chalkboard on wheels. This demonstrator facilitates the study of a wide variety of concepts, including the difference between energy and power, alternating current and voltage, the function of key safety features and their limitations, balancing loads, code requirements and the reasons behind them, and more. In service for over a decade, this simple, single demonstrator has stood the test of time and helped educate over 2,300 students. In this work-in-progress paper, the authors present the pedagogy of using the demonstrator, to include learning objectives, classroom activities, and a model script for a 50-minute experience, as well as a parts list and instructions for constructing the demonstrator. The authors also present the use of the demonstrator within the context of an infrastructure engineering course within a civil engineering program. Lastly, the authors present their plan to assess the demonstrator’s effectiveness in helping students achieve identified learning objectives.