2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Construction Management programs usually offer a Materials course which includes hands-on concrete technology laboratory involving series of experiments (e.g., compressive strength, flexural strength) to obtain strength of concrete specimens. However, Materials course lacks hands-on activity discussing concrete forming, and effect of mix design and ingredients on the fresh and hardened properties of concrete. In this study, a fiber-reinforced concrete bowling ball project was implemented in a Construction Material Technology course which is a core course for Construction Management students at Illinois State University. The objective of bowling ball project was to demonstrate the behavior of fiber reinforcement within concrete, to gain experience in forming and fabricating a fiber-reinforced concrete, and to encourage creativity in mix design predictions and analysis testing. The students received instruction and guidelines for this project early in the semester so that they can start thinking about different mix ingredients and how to prepare concrete bowling ball. However, this project was conducted in the last three weeks of the semester. Students worked together in groups to perform all the steps of the project from design to manufacturing and testing. Survey questionnaires were provided to the students at the end of the semester to acquire data regarding the learning of students using the implemented concrete bowling ball project. The results showed that the students favored using concrete bowling ball project as one of the laboratory activities in Construction Materials Technology course which improved their learning about concrete.