Civil Engineering and Architecture

Civil Engineering and Architecture (CEA) is a high school level course that is appropriate for 10th through 12th grade students who are interested in design, engineering, architecture, or another technical career. The major focus of the CEA course is to expose students to topics, equations, and content they can expect in a collegiate first year civil engineering and or architecture program. CEA gives students the opportunity to develop skills needed for both residential and commercial design as they engage in structural systems, mechanical systems, building codes, and site considerations. Learning is achieved through problem solving activities-, projects-, and problem-based (APPB) learning. Used in combination with a teaming approach, APPB-learning challenges students to continually hone their interpersonal skills and creative abilities while applying math, science, and technology knowledge learned in other courses to solve engineering design problems and communicate their solutions.

Students in CEA should have a strong background in mathematics, in particular algebra. Geometry and physics is also used throughout the course. In addition, students will use industry standard Building Information Modeling (BIM) software to facilitate the design and documentation of their solutions to design problems and challenges. As the course progresses, and the complexity of the design problems increase, students will learn more advanced computer modeling skills.

Civil Engineering and Architecture is one of the specialty courses in the Project Lead the Way high school pre-engineering program. The course applies, and concurrently develops, secondary level knowledge and skills in mathematics, science, and technology. The course of study includes:

The course of study for this class includes:

  • History of CEA
  • Careers of CEA
  • Residential Building Design and Construction
  • Residential Cost and Efficiency Analysis
  • Residential Design
  • Commercial Building Systems
  • Structures
  • Services and Utilities
  • Site Considerations
  • Modeling and Presentations
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