Increasing Water Reuse Awareness through Hands-on Activities among Undergraduate and Graduate Students while Teaching an Environmental Course: A Case Study

Enhancing students’ ability to connect concepts learned during their classes to the real world and consequently stimulating their conceptual leap from abstract scientific concepts and useful applications is crucial in science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) education. Hands-on activities represent an intriguing and often underimplemented approach to enhance the learning experience of undergraduate and graduate students. This paper presents how engagement, teamwork-building, and hands-on activities were implemented and practiced in a technical elective course (Engr 598, Section 25, Water Reuse) focused on water reuse. During the course, students (1) increased their knowledge of water reuse, (2) designed and constructed two environmentally friendly low-cost wastewater treatment systems, (3) learned how to measure water quality and assess the results using Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) samples, (4) presented the results at the 33rd WERC Environmental Design Contest, and (5) developed a survey to assess communities’ attitude toward water reuse. This work will be a guide for college students who will be participating in future engineering contests to address real-world problems through sustainable and innovative solutions.