THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING

CE 337: CIVIL ENGINEERING MATERIALS LABORATORY SYLLABUS

FALL 2016

Lab Section: Section 004 (Wedn 11:15 AM – 02:15 PM)

Lab Location: 002 Hammond Building (laboratory at bottom of stairwell between
Hammond and Sackett)
Graduate Instructor: Jintai Wang
E-Mail: jintai@psu.edu
Office: 003A Hammond Building (the room above the lab)
Office Hours: Tuesday 1:30PM-2:30PM Wednesday 10:00-11:00 AM
Supervising Faculty: Prof. Aleksandra Radlińska (azr172@psu.edu)
Required Text: CE337 Lab Manual, 2016, 7th Edition
(Available in the Engineering Copy Center, Room 101 Engineering Unit A)

PRIMARY OBJECTIVES OF THIS CLASS:

1. Student will be trained to conduct experiments to learn about and quantify the mechanical
properties of various construction materials. The tests will be performed using standardized
procedures (e.g., ASTM) and calibrated equipment to obtain data falling within an expected
standard range of repeatability. Students will use engineering principles to analyze and interpret
the laboratory measurements and draw scientific conclusions.
2. Students will be trained to work in high functioning teams. Each student team will be composed of
members with diverse technical background, who will work together to conduct the experiments,
develop scientific reports, and deliver a presentation. Students will be guided through and have
several opportunities to evaluate and improve self- and team-performance.
3. Given an accepted industry standard report format, students will work in teams and develop a
proficiency in technical writing by preparing a professional document written in the 3rd person, and
demonstrate a mastery of style and grammar. The weekly reports will include laboratory data that
are processed according to underlying theories and mathematical functions. The results are
presented graphically using Microsoft Excel (or similar program).

GENERAL NOTES:
Teams and responsibility of each member: Students will be working in groups of 3. There will be a
survey assigned as a homework after the first lecture that uses student responses to a set of
demographic questions in an effort to form the most optimal teams possible (https://www.catme.org).
Each team will perform each lab exercise together. In addition, the teams will develop and submit
weekly laboratory reports, corresponding with each exercise. The reports should reflect a true
collaborative effort by the entire team. While all team members should understand and be able
to defend the entire content of each lab report, each team member should assume primary
responsibility for a given section of the lab report according to the following roles:
 Role (A), also known as the team leader, will be responsible for the Front Page, Abstract, Table
of Contents, Lists of Tables and Figures, Introduction, Conclusions and Recommendations,
References, and Appendix. In addition, role (A) is responsible to ensure the overall quality of
the report and its submission in a timely manner and professional format.
 Role (B) will be responsible for the Results and Discussion section.

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  Role (C) only exists during preparation of the comprehensive (end of semester) lab report and
presentation. Role (C) will be responsible for preparing the Theoretical Background, and
Methods and Materials sections. In addition, role (C) must take the lead in developing the team
Power Point presentation. Other team members will contribute to the presentation under the
leadership of role (C).
The roles will rotate weekly among team members according to Table 1.
Table 1. Rotation of roles and responsibilities among team members in preparing each lab report

Exercise Member No.

Number 1 2 3 4
1 A B B A
2 B A B B
3 B B A B
4 A B B A
5 B A B B
6 B B A B
7 – Part I A B B A
7 – Part II B A B B
8 B B A B
9 A B B A
10 B A B B
Presentation
and Comp. B C A B
Report

The team leader for each exercise is to be the group’s primary contact with the instructor, and is
responsible for maintaining the data, ensuring cooperation between members, lab station cleanup,
and end-of-lab checkout (see the cleanup section of the syllabus for details on checking out).

First Three Exercises: The first three lab exercises (completed during Weeks 3, 4 and 5) will be
conducted on a rotating basis with each team conducting a different exercise each week. Please see
Table 2.
Table 2. Rotation Schedule for first three exercises

Exercise No.
Week
No. Teams Teams Teams
1&2 3&4 5&6
3 1 2 3
4 3 1 2
5 2 3 1

Lab Data Sheets: All lab exercise data sheets MUST be completed during the lab session. Post-lab
analysis of the data and lab write-ups are to be completed outside of class.

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LAB REPORT NOTES:
One of the primary objectives of this laboratory is to improve your report/technical writing skills. ALL
reports for this class should be regarded as “formal” in the sense that they should be worthy of
submission to any supervisor or employer in your future careers. Spelling, grammar, and neatness
count in addition to the content. If you have questions regarding these items, please see the
instructor. The additional resources on report writing are found in Appendix A of the Lab Manual, and
will be also provided by your instructor within the first 2 weeks of the semester. Reports must be
organized and well thought-out, created in a professional style, and include all components outlined in
“Weekly Lab Report Template and Sample” that will be provided by your instructor. These documents
will be posted on ANGEL.
All reports must make use of professional computer programs such as Microsoft Word and Excel. You
will use these extensively in your professional career, and must demonstrate to the instructor a clear
understanding of the use of these programs. Unless otherwise noted by the instructor at the time of
the exercise, lab reports must be submitted electronically via ANGEL before the start of the lab one
week after the exercise was conducted.

Your instructor will grade your lab reports and return them electronically within 1 week of submission.
It is important that you review the grading and comments of your instructor on your
reports, so you can use these comments to improve future reports. There will be questions
included on some of your quizzes about grading of your previous lab reports.

LABORATORY POLICIES AND PROCEDURES:

1. Attendance is absolutely mandatory. If you will not be able to attend a lab, you must inform your
instructor of your upcoming absence within 24 hours of your scheduled lab, and the absence must
have a valid excuse. You must also arrange with your instructor and the instructor for another CE
337 section to make up that laboratory within the same week as your scheduled lab to obtain full
credit for the lab exercise. Missing a lab without advanced notice and a valid excuse still requires
that you make up the exercise. Not making up the exercise will not only result in a zero for that
exercise, but will also result in an additional 10% deduction of your overall semester
grade. Both an excused and unexcused absence require you to compose an individual lab report,
which is due the next time your section meets.

2. Personal conduct is expected to be professional. Do not bring food and beverages into the
laboratory; do not engage in horseplay or disruptive, or other unprofessional behavior. Do not
bring and read newspapers or similar materials unrelated to the lab. Your cellphone must be kept
off and you must not touch your (or any other) cellphones during the entire lab, unless otherwise
is permitted by your instructor. You are to be on time to lab, and to pay attention during
presentations. Please note that 10% of your final grade is based on your professional personal
conduct in the laboratory. Being late to lab will result in a deduction from the personal conduct
portion of your grade. Class participation and discussions during the presentation portion of the lab
will not only help your participation grade, but will increase your understanding of the material for
the experiments, which you will conduct.

3. Individual quizzes will be handed out immediately after the instructor’s presentation on each
day of the lab. You will have 10 to 15 minutes to complete the quiz. All students will take the quiz
and the grades will be counted towards 25% of the total course grade for each student. Students
who are absent without a valid excuse will not be able to make up the quiz and a zero will be
earned for that week’s quiz. The purpose of the quiz is to encourage you to read the lab manual in
advance of the test date and pay careful attention to the instructor’s presentation. This knowledge
will help you make the most out of a given exercise.

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4. Team leader quizzes; within the individual quizzes, there will be one additional question for the
team leader (role (A)). This question will be based on the laboratory report that the team just
submitted. For example, during week 7, the lab report for exercise 4 is due. Whoever serves as
the team leader (role (A)) for exercise 4, will answer one written question based on exercise 4 and
the lab report just submitted. The team leader quizzes will make up 5% of the total course grade.

5. Dress is to be appropriate for the laboratory. Please wear long pants (e.g., jeans) and closed-toed
shoes (no sandals). Inappropriate clothing worn to a lab session is grounds for dismissal from that
laboratory period. Also, some experiments will be quite messy, so be sure to wear clothing and
shoes that you do not mind getting dirty.

6. Clean up after yourselves. This lab space is shared by many other classes and sections; and it is
considerate to ensure that all waste is disposed of properly before you leave the lab and that all
equipment is properly returned to its original location or to a specified locker. Team leaders for
each exercise must check out with your instructor at the end of each laboratory session to have
your team’s data sheets signed. The instructor will then check the team’s lab station to ensure
cleanliness and only then will dismiss the team. Failure to check out will result in a 10% reduction
in the lab grade. Any damaged tools and materials should be submitted to the instructor before
the end of the lab session. Appreciation of a sincere and diligent effort in keeping the experiment
station clean will be built into your lab grades.

GRADING:
In general, the lab grading is broken down as follows:

Personal Conduct and Letter Letter

Participation 10% Grade Percentage Grade Percentage
10 Individual Quizzes 25% A > 94% C+ 76-79%
Team Leader Quizzes 5% A- 90-93% C 70-75%
10 Weekly Lab Reports 40% B+ 87-89% D 60-69%
1 Comprehensive Report 9% B 84-86% F < 60%
1 Presentation 5%
B- 80-83%
Other Assignments (e.g.,
team evaluations, pre-
survey) 6%
TOTAL 100%

There will be a 10% deduction from the report grade for each day a lab report is late. Furthermore,
some of the lab exercises will require that at least one member from each group return to the lab the
next day during a specific time designated by the instructor (to, for example, remove
aggregates from ovens, demold mortar cubes or concrete cylinders, etc.). Failure to do so will result
in a 50% reduction from that exercise’s grade for the group, so please ensure that one group member
will be present at those times. All other grading concerns are in compliance with University Faculty
Senate Rules 47-00, 48-00, and 49-00.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY:
The University defines academic integrity as the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest and
responsible manner. All students should act with personal integrity, respect other students’ dignity,
rights and property, and help create and maintain an environment in which all can succeed through
the fruits of their efforts (refer to Senate Policy 49-20). Dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated in
this course. Dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating information or

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citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of
examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the
instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students. Students who are found to be
dishonest will receive academic sanctions and will be reported to the University’s Office of Student
Conduct for possible further disciplinary sanctions (refer to Senate Policy G-9).

Disability-related Needs
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University's educational programs. Every Penn
State campus has an office for students with disabilities. The Office for Disability Services (ODS) Web
site provides contact information for every Penn State campus: http://equity.psu.edu/ods/dcl. For
further information, please visit the Office for Disability Services Web site: http://equity.psu.edu/ods.
In order to receive consideration for reasonable accommodations, you must contact the appropriate
disability services office at the campus where you are officially enrolled, participate in an intake
interview, and provide documentation: http://equity.psu.edu/ods/doc-guidelines. If the documentation
supports your request for reasonable accommodations, your campus’s disability services office will
provide you with an accommodation letter. Please share this letter with your instructors and discuss
the accommodations with them as early in your courses as possible. You must follow this process for
every semester that you request accommodations.

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 Table 3. Laboratory Schedule – Fall 2016
Week
Topic and Reading Assignment
No.
1 Introduction to Lab: Syllabus, Schedule, Review of Some Measurement Devices,
22-Aug Material Variability and Excel Skills

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Team Building Exercise, Lab Report Template
29-Aug
Exercises 1 through 3 conducted on a “rotating” basis. See Table 1 for details.

Exercise 01: Creep & Modulus of Elasticity

3-5
5-Sep to Exercise 02: Mechanical Properties of Wood
19-Sep

Exercise 03: Hydraulic Conductivity of Soils

6
Exercise 04: Tension Testing of Metals
26-Oct

7
Exercise 05: Specific Gravity, Absorption, and Unit Weight of Aggregates
3-Oct

8
Exercise 06: Gradation of Aggregates and Fines
10-Oct

9
Exercise 07 – Part 1: Portland Cement Mortar
17-Oct

10
Exercise 07 – Part 2: Portland Cement Concrete
24-Oct

11
Exercise 08: Unconfined Compression Tests in Clay
31-Oct

12
Exercise 09: Soil Compaction
7-Nov

13
Exercise 10: Atterberg Limits (Liquid & Plastic Limits)
14-Nov

14
Thanksgiving Break
21-Nov

15
No Lab
28-Dec

16
Presentations and Comprehensive (Full Length) Lab Report Due
14-Dec