The Joint Committee on Building Science Education has a number of programs and task groups enhancing excellence in building science education. Members of the University Consortium and partnering university and building science research organizations are involved in voluntary and sponsored research on a number of tasks groups and committees addressed below. The Joint Committee is also supporting the implementation of the DOE roadmap on Building Science Education and the new DOE Challenge Home Student Design Competition (particularly related to the work of the Criteria Task Group and facilitating quality student and university resources). A partial listing of some of the programs and task groups are listed below.
- Criteria on Excellence in Building Science Curricula
- Recognition of Excellence (Awards)
- Challenging & Engaging Students (Competitions & capstone projects)
- Peer Review of Curricula, Key Courses and Content
- New Projects — Shared Courses, MOOCs, Professor & Student Exchanges
- Support of DOE Education Projects
Criteria Metric Task Group — developing the “Criteria on Excellence in Building Science Education” — Following the 2012 Annual Meeting of the University Consortium, a task group was formed to develop the criteria for excellence in building science education curricula. This page addresses the work of the task group and current draft of the criteria.
Recognition of Excellence The University Consortium hosts the Annual Excellence in Building Science Education Award. It also helps promote and provides support to other award and competition programs, including the US Department of Energy Solar Decathlon and the new DOE High Performance Home Competition. Through the Joint Committee, the University Consortium expects to be collaborating with other university organizations, such as the Associated Schools of Construction, to widen the recognition for the awards and competitions to hundreds of universities.
Challenging & Engaging Students – Several universities challenge and engage student design/plan/build competitions and support student organizations for future design/construction industry professional, such as NAHB Student Chapters. National competitions, such as the Solar Decathlon and a new DOE Best in Housing Design Competition engage students in advanced building science and technologies. Student projects, whether competition or capstone projects, focus students on the many knowledge, skill and ability requirements that they will face working in the industry that might not be adequately addressed in the classroom. These projects drive students to gain that extra knowledge needed for a successful project that is also critical to the real world workplace.
Peer Review of Curricula and Key Courses – Using the criteria developed by the task group (above), it is expected that a formal peer review process will be established to review curricula, key courses, and selected content.