01733243

Component

http://www.trb.org/Publications/Blurbs/179567.aspx

Forest roads are a vital component of forest products transport, yet forest roads have potentially significant environmental and economic costs. Thus, solid training regarding design, layout, construction, and maintenance of forest roads is an important asset for many forest managers. Although the importance of forest roads is well-documented, forest road training is often minimized during undergraduate training, and may be relegated to brief overviews as part of forest harvesting or silviculture courses. The Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech has a forest operations course—Forest Boundaries and Roads—that is dedicated to basic surveying and road planning and construction. Portions of the roads-related curriculum also are offered as workshops to forest managers tasked with overseeing and using forest roads, who commonly seek postgraduate continuing education opportunities. The purpose of this manuscript is to outline topics and techniques used to deliver forest road curricula to undergraduates, graduate students, and continuing-education postgraduate students with a variety of traditional classroom lectures combined with field exercises. The course relies heavily on experiential learning techniques including hands-on road layout, collaborative learning, cooperative learning, field trips, and service learning. The use of experiential learning requires considerable resource inputs as compared to traditional lecture formats, including increased time for grading, increased travel costs, and increased personnel needs. Student, employer, and workshop feedback indicates that the experiential learning component allows many students to acquire a solid grasp of materials.

01730920

English

pp 513-528

2019-9

Transportation Research Circular

12th International Conference on Low-Volume Roads

Digital/other

Figures; Photos; References; Tables

Continuing education; Education and training; Forest roads; Forestry; Highway planning; Road construction; Surveying; Workshops

Experiential Learning Theory; Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Construction; Design; Education and Training; Highways

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Mar 9 2020 4:02PM