THE TETON DAM FAILURE AS A SUPPORT OF AN UNDERGRADUATE COURSE OF SOIL MECHANICS

Abstract

To improve the attractiveness of the undergraduate course of Soil Mechanics at Polytechnique Montreal, a new approach relying on the study of the Teton Dam failure from a forensic point of view was introduced in 2012. A course evaluation performed at the end of the session demonstrated that the case study was very interesting to sensitize the students to technical and non-technical aspects, but that the formula was not ideal for active learning. Indeed, the lack of hindsight was not adequate to warranty an active participation of all students. As a consequence, a new version of the case study based on team projects is under development. The paper presents the new case study approach, the methodology and the tools under development to help the students with the case study and finally concludes with the implication of the case study in the formation of future engineers.