Writing Essay as Essential Assessment in Groundwater Contamination Course

Abstract

An essay was used as an assessment to illustrate a certain way of thinking and attitude of a student. The essay demonstrates the student's utmost degree as an author with a cognitive and affective style. The study aimed to provide a simple description of the essay as an assessment and critical function in the Groundwater Contamination course of the Environmental Engineering Program offered by Curtin University Malaysia. Groundwater Contamination is designed for students of environmental engineering and covers a number of topics, including groundwater characterization, contaminant transport processes in groundwater flow systems, migration and chemical development of contamination plumes, and groundwater remediation. No correlation exists between essay length (word count) and report or presentation grades, while there was a strong relationship between the student mark and essay content (R2 = 0.88), but a moderate relationship to essay format (R2 = 0.55). Overall, the students at Curtin University Malaysia were able to meet the Course Outcome of Groundwater Contamination and the Program Outcome of Environmental Engineering because of the essay they wrote as a test.