Thermal efficiency of Precast Concrete Sandwich Panel Walls has become a major topic when discussing the building envelope in academia. At Utah State University, research is being done to evaluate the structural and thermal efficiency of fiber reinforced polymer connectors being used today. In evaluating several different proprietary fiber reinforced polymer systems, researchers plan to develop design procedures to help engineers accurately determine minimum design requirements when using fiber reinforced polymer connectors. This largely requires a determination of the degree of composite action incurred by each system. Testing is performed by constructing small scale specimens (3 ft. by 4 ft., 0.91 m by 1.22 m). Each specimen contains one of the fiber reinforced polymer connecting systems. By constructing a five-wythe, two wall specimen, direct shear can be applied to the connectors using a push-off shear test method. By performing this test it can be determined to what degree the panel is acting compositely. Once the degree of composite action is determined, correlation can be made between design and degree of composite action. Economizing and simplifying this procedure is key to further implementation of precast concrete sandwich panel walls in all areas of our building infrastructure.

This thesis deals with CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning) as a teaching strategy which uses a foreign language for teaching the content of a non-language subject. The aim of CLIL and its various teaching methods and strategies is for the students to obtain knowledge and skills in a content subject through a foreign language. The third goal of the CLIL strategy is the development of the students'learning skills. The aim of this thesis is to evaluate through the class observation, teacher and students interview and the analysis of the input material, whether and into what extent CLIL provides the students with the opportunities for developing their learning skills. The theoretical part deals with the description and the development of CLIL and its theoretical concepts. The practical part analyzes the used methods of the qualitative study focusing on situations and processes leading to development of the students' learning skills. KEYWORDS: CLIL (Content Language Integrated Learning), hard CLIL, soft CLIL, teaching content subject, teaching foreign language, scaffolding, learning skills