Half of Students Interested in Civil Engineering Do Not Believe in Anthropogenic Climate Change

Shealy, Tripp; Valdes-Vasquez, Rodolfo; Klotz, Leidy; Potvin, Geoff; Godwin, Allison; Cribbs, Jennifer; Hazari, Zahra

doi:10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000323

Cited by 22 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Civil engineering is the scientific area that investigates and forms professions to deal with the challenges posed by the built environment that is still associated with the world's highest consumption of raw materials, as well as very high energy consumption. Of course the fact that recent surveys show that students interested in civil engineering do not believe in anthropogenic climate change [16,17] is a problem that also requires urgent attention because it is impossible to enforce the ASCE Code of Ethics that states, "Engineers shall hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public and shall strive to comply with the principles of sustainable development" with those that are skeptical on such principles. A shortcoming that is especially serious because climate change raises many questions with ethical dimensions rooted in the human condition [18,19].…”

Section: Scientific Production On Civil Engineering and Pavementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to eco-efficient pavement materials

Pacheco-Torgal

Amirkhanian

2020

Eco-Efficient Pavement Construction Materials

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Almost 50 years ago several scientists used a system dynamics computer model to simulate the interactions of population, food production, industrial production, pollution, and consumption of nonrenewable natural resources, having predicted that during the 21st century the Earth's capacity would be exhausted, resulting in the collapse of human civilization [1]. Two decades later, in an update of this study, the same authors showed that some limits had already been crossed [2]. Meadows et al. [3] conducted a 30-year update of the original study and concluded that period was nothing than a waste of time and that Humanity has done very little to avoid the collapse of the Planet's environment. Turner [4] also studied Meadows' projections with 30 years of real events and concluded that the global system is on an unsustainable trajectory unless there is a substantial and rapid reduction in consumptive behavior. One year later Rockström et al. [5] suggested an innovative approach for global sustainability defining nine interdependent planetary boundaries. They also stated that humanity has already transgressed three planetary boundaries for changes to the global nitrogen cycle, rate of biodiversity loss, and above all climate change. More details on the suggested planetary boundaries framework can be found in Ref. [6]. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a special report warning that "Limiting global warming to 1.5 C would require rapid, far-reaching, and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society" [7]. The target of 1.5 C is being the threshold beyond which climate change would imperil species survival. Randers et al. [8] stated that the world will not reach all Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, nor by 2050, and that the global safety margin will continue to decline. And in truth, Distelkamp and Meyer [9] mentioned that although the global average CO 2 intensity is projected to decline against 2015, it is expected that global CO 2 emissions will further increase by 44% up to 53 Gt in 2050. In order to keep economy running, several institutions such as UNEP, World Bank or the European Commission thus claim for green economy and green growth that is expected to do more with less while improving human wellbeing and social equity but some believe that that is not compatible with the ecologic limits of the Planet [10]. Some authors [11] stated that using a low-tech approach can not only contribute to an increase in resilience but can also create the Eco-efficient Pavement Construction Materials.

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Section: Scientific Production On Civil Engineering and Pavementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction to eco-efficient pavement materials

Pacheco-Torgal

Amirkhanian

2020

Eco-Efficient Pavement Construction Materials

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Civil engineers are an essential part in solving these challenges. They must not only be aware of the issues but empowered to make change [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unfortuatnely more than half of students interested in civil engineeirng do not believe in climate change [6]. Students interested in civil engineering are similar to other Americans, where about half do not believe in climate change [7].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measuring Misconceptions About Climate Change Between Freshmen and Senior Civil Engineering Students

Shealy

2018 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Anthropogenic climate change is irreversibly affecting the planet and society. Civil engineers hold responsibility to design and construct built-environment spaces that decrease climate changing emissions. The purpose of the research presented in this paper is to assess how undergraduate civil engineering programs contribute to this goal. A cross-sectional comparison between data from a prior national survey of freshmen engineering students interested in civil engineering and pilot data from a national survey to senior undergraduate engineering students was used to assess students' belief in climate change, their understanding of climate science, and desire to address climate change in their careers. The results indicate that senior undergraduate civil engineering students are more likely to believe that climate change is caused by humans (67%) compared to freshmen engineering students (47%). These seniors are also more likely (73%) to agree that action should be taken to address climate change. Yet, only 37 percent hope to personally address climate change in their careers. Senior civil engineering students are more likely than their peers in other engineering disciplines to take classes that include sustainability and climate change as topics (predominately in engineering electives), yet their knowledge of climate science is no better, and in several instances, worse than their engineering peers. For example, civil engineering students are more likely to agree with the statement, "I believe a cause of global climate change is nuclear power generation," and "I believe a cause of global climate change is the ozone hole in the upper atmosphere." Undergraduate education is likely contributing to increased belief and recognition to address climate change but an educational gap still persists in understanding. Future research should explore why misconceptions still exist even when climate change is taught in engineering courses and how particular concepts are explained and how student experiences shape understanding and interest.

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“…These misconceptions are also evident in first-year college students. From a prior national study, more than half of students intending to major in engineering do not believe in climate change (Shealy et al, 2016).…”

Section: Misconceptions About Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This framework has been adapted from a physics context and translated to explore engineering students' identity development with engineering, a deepening understanding of engineering, and viewing engineering as a way to advance their world (Godwin, 2016a;Godwin et al, 2013;Godwin et al, 2013Godwin et al, , 2016. This theoretical framework is particularly well-suited to examine our research question of how students' experiences impact engineering identity, conceptual models of climate change, and agency to address these issues in their future careers.…”

Section: Critical Engineering Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Survey Development to Measure the Gap Between Student Awareness, Literacy, and Action to Address Human-caused Climate Change

Shealy¹,

Godwin²,

Gardner³

2017 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Tripp Shealy is an assistant professor in the Charles E. Via, Jr. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and principal faculty member in the Myers-Lawson School of Construction at Virginia Tech. He received his doctorate from Clemson University. His research is broadly focuses on judgment and decision making for sustainable infrastructure. This includes education for sustainability, specifically, how student understanding and attitude towards climate change effects their motivations and agency to solve complex global problems for a sustainability in their career. The United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals state climate change could irreversibly affect future generations and is one of the most urgent issues facing society. To date, most education research on climate change examines middle and high school students' knowledge without considering the link between understanding and interest to address such issues in their career. In research on students' attitudes about sustainability, we found that half of first-year college engineering students, in our nationally representative sample of all college students at 4-year institutions (n = 937), do not believe climate change is caused by humans. This lack of belief in human-caused climate change is a significant problem in engineering education because our results also indicate engineering students who do not believe in human caused climate change are less likely to want to address climate change in their careers. This dismal finding highlights a need for improving student understanding and attitudes toward climate change in order to produce engineers prepared and interested in solving complex global problems in sustainability. To advance understanding about students' understanding of climate change and their agency to address the issue, we developed the CLIMATE survey to measure senior undergraduate engineering students' Climate change literacy, engineering identity, career motivations, and agency through engineering. The survey was designed for students in their final senior design, or capstone course, just prior to entering the workforce. We developed the survey using prior national surveys and newly written questions categorized into six sections: (1) career goals and motivation, (2) college experiences, (3) agency, (4) climate literacy, (5) people and the planet, and (6) demographic information. We conducted focus groups with students to establish face and content validity of the survey. We collected pilot data with 200 engineering students in upper-level engineering courses to provide validity evidence for the use of these survey items to measure students and track changes across the undergraduate curriculum for our future work. In this paper, we narrate the development of the survey supported by literature and outline the next step for further validation and distribution on a national scale. Our intent is to receive feedback and input about the questions being asked and the CLIMATE instrument. Our objective is to share the nationally representa...

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Half of Students Interested in Civil Engineering Do Not Believe in Anthropogenic Climate Change

Cited by 22 publications

References 26 publications

Introduction to eco-efficient pavement materials

Introduction to eco-efficient pavement materials

Measuring Misconceptions About Climate Change Between Freshmen and Senior Civil Engineering Students

Survey Development to Measure the Gap Between Student Awareness, Literacy, and Action to Address Human-caused Climate Change

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