Incorporating Sustainability and Green Engineering into a Constrained Civil Engineering Curriculum

Christ, John A.; Heiderscheidt, Jeffrey L.; Pickenpaugh, Monica Y.; Phelan, Thomas; Pocock, James B.; Stanford, M. Scott; Seely, Gregory E.; Suermann, Patrick C.; Twesme, Troy M.

doi:10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000226

Cited by 14 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The main objective of our research was to explore the way technical universities in Romania develop and implement educational programs aimed at enabling engineering students to gain sustainability competencies, as there has been a great number of experts highlighting the importance of ESD in engineering schools and the importance of adapting and renewing engineering curriculums to contribute to a more sustainable future [11,18,23,24,40,[56][57][58].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are three reasons we focused our research on Romanian technical universities: (1) There is an important connection between a country's engineering capacity and its economic development [39], (2) the importance of ESD for engineers is highlighted in the literature [23,44,45,[56][57][58], and (3) the average number of engineering students enrolled in bachelor programs between 2014 and 2018 was 86,349, representing 21% of Romania's entire student population [59].…”

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Engineers Changing the World: Education for Sustainability in Romanian Technical Universities—An Empirical Web-Based Content Analysis

et al. 2020

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Without a doubt, we are living in interesting times, characterized by both continuous economic development and improved standard of living, but also uncertainty, increased pollution, and environmental degradation, which means that, now, more than ever, global and consistent action is needed in order to create a more sustainable future. In this context, education in general and higher education in particular, face both, a significant challenge and a substantial role due to their formative function both in terms of mindset and practical tools. The main objective of our research was to explore the way technical universities in Romania have integrated into their curricula courses that aim at shaping sustainability competencies in engineering students. The study was carried out based on an exploratory empirical content analysis of the technical universities’ curricula, in order to identify the courses, including sustainable development (SD)-related topics. The analysis covered 255 bachelor programs and 394 master programs with a total of 25,920 courses, both mandatory and optional. The results revealed that there are differences in approaching sustainability education between the universities and also faculties within the universities included in the sample, revealing a rather siloed approach.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Engineers Changing the World: Education for Sustainability in Romanian Technical Universities—An Empirical Web-Based Content Analysis

et al. 2020

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“…Despite the comprehensive definition given above, there are still many researchers who consider sustainability as an effort to protect the environment [8][9][10][11] thus ignoring global, economic, social, and other dimensions of sustainability. The work by Christ et al [12] recognizes the social, economic, and environmental pillars of sustainability citing the work of other researchers in the field [13][14][15], and the need of an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability [7,16], but still the emphasis is being placed on the environmental dimension.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Summit on Global Sustainability in Engineering: Rationale and Planning Phase

Nagel

Esparragoza

et al. 2016

Proceedings of the 14th LACCEI International Multi-Conference for Engineering, Education, and Technology: “Engineering Innovati

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Abstract-The growing global awareness on developing products, structures, and processes in a sustainable fashion is demanding the incorporation of sustainability-related topics in engineering curricula. One of the biggest challenges, however, is teaching students to appreciate and understand the complex and global nature of sustainability challenges. Although some efforts have been made in academia to incorporate sustainability, work remains to identify the most effective techniques to teach our students-especially in less quantifiable contexts (e.g., global and cultural). Toward meeting this challenge, the authors are preparing a Summit to bring together scholars from across the Americas with expertise in teaching and learning techniques for sustainability. The main goal of the Summit is to bring together a small group of researchers to explore pedagogical models to introduce global sustainability awareness in engineering education, and for the group of researchers to formulate action plans for developing and deploying learning modules that introduce global sustainability awareness to students at their home institutions. This paper reports on the preliminary work performed in preparation for the Summit. It introduces the "Engaged Learning" approach developed as a part of this project to guide Summit participants in developing and deploying learning activities, and it provides planned assessment activities. Abstract-The growing global awareness on developing products, structures, and processes in a sustainable fashion is demanding the incorporation of sustainability-related topics in engineering curricula. One of the biggest challenges, however, is teaching students to appreciate and understand the complex and global nature of sustainability challenges. Although some efforts have been made in academia to incorporate sustainability, work remains to identify the most effective techniques to teach our students-especially in less quantifiable contexts (e.g., global and cultural). KeywordsToward meeting this challenge, the authors are preparing a Summit to bring together scholars from across the Americas with expertise in teaching and learning techniques for sustainability. The main goal of the Summit is to bring together a small group of researchers to explore pedagogical models to introduce global sustainability awareness in engineering education, and for the group of researchers to formulate action plans for developing and deploying learning modules that introduce global sustainability awareness to students at their home institutions. This paper reports on the preliminary work performed in preparation for the Summit. It introduces the "Engaged Learning" approach developed as a part of this project to guide Summit participants in developing and deploying learning activities, and it provides planned assessment activities.

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“…At the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA), the Civil and Environmental Engineering program has taken a broad approach to incorporate sustainability in the curriculum, including construction of a separate course beginning in 2014 [12]. Due to the success of this course and demand from various stakeholders, the department is developing a new course called "Sustainability in the Built Environment" for non-engineers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Work in Progress: Sustainable Engineering for non-Engineers

Sievers¹,

Beauregard²,

Pocock³

et al.

2018 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Recent shifts in economic and international policy have resulted in environmental sustainability emerging as a rapidly growing education objective. This is especially true in those fields related to STEM and at the post-secondary level. ABET, the accreditation board for engineering and technology programs, identifies sustainability as a realistic design constraint to be implemented into undergraduate engineering curricula, and specifically requires sustainability to be covered in architectural, civil, and environmental engineering programs. However, an understanding of sustainability and how and when decisions related to sustainable practices are made transcends STEM careers. Therefore, education in sustainability should reach all academic majors. For example, at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) only 30% of students are enrolled in ABET-accredited engineering programs. However, regardless of undergraduate major, graduates will commission into the US Air Force and be in a position to incorporate sustainability into highimpact decisions within months of graduating. Many go on to serve as high-level decision and policy makers, both during and after their military service. In an effort to extend education in sustainability to all students, a new sustainability course was developed within the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, and will be offered to all students beginning Fall 2019. All degrees awarded at the USAFA are Bachelors of Science (BS) degrees due to the extensive science, engineering and mathematics education students receive. This background allowed the course committee to design a course for non-technical majors which achieves learning objectives through application of technical concepts. All graduates enter into a military career as commissioned officers and are expected to make informed decisions on topics ranging from space operations to routine military installation maintenance and management. To address this wide range of occupational responsibility, the primary learning goal is for the students to be able to integrate and advocate for sustainability principles in plans and decisions affecting the built environment at the conclusion of the course. Course design worked backwards to accomplish this goal beginning with the summative assessment and ending with the individual learning experiences. Using this approach, instructors were able to identify major sustainability concepts critical for achieving the primary learning goal. The Envision framework was used to evaluate and understand the built environment. Some additional concepts included are life cycle assessment, renewable energy, industrial ecology, green building, control systems, transportation and urban design. Students will be assessed at the beginning and end of the course to determine if the course met the primary learning goal.

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Incorporating Sustainability and Green Engineering into a Constrained Civil Engineering Curriculum

Cited by 14 publications

References 23 publications

Engineers Changing the World: Education for Sustainability in Romanian Technical Universities—An Empirical Web-Based Content Analysis

Engineers Changing the World: Education for Sustainability in Romanian Technical Universities—An Empirical Web-Based Content Analysis

Summit on Global Sustainability in Engineering: Rationale and Planning Phase

Work in Progress: Sustainable Engineering for non-Engineers

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