Conference Session

Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Qiong Zhang, University of South Florida; Linda Vanasupa, California Polytechnic State University; James R. Mihelcic, University of South Florida; Julie Beth Zimmerman, Yale University; Simona Platukyte, University of South Florida

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

incorporatingsustainability into engineering education. Those challenges were later organized into majorcategories collectively by the workshop attendees. After the workshop, a “mind map” wasconstructed to show the identified challenges in relation to the major categories.Sixteen individuals registered for the first workshop and 4 of them were faculty from universitiesserving underrepresented groups. The second workshop was attended by primarily early-careerscholars (12 total participants). Of the 12 participants, 7 were female, 6 were under-representedminorities, 2 were from community colleges, and 6 were from Hispanic-serving institutions.Challenges identified in the workshopsIn the first workshop, over half of the group considered themselves in the “expert

Conference Session

Interdisciplinary Experiences and Assessment in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Francis J. Hopcroft, Wentworth Institute of Technology

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

discussions need to be tailored to the engineering thoughtprocess to fully engage the student in later discussions. Indeed, some of the more eruditediscussions in the arts and humanities have been reported in classes of engineering students whohave had that opportunity early in their educational exposure to those topics.Similarly, the Construction Management student needs to be able to follow the evolution of theconcepts within the mind of the artist/humanist, but from a somewhat different perspective. Inthis case the concepts of cost-effectiveness and profit margin are engrained in the psyche of thestudent from the first day of class – or even earlier, since many of these students come fromfamilies in the construction industry. That means that the

Conference Session

Interdisciplinary Experiences and Assessment in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Cheryl J.K. Desha, Queensland University of Technology; Charlie Hargroves, The Natural Edge Project

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

in Chemical Engineering for the 21stCentury.11Using a threshold learning approach also lends itself to curriculum design in education forsustainability, which adopts a research-minded approach to mastery – through for exampleproblem or project based learning.12 Where there is space for iteratively questioning andexploring the concept and its connections to the real world, students can enter what Cousinrefers to as a liminal state (i.e. oscillating between old and emergent understandings) wheretransformative learning can take place.Authors Baille, Bowden and Meyer expand the ‘threshold learning concept’ terminologyand address some ambiguity around ‘concept’, by introducing the term ‘capability’. Forthese authors, the field of ‘threshold

Conference Session

Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Sarah Kathryn Bauer, Rowan University; Andrea Rose McFarland, Rowan University; Mary M. Staehle, Rowan University; Kauser Jahan, Rowan University

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

environmental requirements as well.”17 The Wind Turbine Clinic has helpedincrease understanding of making careful choices in the usage of materials, as well as thepracticality of design.The addition of a sustainable focus in the writing component of Sophomore Engineering Clinicwas also appreciated. Sophomore Civil and Environmental Engineering student, KassandraGrimes, provides feedback about the P3 grant proposal: “Being able to develop my own researchplan as an undergraduate student was an opportunity I thought I would never have. Clearly,sustainability is crucial for society, and research in green engineering can present manyopportunities for developing engineers.”18All companies, whether they are related to engineering or not, should be mindful of

Conference Session

Interdisciplinary Experiences and Assessment in Environmental Engineering

Collection

2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Authors

Angela R. Bielefeldt, University of Colorado, Boulder

Tagged Divisions

Environmental Engineering

AC 2012-3783: STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES FROM AN ENVI-RONMENTAL ENGINEERING SUMMER RESEARCH PROGRAMDr. Angela R. Bielefeldt, University of Colorado, Boulder Angela Bielefeldt, Ph.D., P.E., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU). She was attracted into environ- mental engineering as a high school student participating in a summer research program at Iowa State University. While at CU, she has mentored more than 30 undergraduate student research projects. Page 25.1186.1 c American