tocomplex crises, and recognize the importance of sustainability to future national competitivenessand growth.1,2,5–7 Educators and students are similarly rallying for changes to better address andforestall environmental and social challenges through sustainability. Engineers are poised to helpcreate this sea change because they impact nearly every industry and everything human-made.Through their design and execution decisions, engineers directly and indirectly influence thecreation of everything from consumer goods to hardware and software products to buildings andmodes of transportation, thus their decisions make positive or negative impacts on the planet andits people, today and into the future.5 For engineers to contribute in a positive and
US and 39 other countries around the world. ABET sets standardexpectations for college-level content in engineering and technology fields through consultationwith the discipline’s professional society (e.g. AAEES for EnvE and ASCE for CivE) andsupervision of the Engineering Accreditation Commission (EAC) [18]. In addition to specificareas of technical knowledge, ABET includes some professional-readiness skills such asteamwork, communication, and data analysis [19]–[21]. Accreditation in its modern form doesnot consist of a check list of requirements which could create high levels of curricular uniformityacross institutions. The old check list format led, in part, to the development of the modernEC2000 standards [22]. Modern accreditation
of students,who, through involvement in the formal college curriculum and extracurricular activities, cannurture and apply these innovation capacities. This perspective underscores the importance ofdemographic and educational factors that may influence the development of these capacities.Several studies have investigated collegiate mechanisms or individual characteristics that maydevelop innovation capacities in undergraduate students. Key factors include engagement ininnovation-related coursework [10] and positive interactions with faculty [11]. Yet there is anotable emphasis on the importance of educational practices that are inclusive and considerstudent identities and academic majors [12], [13]. These studies highlight the crucial role
redlining and underbounding. While the environmental justice movement hasmade great strides in incorporating public health research into these issues, there has been lesseffort focused on integrating environmental engineering training into the movement. This paperdescribes research on developing and implementing a suite of integrated, interdisciplinary,community-engaged, anti-racism training opportunities for civil and environmental engineeringundergraduates to build capacity for addressing environmental justice challenges. For this project,we integrate environmental engineering, applied anthropology, and Science TechnologyEngineering and Mathematics (STEM) education to redesign existing civil and environmentalengineering courses to include
, our paper aims to offernew insights and recommendations for educators and institutions seeking to cultivate well-rounded engineers equipped with both technical expertise and a nuanced understanding of thehumanities.BackgroundEngineering education traditionally emphasizes the development of strong problem-solvingskills. This focus is reflected in the 2004 US National Academy of Engineering report, “TheEngineer of 2020: Visions of Engineering in the New Century,” which links engineering withtechnology and the identity of engineers as technical problem solvers [8]. This requires engineersto break down large complex problems into smaller, more manageable parts [9]. By breakingdown complex problems into manageable parts, engineers can identify the
sustainability. The first-year course, EENV 102:Introduction to Environmental Engineering Design and Sustainability, also addressesprofessionalism competencies with its focus on introducing career paths in environmentalengineering, use of basic engineering tools, and building communication skills. The second-yearcourse, EENV 202: Sustainable Waste Management, includes formal content introducing systemsthinking, social justice, and ethics. Both courses utilize student teams to complete the assignedprojects. EENV 202 additionally includes assessment of team function using the CATMEplatform, developed by Purdue University [11]. The findings from the faculty interviews wereone driver for the development of content for the first project-based learning