Atlanta, Georgia
June 23, 2013
June 23, 2013
June 26, 2013
2153-5965
Environmental Engineering
8
23.823.1 - 23.823.8
10.18260/1-2--19837
https://peer.asee.org/19837
478
Introducing Sustainable Design Principles in Freshman Civil Engineering DesignAs issues dealing with sustainability are becoming more commonplace in industry, it is important forundergraduate students to become aware of how sustainability principles relate to their intendedengineering major. By introducing sustainable design principles early in their academic career, studentscan apply these principles throughout the remainder of their higher-level courses. In a freshmanintroduction to design course, a more structured strategy to teaching sustainable design wasimplemented to incorporate sustainability principles early in the civil engineering curriculum. Thepurpose at this stage in student learning was to increase students’ awareness of sustainable designthrough the introduction to sustainability concepts, such as the triple bottom line, life-cycle assessment,and carbon footprint, through discussion of concrete as a building material and case studies of buildingconstruction. Pre- and post-surveys were conducted at the beginning and end of the quarter,respectively, to assess student learning. Results confirmed an increase in student awareness andunderstanding of sustainable design concepts that were incorporated on a weekly basis throughout thecourse and how they can be relate to civil engineering projects.
Mueller, J., & Aidoo, J. (2013, June), Introducing Sustainable Design Principles in Freshman Civil Engineering Design Paper presented at 2013 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Atlanta, Georgia. 10.18260/1-2--19837
ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2013 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015