Investigating the role of compassion in engineering service-learning

Nathan Howell; Vinu Unnikrishnan; Kenneth Leitch; Erick Butler

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Community Engagement Division Technical Session 1 - STEM Outreach
Page Count: 31
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41612
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41612
Download Count: 457

Paper Authors

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Nathan Howell

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I am an environmental engineer specializing in many aspects of water resources and environmental fate-and-transport. His initial training was in chemical engineering (BS) at the University of Texas. I worked in environmental consulting in groundwater remediation. After consulting, I spent time at the University of Houston earning an environmental engineering PhD. My research there was in water quality modeling of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and large-scale field sampling projects in the Houston Ship Channel coastal system. I currently works at West Texas A&M University in the Texas Panhandle, a semi-arid region. My activities there are applications of water engineering to benefit people and communities. The research and service span three areas. The first is the use of inexpensive biochar for preserving environmental quality in developing communities by using it as an adsorbent for agrochemical pesticides and nutrients. Second is the use of marginal quality water for irrigation to profit agriculture and maintain soil health. The third is the use of water footprint and blue-gray-green water categories to better understand the water impacts of food waste and strategies for its reduction. In the world of engineering education, I am very interested in the intersection between engineering student service, growth, and professionalism especially with respect to engineering service opportunities.

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Vinu Unnikrishnan West Texas A&M University

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Kenneth Leitch West Texas A&M University

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Kenneth R. Leitch holds a Ph.D. in civil engineering from New Mexico State University and M.B.A. from Colorado Christian University. He is an Associate Professor of civil engineering at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas. He is a registered P.E. in Texas and Indiana. His interests are in engineering education, transportation, structures, materials testing, sustainable construction, 3D modeling, and environmental stewardship.

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Erick Butler West Texas A&M University

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Dr. Butler joined the College of Engineering in Fall 2013 as an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering. He earned his B.S in environmental science with a concentration in environmental technology, an M.S. in environmental engineering, and a doctorate in civil engineering all from Cleveland State University. His dissertation research was in dye wastewater treatment using electrocoagulation and photo-oxidation.

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Abstract

Background: Four undergraduate engineering educators worked to examine the role of compassion in students in a senior design course using real world projects. We established relationships with non-profit community organizations (an international relief and a local trail development organization) through our professional networks. We found organizational needs and how engineering students could be involved to meet them.

Project design and execution: Students designed two sanitation projects. For the trail-based organization, we asked students to improve a public bike trail by providing a common bathroom facility. The international relief organization needed a prototype for a low resource bathroom facility to replace open defecation (OD) practices in Kenya. We sought to identify instances of compassion in students and to ascertain what role compassion has in professional development. Put simply, do compassionate engineers do a better job? We examined compassion by two different means—a survey involving Pommier’s Compassion Scale (CS) and a class focus group. We analyzed all qualitative data using Descriptive followed by Focused Coding analysis to see what themes emerged.

Lessons learned: Early researcher observations indicate that students perceive compassion for a community that is suffering as important in their design decision-making, but they are unsure how their potential growth in compassion will affect their professional engineering practice. Similar to recent developments on the importance of compassion in medicine, we hope to find evidence that compassion is an important aspect of engineering practice and education.

Conclusions and next steps: While we did not see growth according to the CS, we did see significant variation in students and in the domains that define compassion. The combination of qualitative-quantitative data illustrated important student experiences with compassion including that engineering work quality may be higher when students exercise compassion, and this higher work quality could translate beyond service projects into normal professional practice. In addition, service-learning and compassion work was seen as more fulfilling, but it is unclear if that fulfillment can go on for students as they transition from student to working professional. Finally, the work we present here highlights the need to study compassion in engineering more broadly, both in how it affects engineering design and how it might be consciously incorporated into curricula.

Citation
Format

Howell, N., & Unnikrishnan, V., & Leitch, K., & Butler, E. (2022, August), Investigating the role of compassion in engineering service-learning Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41612

TY - CPAPER
AB - Background: Four undergraduate engineering educators worked to examine the role of compassion in students in a senior design course using real world projects. We established relationships with non-profit community organizations (an international relief and a local trail development organization) through our professional networks. We found organizational needs and how engineering students could be involved to meet them.

Project design and execution: Students designed two sanitation projects. For the trail-based organization, we asked students to improve a public bike trail by providing a common bathroom facility. The international relief organization needed a prototype for a low resource bathroom facility to replace open defecation (OD) practices in Kenya. We sought to identify instances of compassion in students and to ascertain what role compassion has in professional development. Put simply, do compassionate engineers do a better job?
We examined compassion by two different means—a survey involving Pommier’s Compassion Scale (CS) and a class focus group. We analyzed all qualitative data using Descriptive followed by Focused Coding analysis to see what themes emerged.

Lessons learned: Early researcher observations indicate that students perceive compassion for a community that is suffering as important in their design decision-making, but they are unsure how their potential growth in compassion will affect their professional engineering practice. Similar to recent developments on the importance of compassion in medicine, we hope to find evidence that compassion is an important aspect of engineering practice and education.

Conclusions and next steps: While we did not see growth according to the CS, we did see significant variation in students and in the domains that define compassion. The combination of qualitative-quantitative data illustrated important student experiences with compassion including that engineering work quality may be higher when students exercise compassion, and this higher work quality could translate beyond service projects into normal professional practice. In addition, service-learning and compassion work was seen as more fulfilling, but it is unclear if that fulfillment can go on for students as they transition from student to working professional. Finally, the work we present here highlights the need to study compassion in engineering more broadly, both in how it affects engineering design and how it might be consciously incorporated into curricula.

AU - Nathan Howell
AU - Vinu Unnikrishnan
AU - Kenneth Leitch
AU - Erick Butler
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Investigating the role of compassion in engineering service-learning
UR - https://peer.asee.org/41612
DO - 10.18260/1-2--41612
ER -