Principles for Designing Engineering Curricula Grounded in Environmental Justice

Amy Wilson-Lopez; Jennifer Taylor; Ivonne Santiago

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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: PCEE Session 12: STEM, Technology, and Engineering Education
Page Count: 9
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--41283
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/41283
Download Count: 271

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Paper Authors

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Amy Wilson-Lopez Utah State University - Engineering Education

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Amy Wilson-Lopez is an associate professor at Utah State University.

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biography

Jennifer Taylor University of Colorado Boulder

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Jennifer Taylor is an Assistant Director with the Integrated Teaching and Learning (ITL) Program of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder. She directs the ITL Pre-College Engineering Education Program whose mission aims to broaden participation and build interest in engineering through hands-on learning experiences for K-12 students, especially underrepresented and underserved youth. Jennifer develops engineering education curricula that focus on integrating the engineering design process and design thinking into STEM education and works with K-12 educators to increase teacher capacity in classroom engineering education. She also teaches a first-year Engineering Projects course at CU.

Prior to pursuing a career in higher education, Jennifer taught middle school science for 15 years and she received a Teacher of the Year community award and guided her students to numerous state and national sustainable project awards, including the Siemens We Can Change the World Challenge. After transitioning from the classroom, she joined the CU Cooperative Institute for Environmental Sciences (CIRES) Education & Outreach Program as a Curriculum Development and Program Manager where she created K-12 climate science and environmental education curricula and programs and was a team member that received a CO-LABS Governor’s Award for High Impact Research in Atmospheric Science.

Jennifer is a first-generation college student and holds a BSc in Biological Sciences from the University of Illinois-Chicago and an MSc in Environmental Biology from the University of Liverpool. In her downtime, Jennifer enjoys spending time with her family in neighboring Rocky Mountain National Park and the challenge of running ultra-marathons.

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Ivonne Santiago University of Texas at El Paso

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Abstract

For generations, People of Color within the United States have been disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards that deny fundamental human rights, such as access to clean air, land, water, and food. Environmental inequities range from siting waste facilities in predominantly Black communities, to placing highways through low-income communities, to ordering migrant workers to use hazardous chemicals, to physically forcing Indigenous peoples from fertile lands. These environmental injustices contribute to longstanding, intersecting economic and health disparities when families in affected communities are more likely to develop health problems that affect quality of life and ability to work. Climate change is predicted to exacerbate these injustices.

Although many disciplines offer approaches and tools for recognizing and redressing environmental injustices, we believe the disciplines of engineering are uniquely poised to advance the ethical imperative of a more just and sustainable world. Through more equitable infrastructures and technologies, and through processes and products that recognize people’s interdependence within ecological systems, engineers (and engineering-literate citizens) can realize new, sustainable, and equitable systems, technologies, and processes, which foreground the interests and health of historically minoritized communities. However, despite this urgent ecological and ethical need for engineering education grounded in environmental justice, little is known about how high school teachers can design and implement curricula rooted in principles of environmental justice, such as those outlined by the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991.

The purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was therefore to describe the pedagogical design principles that informed the creation of high school engineering curricula that foregrounded environmental justice. Within the context of these curricula, high school students learned about environmental injustices through case studies that highlighted different aspects of injustice. They interpreted geographically based datasets, such as the Environmental Justice Indexes provided by the Environmental-Protection Agency, and they created data Story Maps that highlighted trends related to environmental injustices in their own communities. Finally, they worked toward designing technologies and systems that could redress these injustices. This study is based in a constant comparative analysis of the teachers’ curricula. Through this analysis, the research team sought to answer the following question: What pedagogical design principles guided high school teachers’ creation of curricula rooted in principles of environmental justice?

A preliminary analysis has indicated pedagogical design principles that informed teachers’ curriculum design, including (a) blending individual human stories with largescale datasets that highlighted inequities; (b) encouraging artistic and aesthetic expression relative to social issues; and (c) highlighting the potential of creative and equitable design to promote public health and equity. While we realize that many other principles may also guide teachers’ pedagogies rooted in environmental justice, this exploratory study may offer implications for other engineering teachers who seek to incorporate principles of environmental justice into high school settings.

Citation
Format

Wilson-Lopez, A., & Taylor, J., & Santiago, I. (2022, August), Principles for Designing Engineering Curricula Grounded in Environmental Justice Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--41283

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - For generations, People of Color within the United States have been disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards that deny fundamental human rights, such as access to clean air, land, water, and food. Environmental inequities range from siting waste facilities in predominantly Black communities, to placing highways through low-income communities, to ordering migrant workers to use hazardous chemicals, to physically forcing Indigenous peoples from fertile lands. These environmental injustices contribute to longstanding, intersecting economic and health disparities when families in affected communities are more likely to develop health problems that affect quality of life and ability to work. Climate change is predicted to exacerbate these injustices.


Although many disciplines offer approaches and tools for recognizing and redressing environmental injustices, we believe the disciplines of engineering are uniquely poised to advance the ethical imperative of a more just and sustainable world. Through more equitable infrastructures and technologies, and through processes and products that recognize people’s interdependence within ecological systems, engineers (and engineering-literate citizens) can realize new, sustainable, and equitable systems, technologies, and processes, which foreground the interests and health of historically minoritized communities. However, despite this urgent ecological and ethical need for engineering education grounded in environmental justice, little is known about how high school teachers can design and implement curricula rooted in principles of environmental justice, such as those outlined by the People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991.


The purpose of this exploratory multiple case study was therefore to describe the pedagogical design principles that informed the creation of high school engineering curricula that foregrounded environmental justice. Within the context of these curricula, high school students learned about environmental injustices through case studies that highlighted different aspects of injustice. They interpreted geographically based datasets, such as the Environmental Justice Indexes provided by the Environmental-Protection Agency, and they created data Story Maps that highlighted trends related to environmental injustices in their own communities. Finally, they worked toward designing technologies and systems that could redress these injustices. This study is based in a constant comparative analysis of the teachers’ curricula. Through this analysis, the research team sought to answer the following question: What pedagogical design principles guided high school teachers’ creation of curricula rooted in principles of environmental justice?


A preliminary analysis has indicated pedagogical design principles that informed teachers’ curriculum design, including (a) blending individual human stories with largescale datasets that highlighted inequities; (b) encouraging artistic and aesthetic expression relative to social issues; and (c) highlighting the potential of creative and equitable design to promote public health and equity. While we realize that many other principles may also guide teachers’ pedagogies rooted in environmental justice, this exploratory study may offer implications for other engineering teachers who seek to incorporate principles of environmental justice into high school settings.



AU  - Amy Wilson-Lopez
AU  - Jennifer Taylor
AU  - Ivonne Santiago
CY  - Minneapolis, MN
DA  - 2022/08/23
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Principles for Designing Engineering Curricula Grounded in Environmental Justice
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/41283
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--41283
ER  -