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Work in Progress: Sustainable Engineering for non-Engineers

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Conference

2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Salt Lake City, Utah

Publication Date

June 23, 2018

Start Date

June 23, 2018

End Date

July 27, 2018

Conference Session

Engineering in a Societal Context

Tagged Division

Multidisciplinary Engineering

Page Count

12

DOI

10.18260/1-2--31308

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/31308

Download Count

358

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Paper Authors

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Katherine Sievers US Air Force Academy

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Katherine Sievers is a Senior Instructor in the Civil Engineering department and the US Air Force Academy. She teaches courses in Sustainability, Environmental Engineering, Fluid Mechanics, and Introductory Statics. Prior to teaching she worked as a Bioenvironmental Engineer for three years. She received her BS in Environmental Engineering from the US Air Force Academy and her MS in Environmental Engineering and Science from the Air Force Institute of Technology.

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Melissa Stewart Beauregard United States Air Force Academy

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James B. Pocock U.S. Air Force Academy

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James Pocock is a professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy. His research interests include sustainable design and construction and socially sustainable development in the third world.

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Adam M Strecker P.E.

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Major Strecker is an Assistant Professor and the chief of the structures division of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the United States Air Force Academy.

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Kimberly Kays United States Air Force Academy

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Major Kimberly Kays is an Assistant Professor at the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) and was the course director for the Field Engineering and Readiness Laboratory class. She has helped advance over 350 cadets in areas of technical competence, professionalism, and officer development and was selected as the Second Year Instructor of the Year. Major Kays served as an Air Force Civil Engineer for ten years in a variety of US and oversees engineering assignments. She earned her undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame and MS from the South Dakota School of Mines in Construction Management.

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John A. Christ U.S. Air Force Academy

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Abstract

Recent shifts in economic and international policy have resulted in environmental sustainability emerging as a rapidly growing education objective. This is true especially in those fields related to STEM and at the post-secondary level. ABET, the accreditation board for engineering and technology programs, identifies sustainability as a realistic design constraint to be implemented into undergraduate engineering curricula, and specifically requires sustainability to be covered in architectural, civil, and environmental engineering programs. However, an understanding of sustainability and how and when decisions related to sustainable practices are made transcends STEM careers. Therefore, education in sustainability should reach all academic majors. For example, at the authors’ institution only 30% of students are enrolled in ABET-accredited engineering programs. However, regardless of undergraduate major, graduates will commission into the US military and be in a position to incorporate sustainability into high-impact decisions within months of graduating. Many go on to serve as high-level decision and policy makers, both during and after their military service. In an effort to extend education in sustainability to all students, a new sustainability course was developed within the Civil and Environmental Engineering department, and will be offered to all students beginning Fall 2019. All degrees awarded are Bachelors of Science (BS) degrees due to the extensive science, engineering and mathematics education students receive. This background allowed the course committee to design a course for non-technical majors which incorporates predominantly technical concepts and learning objectives. All graduates enter into a military career as commissioned officers and are expected to make informed decisions on topics ranging from space operations to routine military installation maintenance and management. To address this wide range of occupational responsibility, the primary learning goal is for the students to be able to integrate and advocate for sustainability principles in plans and decisions affecting the built environment at the conclusion of the course. Course design worked backwards to accomplish this goal beginning with the summative assessment and ending with the individual learning experiences. Using this approach, instructors were able to identify major sustainability concepts critical for achieving the primary learning goal. The Envision framework was used to evaluate and understand the built environment. Some additional concepts included are life cycle assessment, renewable energy, industrial ecology, green building, control systems, transportation and urban design. Students will be assessed at the beginning and end of the course to determine if the course met the primary learning goal.

Sievers, K., & Beauregard, M. S., & Pocock, J. B., & Strecker, A. M., & Kays, K., & Christ, J. A. (2018, June), Work in Progress: Sustainable Engineering for non-Engineers Paper presented at 2018 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--31308

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