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1. Continuing Evaluation of Undergraduate Engineering Students’Perspectives on Renewable Energy: A Two-Year Study

   H. Song, K. McNeal (June 2024, ASEE)

   This study meticulously probes the evolution of engineering undergraduates' attitudes and skills related to renewable energy and sustainability over two years at two institutions in the Southeastern United States. Data were intensively collected in two phases – fall 2022 and spring 2024 – amassing over 250 initial and upwards of 200 follow-up responses. This rigorous effort culminated in over 150 complete and matched datasets subjected to detailed examination. A bespoke, five-part survey was employed to capture the complex spectrum of students' attitudes. Our analytical approach incorporated ANOVA; these results indicated minimal group variances across most survey dimensions, hence suggesting a uniformity in perceptions. Paired sample tests brought to light a minor, but statistically significant increase in sustainability-related knowledge. The educational methods employed included hands-on projects, seminars, and group assignments focused on various aspects of renewable energy and sustainability. These incremental yet impactful changes highlight the potential of precise educational strategies to effectively mold student perspectives towards sustainability. By integrating solid statistical techniques and delving into the broader educational implications, this study provides valuable insights into the refinement of a sustainability-centered engineering curricula. 

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2. Continuing Evaluation of Undergraduate Engineering Students’ Perspectives on Renewable Energy: A Two-Year Study

   Song, H; McNeal, K; Solomon, JT; Beckingham, LE; Lazar, K (July 2024, Proceedings of the 2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition)

   This study meticulously probes the evolution of engineering undergraduates' attitudes and skills related to renewable energy and sustainability over two years at two institutions in the Southeastern United States. Data were intensively collected in two phases – fall 2022 and spring 2024 – amassing over 250 initial and upwards of 200 follow-up responses. This rigorous effort culminated in over 150 complete and matched datasets subjected to detailed examination. A bespoke, five-part survey was employed to capture the complex spectrum of students' attitudes. Our analytical approach incorporated ANOVA; these results indicated minimal group variances across most survey dimensions, hence suggesting a uniformity in perceptions. Paired sample tests brought to light a minor, but statistically significant increase in sustainability-related knowledge. The educational methods employed included hands-on projects, seminars, and group assignments focused on various aspects of renewable energy and sustainability. These incremental yet impactful changes highlight the potential of precise educational strategies to effectively mold student perspectives towards sustainability. By integrating solid statistical techniques and delving into the broader educational implications, this study provides valuable insights into the refinement of a sustainability-centered engineering curricula. 

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3. Use of Citizen Science to Improve Student Experience in Engineering Design, Manufacturing and Sustainability Education

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2018.07.124  

   Esmaeilian, Behzad; Rust, Michael; Gopalakrishnan, Praveen Kumare; Behdad, Sara (July 2018, Procedia manufacturing)

   This study used the unrealized potential of citizen science as an innovative educational tool with the aim of enhancing research and learning experience of students in several engineering design and manufacturing courses with a particular focus on sustainability-related topics. Citizen science has been employed as a data collection and educational tool in two engineering courses at the University at Buffalo in which students were tasked with reporting examples of good and bad designs they observe in their everyday life. The results revealed the significant potential of citizen scientists to report innovative and informative design and manufacturing ideas. 

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4. Exploring Gender Differences in Students’ Sustainability Beliefs in Upper-level Engineering Courses

   Swift, M.; Godwin, A.; Shealy, T. (June 2018, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)

   Despite increased calls for the need for more diverse engineers and significant efforts to “move the needle,” the composition of students, especially women, earning bachelor’s degrees in engineering has not significantly changed over the past three decades. Prior research by Klotz and colleagues (2014) showed that sustainability as a topic in engineering education is a potentially positive way to increase women’s interest in STEM at the transition from high school to college. Additionally, sustainability has increasingly become a more prevalent topic in engineering as the need for global solutions that address the environmental, social, and economic aspects of sustainability have become more pressing. However, few studies have examined students’ sustainability related career for upper-level engineering students. This time point is a critical one as students are transitioning from college to industry or other careers where they may be positioned to solve some of these pressing problems. In this work, we answer the question, “What differences exist between men and women’s attitudes about sustainability in upper-level engineering courses?” in order to better understand how sustainability topics may promote women’s interest in and desire to address these needs in their future careers. We used pilot data from the CLIMATE survey given to 228 junior and senior civil, environmental, and mechanical engineering students at a large East Coast research institution. This survey included questions about students’ career goals, college experiences, beliefs about engineering, and demographic information. The students surveyed included 62 third-year students, 96 fourth-year students, 29 fifth-year students, and one sixth-year student. In order to compare our results of upper-level students’ attitudes about sustainability, we asked the same questions as the previous study focused on first-year engineering students, “Which of these topics, if any, do you hope to directly address in your career?” The list of topics included energy (supply or demand), climate change, environmental degradation, water supply, terrorism and war, opportunities for future generations, food availability, disease, poverty and distribution of resources, and opportunities for women and/or minorities. As the answer to this question was binary, either “Yes,” or “No,” Pearson’s Chi-squared test with Yates’ continuity correction was performed on each topic for this question, comparing men and women’s answers. We found that women are significantly more likely to want to address water supply, food availability, and opportunities for woman and/or minorities in their careers than their male peers. Conversely, men were significantly more likely to want to address energy and terrorism and war in their careers than their female peers. Our results begin to help us understand the particular differences that men and women, even far along in their undergraduate engineering careers, may have in their desire to address certain sustainability outcomes in their careers. This work begins to let us understand certain topics and pathways that may support women in engineering as well as provides comparisons to prior work on early career undergraduate students. Our future work will include looking at particular student experiences in and out of the classroom to understand how these sustainability outcome expectations develop. 

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5. Exploring How Engineering Internships and Undergraduate Research Experiences Inform and Influence College Students’ Career Decisions and Future Plans.

   Powers, K.; Chen, H.; Prasad, K.; Gilmartin, S.; Sheppard, S. (January 2018, Proceedings of the American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference, June 24-27, 2018. Salt Lake City, Utah.)

   Does engagement in high impact practices such as technical internships and undergraduate research influence engineering students’ career decisions and future plans? And how is learning that comes from these high impact practices related to “school learning”? These high impact educational practices have been shown to increase the rates of student engagement and retention in higher education. While access to and participation in these activities is often unsystematic across various institutions, these practices have been shown to benefit college students with diverse backgrounds and learner qualities. This paper establishes a context for understanding the characteristics and attitudes of students who participate in internships and undergraduate research by drawing from analyses of the first administration of the Engineering Majors Survey (EMS), a longitudinal study designed to examine engineering students’ career objectives related to creativity and innovation, and the experiences and attitudes that might influence those goals. In addition, using interview data from product development interns at a single engineering firm, we add insights into the specific skills that interns identify as learning in their internship and suggest connections between school-and-work learning. The more general picture of the impact of internship and research experiences (from the EMS), complemented with a “deep dive” into the learning that happens in internship experiences (from the interviews) provides a solid starting point for future exploration of how high impact practices such as internships and research experiences might be better integrated into a student’s educational development. 

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