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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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Board 142: A New Paradigm for Sustainability Engineering: A Transdisciplinary, Learner-Centered, and DEI-Focused Approach
Sustainability is an overarching challenge for the 21st century at local, national, and international levels. A new generation of engineers trained in sustainability is crucial to ensure the quality of life for current and future generations. To meet this challenge, the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus (UPRM), with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE): Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Program, aims to create a new Minor in Sustainability Engineering, as a precursor to a bachelor's degree in the same area. This paper describes a recently awarded project comprising the design and implementation of a Sustainability Engineering (SE) Minor at UPRM
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- Award ID(s):
- 2150461
- PAR ID:
- 10519327
- Publisher / Repository:
- ASEE Conferences
- Date Published:
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Sustainability, mindset, community of practice, engineering education, curriculum, Hispanic serving
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Baltimore , Maryland
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Sustainability, including environmental and social sustainability, has been identified across all sectors, from government to industry to academia, as a critical area for action. Sustainability goals and actions, by necessity, require input from many fields, but engineers play a potentially outsized role due to the structures and products they build, and the associated choices they make. The Engineering for One Planet (EOP) initiative aims to address this challenge by ensuring all future engineers, no matter their discipline, are equipped with the skills, knowledge, understanding, and mindsets to design, build, and create in sustainable ways. Much has been achieved to date by the EOP initiative, through a process of multi-stakeholder engagement, in both understanding and piloting solutions to realize the EOP vision. However, in order to achieve the far reaching systemic changes desired, a roadmap for a Collective Impact-informed, cross-sector, collaborative initiative was developed. This roadmap leverages the approaches yielded from the recent National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded EOP Scaling for Impact Workshop, the lessons learned and results achieved from the initiative to date, and key considerations drawn from a Collective Impact approach that centers equity. This roadmap calls for stakeholders—including academia, industry, accrediting and professional organizations, community organizations, non-profits, funders, and those communities most impacted by the negative impacts of environmental and social sustainability challenges— to move beyond singular programmatic interventions, and instead work to collaboratively understand and construct coordinated solutions, to integrating sustainability into engineering education and the engineering profession. The roadmap’s call to action invites collaborators to join this initiative and engage with the roadmap as a starting point for their work together; the roadmap provides immediate action steps, and invites collaborators to further shape the roadmap into a collective, achievable plan for systems change, that they, their institutions/organizations, and other cross-sector collaborators can embrace. For systems change is never complete and the solutions not finite; it is only through ongoing, collective action that we can fully understand, and learn how to address the lack of sustainability in engineering as the complex, social problem it is.more » « less
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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.more » « less
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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.more » « less
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This article reviews the notion of a Sustainability Mindset in comparison to sustainability competencies in the context of a study of a first year cohort of students beginning a minor in Sustainability Engineering at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez. A framework of Knowledge (K), Skills (S), Attitudes (A), Behaviors (B), and Attitudes (A) is adopted to capture the students' developing mindsets broadly the context of Sustainability. A detailed open-form survey was administered after the first semester and was completed by 9/11 participants. Results show mature growth in the domain of sustainability (e.g., broad knowledge of the concept of sustainability to encompass the three 'pillars' of environmental, equity, and economic factors, and deep knowledge regarding ideas such as circular economy and earth systems cycles). Further growth is also demonstrated in academic and personal development (e.g., improved study skills, time management, and research skills). Future work will endeavor to continue observing the evolution of the mindset at the KSBA level and at finer levels of detail.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.18260/1-2--42469
