Incorporating Systems Thinking and Sustainability within Civil and Environmental Engineering Curricula at UVM
Incorporating Systems Thinking and Sustainability within Civil and Environmental Engineering Curricula at UVM
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将系统思维和可持续性纳入 UVM 土木与环境工程课程
DOI：
10.18260/1-2--18134
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发表时间：
2011
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
D. Rizzo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
D. Rizzo
作为美国国家科学基金会部门级别改革（DLR）拨款的一部分，佛蒙特大学（UVM）的土木和环境工程项目在其项目中纳入了系统思维和解决工程问题的系统方法。系统思考方法将社会、环境和经济因素视为解决问题的必要组成部分。因为它是一个整体系统的方法，它也包含了可持续性。我们从以下几个方面整合了系统思维；1)新材料已被纳入重点课程（如第一年的入门和高级设计课程），2)一系列相关的环境和交通系统课程已被纳入课程（如系统导论，决策制定和建模），3)服务学习（S-L）项目已被纳入重点必修课，作为实践系统方法的一种方式。这在高级设计课程中达到高潮，其中许多项目特别关注可持续性。作为我们改革的一部分，我们实施了各种评估方法，包括学生调查、焦点小组、教师访谈和学生作业评估。我们专门设计了一个调查工具来解决可持续发展的理解（开放式和李克特量表）。调查对象为一年级第一学期土木与环境工程专业学生、FYFS环境科学专业学生和大四土木与环境工程专业学生。大约50%的土木和环境工程专业的新生无法定义或给出可持续发展的合理例子，而环境科学专业的学生几乎100%可以提供一个很好的定义和合理的可持续发展的例子。然而，在工程入门课程结束时，大多数工程专业的学生对可持续性有了一个很好的定义和例子。两组女生对学习可持续发展的兴趣在统计上都明显高于男生。
As part of an NSF Department Level Reform (DLR) grant, the civil and environmental engineering programs at the University of Vermont (UVM) incorporated systems thinking and a systems approach to engineering problem solving within their programs. A systems thinking approach regards social, environmental and economic factors as necessary components of the problem solution. Because it is a whole systems approach it also encompasses sustainability. We have integrated systems thinking in the following ways; 1) new material has been included into key courses (e.g. the first-year introductory and senior design courses), 2) a sequence of three related environmental and transportation systems courses have been included within the curricula (i.e., Introduction to Systems, Decision Making, and Modeling), and 3) service-learning (S-L) projects have been integrated into key required courses as a way of practicing a systems approach. This culminates in the senior design course in which many of the projects specifically focus on sustainability. A variety of assessment methods have been implemented as part of our reform including student surveys, focus groups, faculty interviews, and assessment of student work. We specifically designed a survey tool that addressed sustainability understanding (both open ended and Likert scale). The survey was given to first-year first semester (FYFS) civil and environmental engineering students, FYFS environmental science students, and senior civil and environmental engineering students. Approximately 50% of the incoming civil and environmental engineering students could not define or give reasonable examples of what sustainability means, while their counterparts in environmental science showed that almost 100% could provide a good definition and provide reasonable examples of sustainability. However, by the end of the introductory course in engineering, the majority of the engineering students had a good working definition of sustainability and examples. Female students in both groups showed a statistically significantly higher interest in learning about sustainability than their male counterparts.