Enhancing the Environmental Content of Undergraduate Engineering Curricula

Cliff I. Davidson DUE 9455399 Carnegie-Mellon University 1995财年$ 90,340 Pittsburgh， PA 152133815 1996财年$ 98,520课程与课程工程本项目的总体目标是将环境问题引入卡内基梅隆大学（CMU）各传统工程学科的课程，重点是大一和大二的课程。这将使每个学生都能接触到他们学科中的环境问题和解决问题的方法。环境单位，可以很容易地适应几个现有的要求，将开发。这将构成后续工作的基础，重点放在初级和高级课程上，作为当前项目的后续工作。在此过程中，将编写可广泛传播到其他美国工程学院和大学的课程材料。由于几个原因，本建议中概述的方法比开发新的或必需的环境课程更受欢迎。一个原因是现代工程课程中已经出现了过多的对新课程或专业课程的竞争性需求。因此，作为一个实际问题，在大多数机构的课程中引入新的要求是很困难的。然而，更重要的是，环境问题不应被视为与“主流”工程问题截然不同。通过将环境考虑纳入每门学科的基础工程课程，所有工程专业的学生都将看到环境因素是良好工程实践的内在组成部分。对现有核心课程进行相对较小的修改可以对所有工程师的环境教育产生重大影响，而不仅仅是那些选择专门从事环境工程的工程师。

Cliff I. Davidson DUE 9455399 Carnegie-Mellon University FY1995 $ 90,340 Pittsburgh, PA 152133815 FY1996 $ 98,520 Course and Curriculum Engineering Title: Enhancing the Environmental Content of Undergraduate Engineering Curricula The overall objective of this program is to introduce environmental issues into the curriculum of each traditional engineering discipline at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), focusing on the freshman and sophomore years. This will enable each student to gain exposure to environmental concerns and problem-solving methods in their discipline. Environmental units that can fit easily into several existing required cmurses will be developed. This will form the basis for subsequent efforts focused on junior and senior-level courses as a follow-on to the current project. Throughout this effort, course materials that can be widely disseminated to other U.S. engineering colleges and universities will be developed. The approach outlined in this proposal is favored over the development of new or required environmental courses for several reasons. One is that modern engineering curricula already have a surfeit of competing demands for new or specialized courses. Thus, as a practical matter, it is difficult to introduce new requirements into the curriculum at most institutions. More importantly, however, environmental issues should not be seen as distinct from "mainstream" engineering issues. By integrating environmental considerations into basic engineering courses in each discipline, all engineering students will come to see that environmental factors are an inherent part of good engineering practice. Relatively small modifications in the curricula of existing core courses can have a significant impact on the environmental education of all engineers, not just those who choose to specialize in environmental engineering.