Enhancing the Environmental Content of Undergraduate Engineering Curricula

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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.