Collaborative Research: Integrating Sustainability Grand Challenges and Systems Thinking into Engineering Curriculum

合作研究：将可持续发展的重大挑战和系统思维融入工程课程

• 批准号: 1323190
• 负责人: Melissa Bilec
• 金额: $ 21.5万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1323190&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Integrating; Sustainability; Grand

The goal of this TUES Type 2 project is to incorporate sustainability grand challenges and experiential learning into classrooms and throughout engineering programs, with the aim of attracting and retaining a talented and diverse set of students who are prepared to tackle the engineering challenges of a global economy. The project team is developing and implementing three stand-alone sustainability courses and 14 modules at five partner institutions (Arizona State University, Mesa Community College, University of Pittsburgh, Community College of Allegheny College, and Laney College) and evaluating the effectiveness of the modules and classes on student, faculty, and program performance. Specifically, this project (1) creates and (2) implements ready-to-use content for three new stand-alone sustainability courses and fourteen modules, (3) evaluates the effectiveness of each course and module based on student and faculty feedback and performance, (4) evaluates the different degrees of program-wide curricula change: the stand-alone course method and the module method, and (5) disseminates the courses, modules, and findings to other institutions.The stand-alone courses (Life Cycle Assessment, Green Buildings, and Sustainability Topics) and sustainability modules employ experiential learning, which has been shown in educational research to enhance the quality of student learning, and build on the team's sustainability engineering educational expertise. Flexibility is built into the stand-alone course materials and modules to accommodate the resources of different faculty and facilitate the adoption of these courses across different universities. The team is developing engaging activities for students both within the classroom and in the real world and increasing faculty expertise by mentoring numerous faculty over the four-year project. Moreover, the project includes well-integrated activities to address research questions on the effectiveness of the stand-alone courses' and modules' methods for incorporating sustainability topics. Evaluation includes student-centered evaluation of learning outcomes for each module and course, evaluation of faculty and institutional outcomes for the two different methods of course integration, and evaluation of outcomes from the collaborative project. Results are used to create recommendations on how institutions can best integrate sustainability and systems thinking into engineering curricula and to advance the understanding of faculty and institutional barriers to integrating sustainability and experiential learning into curricula.This project creates resources aimed at different engineering courses across the range of undergraduate levels; the program is reaching hundreds of undergraduates at two research universities and three community colleges. This project has the potential to facilitate integration of sustainability education into existing curricula by developing flexible curricular material and identifying and minimizing barriers to implementation of sustainability education and experiential learning. Faculty development workshops and mentoring activities are employed to facilitate dissemination and adoption of the developed courses and module.

这个TUES 2型项目的目标是将可持续发展的重大挑战和体验式学习融入课堂和整个工程项目，目的是吸引和留住有才华和多样化的学生，他们准备好应对全球经济的工程挑战。项目团队正在五个合作机构（亚利桑那州立大学、梅萨社区学院、匹兹堡大学、阿勒格尼学院社区学院和兰尼学院）开发和实施三个独立的可持续发展课程和14个模块，并评估模块和课程对学生、教师和项目绩效的有效性。具体而言，本项目(1)为三个新的独立可持续发展课程和14个模块创建和(2)实施现成的内容；(3)根据学生和教师的反馈和表现评估每个课程和模块的有效性；(4)评估整个项目范围内课程变化的不同程度：独立课程方法和模块方法；(5)将课程、模块和研究结果传播给其他机构。独立课程（生命周期评估，绿色建筑和可持续发展主题）和可持续发展模块采用体验式学习，这在教育研究中已经证明可以提高学生的学习质量，并建立在团队的可持续发展工程教育专业知识的基础上。独立的课程材料和模块具有灵活性，以适应不同教师的资源，并促进在不同大学采用这些课程。该团队正在为学生在课堂和现实世界中开展有吸引力的活动，并通过在四年的项目中指导众多教师来提高教师的专业知识。此外，该项目还包括整合良好的活动，以解决关于独立课程和模块方法纳入可持续性主题的有效性的研究问题。评估包括以学生为中心对每个模块和课程的学习成果的评估，对两种不同课程整合方法的教师和机构成果的评估，以及对合作项目成果的评估。研究结果用于提出建议，说明机构如何最好地将可持续性和系统思维整合到工程课程中，并促进对将可持续性和体验式学习整合到课程中的教师和制度障碍的理解。该项目为不同本科层次的工程课程提供资源；该项目正在惠及两所研究型大学和三所社区学院的数百名本科生。该项目有可能通过开发灵活的课程材料，查明并尽量减少实施可持续教育和体验式学习的障碍，促进将可持续教育纳入现有课程。采用教师发展研讨会和辅导活动来促进已开发课程和模块的传播和采用。