Sustainable STEM Learning Program (S2P): Promoting Systems Thinking to Aid Holistic Undergraduate Engineering Education

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Faculty from three areas (engineering, psychology, and linguistics) will be collaborating to design two engineering courses based on systems thinking, sustainable engineering, and cultural understanding. They plan to research, develop, and teach two courses in engineering to demonstrate that a new approach based on systems thinking and spatial cognition applied to teaching and learning may lead to changing the way educators and students think about STEM learning. The importance of cultural awareness and global perspectives will also be integrated into the new courses.A systems approach to learning helps instructors and students understand the complexity of the world and encourages them to think in terms of relationships, connectedness, and context. Interdependent healthy learning practices are therefore necessary and essential for the advancement of STEM academic achievement in an increasingly global and complex world. A major hypothesis of the Sustainable STEM Learning Program (S2LP) project is that when education is viewed from an interdisciplinary, systems, and cultural perspective, learning becomes student centered, holistic, and collaborative. The S2LP framework will make important conceptual contributions towards promoting holistic learning through spatial cognition and systems learning. In terms of the broader impacts, the courses will emphasize the importance of understanding culture in a global context in an increasingly diverse world. Courses to be developed may potentially form a Science, Technology, and Society minor. Effectiveness of the new approach will be tested against control courses. This holistic approach should be of special relevance to international students and those with limited language proficiency. Agreements with Minority Engineering and Science Advancement (MESA) and a community college are in place to conduct workshops for teachers and students. Both channels will engage members of underrepresented groups and may help increase their enrollment in STEM majors. Dissemination activities will include teacher workshops, conferences and papers, and the delivery of one of the courses through the university's massive online open course program.