International Service Learning in Environmental Engineering

Educational experiences that relate social and technical subjects offer students the opportunity to reflect on the broad significance of environmental engineering. Although it is often difficult to join social and technical subjects in a classroom setting, the link may be more easily made through service learning projects in which students use classroom knowledge and hands-on service to implement solutions for a given community. As an example, a senior civil and environmental engineering student project to design a sanitary sewer for an in-need community in San Benito, Guatemala, is described. Students traveled to the site, performed a land survey, and gathered other design data while also learning about Guatemalan history and culture. The students apply knowledge from required courses and the humanities/social science class "Latin American Health, Infrastructure, and Environment" to arrive at an appropriate final design. The international design project is described as an approach to increase student appreciation of the engineering profession and support educational goals, such as increased understanding of engineering solutions in a societal context, and the ability to function on a multidisciplinary team.