Abstract
This paper explores the cognitive and affective outcomes of the Sustainable Metrics (SusMet) Module for introducing engineering students to concepts of design for end-of-life and design for disassembly (explicit) and sustainable metrics (implicit) through active and experiential learning in the disassembly of green office chairs. The purpose of this research is to establish the impact of the SusMet module on student cognition and perceptions of sustainability and to understand the effect of activity on learning objective retention. The SusMet Module was implemented in a total of nine courses (318 total participants): eight freshman Introduction to Engineering and one junior Engineering Projects in Community Service course at Arizona State University. Research design included one course where students completed the entire module and one comparison course where the activity was removed; both courses included a follow-on design assignment two weeks after module implementation. The module was assessed using the mixed-methods approach of anonymous, digital pre- and postmodule surveys and a rubric to test the impact of activity on learning objective retention. The activity had the greatest impact on student cognition and retention of learning objectives; students that experienced hands-on disassembly of the chairs retained concepts students tended to struggle with, i.e., design for end-of-life (explicit) and sustainable metrics (implicit), to a greater degree than students in the course that did not experience hands-on chair disassembly. This research suggests that active, experiential learning could serve as a method to enhance sustainable engineering education through active exploration of sustainability concepts in conjunction with engineering designs.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) Type 1 program (formerly CCLI)-Award No. 0942172/1242325, Venture Well (formerly National Collegiate Inventors and Innovators Alliance) Course and Program Grant Award No. 5120-07, the University of Pittsburgh Innovation in Excellence Award (IEA), the Arizona State University Gary and Diane Tooker Professorship for Effective Education in STEM, the National Science Foundation Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) Type 2 program-DUE Award Nos. 1323719 and 1323190 and an Arizona State University NASE Space Grant Fellowship. The authors thank the Intro to Engineering and EPICS instructors at Arizona State University for their participation.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 144 • Issue 1 • January 2018
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 23, 2016
Accepted: May 10, 2017
Published online: Sep 25, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Feb 25, 2018
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Building design
- Business management
- Colleges and universities
- Comparative studies
- Conceptual design
- Construction engineering
- Construction management
- Design (by type)
- Education
- Engineering education
- Engineering fundamentals
- Measurement (by type)
- Methodology (by type)
- Metric systems
- Practice and Profession
- Project management
- Research methods (by type)
- Students
- Sustainable development
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