Using a Service-Learning Course to Reinforce the Three Pillars of Sustainability
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 144, Issue 1
Abstract
Service-learning courses at the university level provide a unique opportunity for students to learn about sustainability. The senior-level and graduate-level elective course Service-Learning for Water Treatment at the University of Mississippi’s (UM) School of Engineering combines educational and service activities on drinking water–treatment infrastructure for underprivileged communities. Students learn in person how to build and operate demonstration treatment systems and then test new prototype configurations. This course format allows engineering students to bring the evaluation of an infrastructure project to completion, apply sustainability principles, interact with a collaborating partner, and provide a real service. The three pillars of sustainability—environmental, social, and economic—are immediately apparent to students, who document their learning in reflection essay assignments during the semester. Essay assignments about sustainability are evaluated using open coding to assess students’ knowledge of the three pillars. It is apparent that through the service-learning experience, students were able to closely relate to all three pillars, especially the social pillar.
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Acknowledgments
The author thanks Living Waters for the World, particularly Wil Howie, Floyd Groves, Harlon Mills, David Parks, and Mark Tew, for its continued dedication to meet drinking water needs and to help educate university students. The author thanks the students to date who have taken this course; without their essays on their perspectives of their own learning, it would be difficult to gauge their understanding of sustainability. The photograph in Fig. 2 was taken by Rebecca Werner Trotter, a student in the course. The author also thanks three anonymous reviewers for constructive comments that led to the improvement of the paper.
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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: Dec 31, 2015
Accepted: May 11, 2017
Published online: Aug 23, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Jan 23, 2018
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