TUES: Transforming Undergraduate Environmental Engineering Laboratories for Sustainable Engineering

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, Greensboro NC

Investigators

Abstract

North Carolina A&T State University is transforming a traditional laboratory course to incorporate real world sustainable topics and case studies. By using guided-inquiry methods, this project is creating a collection of portable case study and Problem Based Learning (PBL) modules that can be used by STEM instructors to increase students' interest in and retention of course material related to environmental engineering, as well as to enhance students' critical thinking skills. The case studies are short, realistic scenarios that provide relevant detail about an environmental problem, while the PBL modules use real world problems that are assigned as large projects to student teams. The goal is to determine if these methods improve student learning about the ideas, principles, and practices for sustainable practices and design. A community of faculty is working toward promoting the use of these methods in undergraduate laboratory courses by recruiting other faculty to test the sustainability modules and develop additional guided-inquiry based STEM labs. The case studies and PBL modules are available for faculty and teachers to use in courses to introduce hands-on activities in college level courses, middle to high school courses, and for outreach activities focusing on real-world cases in sustainability. Assessment includes collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data concerning student and faculty attitudes toward sustainability and student engagement and comprehension of the material.