Learning by practice: Introducing a new building energy efficiency elective course and laboratory into the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate curriculum

Prairie View A & M University, Prairie View TX

Investigators

Abstract

Considering the high level of building energy consumption and the importance of building energy efficiency expertise to enhance environmental and economic sustainability, this project at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) is focused on developing and implementing a new software-assisted, project-based elective course in the area of building energy efficiency and green building design. A building energy efficiency lab, which will be developed in this project, will complement the course. The successful implementation of this project will have broader impacts on students, the PVAMU Mechanical Engineering (ME) program, the university, the local community, and other universities. These impacts include research capacity enhancement of the ME program by using the developed building energy efficiency lab in undergraduate and graduate research projects and as a supplementary lab for Thermal Science Lab and Fluid Mechanics, the inclusion of this course as part of the energy engineering minor curriculum in the PVAMU Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability, sharing the gained experience and findings from this NSF project and students' projects with the community of educators, researchers, and the public. The goal of this project is to enhance engineering learning and the work-related skills of undergraduate students at PVAMU Mechanical Engineering program by engaging them in a practice-oriented energy-related course. This project with the proposed combination of energy-efficiency contents and instructional approaches can be a good instructional example for other HBCUs and can be adopted by other universities as well. Project evaluation will be used to assess implementation activities, guide project processes, and assess impact. To this end, formative evaluation will address the extent to which the project is implemented as planned and strategies and activities developed and implemented as intended (implementation evaluation). Formative evaluation will also provide data concerning the extent to which the project is progressing as planned, what is working well, and what needs improvement (progress evaluation). Summative evaluation will assess the extent to which the goals and objectives were met and whether some unintended outcomes occurred. Evaluation activities will be conducted both internally and externally, using a mixed methods approach for gathering data. A matched comparison design will be utilized to determine impact of the project on students registered vs. unregistered in the proposed course.