Embedding sustainability in the curriculum; enabling engineering take centre stage

Sustainability has been assuming a more central role within chemical engineering curricula and throughout engineering education as a whole. Meanwhile however, engineering has been fighting an uphill battle to attract a consistent proportion of high quality recruits as the profession suffers from a low public profile and uninspiring image. Engineers are generally seen (and see themselves) as uncritical agents of economic and technological development who simply take direction from policy makers and paymasters, albeit ones that provide innovative technical solutions for society. This sells the profession far short and drains from engineering much of the inspiration, excitement and opportunity to “make the world a better place”. Engineering curricula with sustainability embedded as core would however, particularly in the case of chemical engineering, provide a unique opportunity to; - align the curriculum with the policy lead taken by several professional institutions and hence realign the professional ethos, vision, role, practice and image of engineers. - position engineers to play a more central role in shaping society through influencing policy and debate on creating a sustainable society, and hence increase the visibility, importance, status and reputation of the profession. - act as a powerful marketing tool for prospective engineering students

High or low tech approaches to teaching and learning?: The value of pedagogical soundness

This paper looks at the application of peer instruction via in-class concept questions, an approach based on a constructivist conception of learning (as opposed to a ‘transmissionist’ model) that facilitates the engagement of learners through active learning opportunities (Smith et al, 2009). This approach has been adopted using both ‘high tech’ (clickers) and ‘low tech’ (flashcards) approaches (Mazur, 1997, 2009), whereby crucially, ‘no significant differences were found in conceptual learning gains’ between either approach (Lasry, 2008). The current paper considers the use of flashcards to facilitate peer discussion and learning in a fluid mechanics module and elicits learner reflections on how this approach better facilitates learning relative to a ‘traditional’ lecturing approaches. It also reflects on how this approach compares with other technological innovations aimed at supporting learning. Conclusions are drawn around the need to place the pedagogical horse ahead of the technological cart when considering teaching approaches

Teaching engineering ethics with sustainability as context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the engagement and response of students to the teaching of engineering ethics incorporating a macro ethical framework whereby sustainability is viewed as context to professional practice. This involves incorporating a broader conception of engineering than is typically applied in conventional teaching of engineering ethics.Design/methodology/approach – A real life wicked problem case study assignment was developed. Students' understanding and practical application of the concepts were considered. A survey was conducted to gauge students' appreciation of the professional importance and their enjoyment of the subject matter. Findings – It was found that students appreciate and enjoy a macro ethical sustainability informed approach, but find it more challenging to apply in practice. Practical implications – The paper demonstrates an approach to the teaching of engineering ethics using a practical example, which can help broaden engineers' self-perceived role towards one where sustainability is context. It also shows how students can find such an approach to teaching ethics to be both enjoyable and relevant.Social implications – Engineers educated to perceive the importance of engaging with macro ethical issues as part of professional practice will be significantly better placed to inform public and industry policy towards greater good and engage with other professional and expert groups. Originality/value – In this paper, an approach to engineering ethics which diverges from the traditional is proposed. This can be of value to those involved in the teaching of engineering ethics, particularly those seeking to incorporate sustainability and other macro ethical issues

Teaching engineering ethics and sustainability

Most professional engineering code’s of ethics require that engineers shall understand and promote the principles of sustainability and/or sustainable development and have due regard for their environmental, social and economic obligations. However the ethical obligations towards sustainability are incorporated into the teaching of engineering ethics in very few programmes. Typically engineering ethics is taught via relatively straightforward case studies whereby students are asked to identify with a particular individual agent acting alone and determine the correct or optimum course of action. Context, complexity and an interdisciplinary approach tend to lose out to objective reality in such scenarios. This paper describes the teaching of engineering ethics as part of an introductory first year undergraduate module. Students were presented with the real life wicked problem of matching future municipal water supply and demand in Dublin. They were asked to consider the published findings of an engineering consultancy group and then propose and present their own recommendations. This approach was employed to introduce a number of sustainability concepts in the context of professional ethical responsibility while developing their critiquing skills. The paper reflects on the outcomes of this exercise, including the students’ own assessments

Educating the chemical engineer of the future

Edmond Byrne argues that sustainability needs to quickly become the context for 21st century chemical engineering education to enable engineers be fit for purpose to address significant challenges ahead. He provides some suggestions for helping achieve this

Practical skills and techniques for the transition to a sustainable future, a case study for engineering education

This paper seeks to assess the gap between the visions of sustainable engineering practice with its current reality. A case study involving Energetics Pty. Ltd., a leading Australian multi-disciplinary consultancy specialized in engaging public and private organizations in the development of their responses to climate change and sustainability was conducted based on a staff questionnaire developed following a review of current literature and initiatives on sustainability globally. The results of the survey indicate that sustainability in engineering practice is still focused on the technical and financial impacts of perceived sustainable solutions. The broader aspects that have been identified as necessary have yet to be achieved in education or practice. The principle reason for this appears to lie in the perception engineers have of their practice and the ability of engineers to communicate effectively with their clients. These have combined to make regulation one of the principal drivers in environmental and sustainability engineering. A sustainability informed ethics paradigm needs to be brought more to the fore to allow engineers to engage with their clients in a more effective manner. Engineers do have the opportunity to be agents of change, but only when they envisage a broader societal role and context for engineering and can communicate effectively with the decision makers within their client organisations

Educating engineers to embrace complexity and context

Education represents a key intervention point in encouraging the emergence of a professional engineering ethos informed by a sustainability ethic. In terms of establishing an appropriate relationship between sustainability and education, many would contend that incorporating sustainability as merely add-on material to already overcrowded curricula is insufficient. Instead sustainability should actually be a leading principle for curricula. Traditional reductionist models of engineering education seek to extinguish context and uncertainty and reduce complexity across socio-economic and ecological domains. They therefore constitute a wholly inadequate response to the need for fit-for-purpose, twenty-first century graduates required to address broader sustainability issues. This paper presents research from an undergraduate module at University College Cork, Ireland. The module is aimed at developing students' conceptions of complexity, uncertainty, risk, context and ethics as foundational bases for productively engaging with sustainability. The paper also highlights some problematic issues

Propagating an integral and transdisciplinary approach to sustainability education

Recent directions in engineering for sustainable development (EESD) (and in ESD more generally) have pointed towards an increasing realisation that in order to adequately begin to address respective meta-problems associated with global (un)sustainability, ‘object world’ disciplinary perspectives alone are insufficient. Instead, the required depth of knowledge that expert disciplinary knowledge can provide must be both complimented and built upon by other disciplinary as well as experiential knowledge. Integral and transdisciplinary approaches to learning can play a central role in helping achieve this. When such approaches are applied, they facilitate the possibility of new and emergent knowledge and insights which can transcend disciplinary bounds, with the potential to reach places where no single disciplinary approach can; a classic case of ‘whole greater than the sum of parts’. This however requires a degree of disciplinary humility and openness to other approaches and disciplinary norms, as well as a degree of trust, patience and time. Nevertheless, in the context of seeking authentic sustainability, it is necessary. The classical engineering degree structure is not amenable to this approach. Engineering has traditionally seen itself as a ‘problem solving profession only insofar as ‘problems’, including complex socio-technological ones (with ecological and economic import) can be neatly reduced to well-defined closed system decontextualized ‘puzzles’ which can then be algorithmically optimised. This is deeply problematic as it cannot map reality; specifically, complex contemporary 21st century reality, instead resulting in emergent ‘unintended consequences’. A key intervention point therefore in the development of a fit-for-purpose cohort of engineering graduates capable of addressing emergent twenty first century meta-problems is through their formative education. Here integral and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability education/ESD offer a useful approach. But this requires not just the inclusion of ‘sustainable development material’, but a perpendicular reconceptualization of pedagogical approaches. This approach coheres with contemporary pedagogical best practice as it privileges relational and constructivist approaches to learning over the traditional atomistic approach, incorporating as it does, peer to peer and personal reflective learning opportunities. This paper reflects on the experiences of a programme where undergraduate chemical engineering students undertaking a sustainability module collaborate with students on an analogous sociology module. It describes how this transdisciplinary collaboration takes an integral approach to sustainability learning, incorporating both subjective and objective perspectives as well as inter-subjective and inter-objective. The work reflects on how this initiative worked by drawing on student feedback and the authors’ experiences

Sustainability on engineering programmes; the need for a holistic approach

The teaching of sustainability on engineering curricula has increasingly become an essential feature. This has coincided with an increased focus on sustainability by professional institutions through stated policy positions and documents, though accreditation documentation has yet to be brought into line with these emerging positions. The creation of a sustainable society is a complex multi-disciplinary multi-stage project that will necessarily dominate mankind’s endeavour throughout the coming century. The pathway to a road towards sustainability will require a paradigm shift among society in general. Sustainability is a normative endeavour with uncertain outcomes requiring collaboration, teamwork and an ability to work with, respect and learn from other disciplines and professions as well as local communities and governments. This is largely new territory for the engineer. Moreover this approach can only be embraced by the engineer who sees value in and a rationale for pursuing it. Engineers must clearly see the contribution they can make; they need to see how many of the fundamental or threshold concepts in engineering can be employed as central and basic tenets of the evolving meta-discipline that is sometimes called sustainability science. This can only really be achieved if sustainability exists as a common threadline throughout programmes, in such a way that it is conceived as a necessary lens through which all engineering practice is filtered. Once this is achieved engineers will be well positioned to take the lead in moving towards developing a sustainable society rather than just designing the tools to move towards this goal as mere ‘paid hands’. This paper will examine some existing basic threshold concepts in engineering and show how these can be used to embed sustainability throughout curricula so as to provide the graduate engineer of the twenty-first century with the motivation, vision and tools to be the leaders in our shared quest to create a truly sustainable global society

Chemical engineering in an unsustainable world: obligations and opportunities

Human society faces a set of unprecedented challenges emanating from the unsustainable nature of the current societal model. The creation of a new sustainable societal construct is required, essentially adopting a needs based approach over one based on ever increasing consumption. Failure to achieve this will result in the widespread destruction of our increasingly stressed environment followed quickly by inevitable collapse of society as we know it, both socially and economically. Technology alone is insufficient to meet the challenges at hand; ecological, social and economic considerations must be incorporated through a multi-faceted and multi-disciplinary approach. Because chemical engineers possess a core set of threshold concepts which are central to a sustainable society, and because engineers will ultimately help design any new society, they bear a moral and ethical responsibility to play an active and indeed central role in its development. A new engineering paradigm is required therefore, whereby sustainability becomes the context of engineering practice. To achieve this, a sustainability informed ethos must prevail throughout engineering curricula. Both professional institutions and educators bear responsibility in ensuring this happens without delay. Some key threshold concepts are presented here to demonstrate how this can be advanced through the chemical engineering curriculum