Life Cycle Assessment as a Tool for Green Manufacturing Education

The design and production of engineering products that have a reduced impact on the environment and human health has increasingly become a strategic goal of corporations. Consequently, starting engineers will need to be educated in green design techniques. One method that is particularly attractive to engineers is Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). LCA is an objective approach to evaluating the environmental burden of a product, process or activity by identifying and quantifying material and energy usage and waste outputs at every life stage. LCA involves three steps: identification of scope of analysis, life cycle inventory, and impact analysis. Such an approach has two attractive features for engineers. First, it is a rational and quantitative process that is easily appreciated by engineers. Second, because it examines all stages of the life cycle, it allows engineers to easily identify what design or process improvements will lead to the greatest reduction in environmental impact. The present paper will describe a laboratory experience used in a senior level materials and process selection design course developed by the author. The project involves conducting a LCA analysis on a telephone as part of a redesign of the phone to reduce its environmental impact. Students begin the project by dismantling the phone and taking inventory of the materials contained within the phone. This information is used to determine the energy consumed in production of the phone. Information is also provided regarding energy consumption in the distribution, use and disposal of the phone. Students are then asked to examine a variety of different design and process changes and determine the relative change in environmental impact resulting from these changes. The paper will discuss the LCA approach (including streamlined LCA), details of the laboratory project, student outcomes and suggestions for improving the project

Useful Approaches to Preventing Academic Dishonesty in the Classroom

Over the past three decades, academic dishonesty (a.k.a. cheating) has become an increasingly common occurrence among college-aged students, and engineering students are known to be among the most frequent culprits. At most universities, cheating is dealt with after the fact. Few institutions go beyond drafting an academic integrity policy to prevent cheating before it happens. The same situation exists in the classroom. The majority of college professors report doing little or nothing to reduce the frequency of cheating in their classes, usually because of a lack of awareness of its occurrence. And when cheating is observed, faculty overwhelmingly choose to deal with the situation on their own, without resorting to the institution’s policy. Given this scenario, it is the author’s goal to develop useful approaches that help faculty prevent cheating before it occurs. In addition, the author feels that students do not inherently want to cheat. One can therefore assume that there is a set of practical techniques that can be used by faculty to reduce the pressure on students to cheat. This paper focuses on several of these techniques which were developed as a result of research on self-reported student cheating at a private mid-western university. One technique that is highly effective is the use of learning objectives for test construction. Students reported cheating less often on tests since they appeared to be written more fairly. Other techniques include discussing learning theories and engineering ethics in class, allowing students to use reference sheets for closed-book tests and having students work in cooperative learning groups on homework. Discussion will include how to apply these techniques and why they may reduce cheating

Cheating: Students attitudes and practical approaches to dealing with it

The preliminary results of educational research conducted at Kettering University is described in which students in an introductory Engineering Materials course (MFGE-370) were asked to complete a survey on their perceptions of cheating. The overall objective of the research was to determine those things students believed constituted cheating, the frequency to which they cheat and their attitudes about what steps could be taken to curtail cheating within a course. Practical approaches to effectively dealing with cheating are also discussed including using learning objectives for writing fair tests, promoting group work through cooperative learning teams, holding review sessions before tests and building a good rapport with students. Data were gathered from 65 students in two offerings of the course.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61393/1/2000 FIE Harding Final Paper.pd

An Exploratory Investigation of the Ethical Behavior of Engineering Undergraduates

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/95635/1/j.2168-9830.2012.tb00053.x.pd

Promoting Excellence in Education with an Outstanding Student Instructor Award Program

The ASEE Student Chapter at the University of Michigan in conjunction with the College of Engineering has developed and organized an annual Outstanding Student Instructor Award in recognition of excellence in engineering education. The award not only acknowledges the outstanding contributions of the individuals selected for the award, but also coincides with the ASEE’s goals of promoting excellence in engineering education and attracting new members. The paper outlines the planning procedures developed since the inception of the award in 1994 and provides suggestions and insights for other ASEE Student Chapters to create and organize such an award

The Role of Industry in Supporting Education in Environmentally Responsible Engineering

Achievement of a sustainable future implies a collaborative effort between a variety of stakeholders including industry, government, and academia. We are traveling in unfamiliar waters where the course is not always clear and the goals are sometimes daunting. To develop the environmental wisdom we need to help us know the “right answers,” we must bring together the knowledge we get from our academic pursuits with the experience we obtain through trial and error. Bringing together the academic world and the business world not only helps us solve the immediate engineering need, it more importantly builds a partnership that will produce greater lasting value through students (future employees) who are attuned to the market demands for improved environmental performance in both business practices and products. This paper describes a new collaborative effort between Steelcase, Inc. and Kettering University that will prepare future engineers, managers, scientists, and policy-makers for a workplace that places greater emphasis on conducting business within a framework of environmental and social responsibility. Since its founding in 1912, Steelcase, Inc. has approached its business from a “value driven” perspective, focused on the underlying premise of how a responsible business should conduct itself. As such, Steelcase, Inc. has been a leading company in promoting sustainable business practices both within the corporation and among a variety of other constituents. Kettering University (formerly GMI Engineering and Management Institute) has been preparing engineers and managers for the workforce since 1919, emphasizing the importance of leadership, integrity, and practical experience as the keys to success in the workplace. Together these organizations, along with other partners, are committed to demonstrating the practice need for enhanced education in issues of sustainability and social responsibility

Workshop - Feminist Engineering Education: Building a Community of Practice

As a result of a series of papers and special sessions held at FIE between 2004 and 2008, a community of CSET educators interested in exploring feminist pedagogies has formed at FIE. Past participants in these sessions have expressed a desire to learn more about what makes a set of pedagogies feminist. At the same time, there has been an increase in the number of research papers at FIE that draw on feminist research methods or topics. This workshop is designed to meet the needs of members of the FIE community who have some experience with feminist pedagogies or research methods, and who are looking to develop intellectual relationships with others also working in engineering educational research. We will discuss the history of feminist education and feminist research methods in the US, including a connection to science and engineering education; participants will then work in small groups focusing on a sub-topic (feminist pedagogies, feminist research methods, and feminist research topics/content). We invite participants to bring part of a project (such as a syllabus or course plan, assignment, class or research project, research question or protocol) to this workshop; some time will be dedicated to the guided design/redesign of this project

The Role of Moral Philosophy in Promoting Academic Integrity Among Engineering Students

Academic dishonesty is nothing new, yet it is particularly disturbing to find among engineering students, whose professional lives need to be guided by the highest ethical standards. Moral philosophy may illuminate some of the conditions for recovering a sense of the ethical for engineering students. Classical moral philosophers held that people belong to communities in ways that inform their sense of obligation. Recognition of these communities would make concrete the engineer\u27s responsibility for the health, safety and welfare of the public. A further difficulty is that the primary community that students know is simply that of their peers in school or the workplace, which does not form a sufficient context for the sense of moral obligation inherent in the engineer\u27s role. This paper seeks to define the moral obligation of the engineer using traditional moral philosophy and describe how this obligation might be translated into a more positive definition of success. It also addresses means by which educators can help engineering students to better understand their moral obligation

P.A.C.E.S. - A Study on Academic Integrity Among Engineering Undergraduates (Preliminary Conclusions)

Student academic dishonesty, commonly referred to as cheating, has become a serious problem at institutions of higher education. This is particularly true of engineering students who, according to previous research, are among the most likely to cheat in college. To investigate this concern, the authors have undertaken a research project on the Perceptions and Attitudes toward Cheating among Engineering Students (P.A.C.E.S.). The premise of this research is that a combination of pressures, rather than malicious motivations, account for most student cheating. The P.A.C.E.S study consists of a seven page, self-reported survey that investigates: (1) student definitions of academic dishonesty; (2) the magnitude of academic dishonesty among engineering undergraduates; (3) the correlations of academic dishonesty with theories of psychological, demographic and situational factors; and (4) student opinions on different approaches used to discourage academic dishonesty. The survey was administered to approximately 350 engineering and pre engineering undergraduates at 5 institutions, ranging from community colleges to a large research university. This paper will discuss some of the current results from the study as well as future goals, which include the refinement and further distribution of the survey instrument and the development of practical pedagogical methods to help students avoid the pressure of cheating and a better understanding of what students and faculty perceive as cheating