Integration of education for sustainable development in a mechanical engineering programme

ABSTRACT This paper presents and analyzes the integration with progression of education for sustainable development in Chalmers University of Technology's MScEng programme in Mechanical Engineering. The programme has an idea and structure that emphasizes employability, integration of general engineering skills, authentic engineering experiences and focus on holistic view of the complete lifecycle of products and systems. The realization of these aims stress the need of an integrated and adapted sustainable development education for mechanical engineering. To reach this goal, we applied a combined top-down and bottom-up education development process that started with the formulation of programme vision and programme level learning outcomes. Faculty meetings and workshop to formulate the course learning outcomes and to map the programme level outcomes to courses in which the outcomes are satisfied followed this. The strategy became to integrate specific sustainability topics in courses where it is appropriate and to have a separate course in sustainable development to ensure that general aspects of sustainable development are included and that a team of faculty takes full responsibility for this. Design-build-test project courses are shown to be suitable arenas for integrating teaching and learning of sustainable development. Results from a student survey on perceptions of the relevance and quality of sustainability education are accounted for and discussed. Outstanding challenges in the area are identified

Toward CDIO Standards 3.0

The topic of this paper is the CDIO Standards, specifically the formulation of CDIO Standards version 3.0. The paper first reviews the potential change drivers that motivate a revision of the Standards. Such change drivers are identified both externally (i.e., from outside of the CDIO community) and internally. It is found that external change drivers have affected the perceptions of what problems engineers should address, what knowledge future engineers should possess and what are the most effective teaching practices in engineering education. Internally, the paper identifies criticism of the Standards, as well as ideas for development, that have been codified as proposed additional CDIO Standards. With references to these change drivers, five areas are identified for the revision: sustainability, digitalization of teaching and learning; service; and faculty competence. A revised version of the Standards is presented. In addition, it is proposed that a new category of Standards is established, “optional standards”. Optional Standards are a complement to the twelve “basic” Standards, and serve to guide educational development and profiling beyond the current Standards. A selected set of proposed optional Standards are recommended for further evaluation and possibly acceptance by the CDIO community

Mapping the CDIO Syllabus to the UNESO Key Competences for Sustainability

In this paper a framework of key competencies for sustainability defined by UNESCO is used\ua0to evaluate the relevance of the CDIO Syllabus for promoting engineering education for\ua0sustainable development. The evaluation is performed in two steps. First, topics, terms and\ua0concepts in the CDIO Syllabus that corresponds to the different UNESCO key competencies\ua0are identified. The second step is a qualitative discussion where areas of strong mapping are\ua0highlighted and aspects that could be better visualized or strengthened in, or added to, the\ua0Syllabus are identified. Differences in definitions of various concepts between the CDIO\ua0Syllabus and the UNESCO key competencies and the overall relation between the two\ua0frameworks are discussed. It is concluded that the CDIO Syllabus is rather well aligned with\ua0the UNESCO framework, however several opportunities (not to say needs) for strengthening\ua0the Syllabus in relation to the key competencies are identified. The UNESCO key\ua0competencies are found to be useful instruments for scrutinizing and updating the CDIO\ua0Syllabus. Other opportunities for knowledge and methods transfer between the Education for\ua0Sustainable Development (ESD) domain and the Engineering Education domain are\ua0identified. The paper is proposed to be used as basis for updating the CDIO Syllabus into a\ua0version 3.0 for maintaining its relevance in a changing world

The Microstructure of Metal Oxide Additive Silicon Nitride Ceramics

This work is concerned with Si3N4 ceramics fabricated with different metal oxide additives, viz. Y2O3, Al2O3, ZrO2 and ZrO2(+3 mol% Y2O3), which have been densified by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The resulting microstructures, characterized by x-ray diffractometry and analytical electron microscopy, have been related to oxide additive, phase content, formation process, i. e. time and temperature of HIP, and room temperature hardness and indentation fracture toughness. The different metal oxide additives made it possible to control microstructural features such as grain size, grain shape and the amount of residual intergranular glassy phase. Al2O3 had a crucial influence on the densification behaviour; at a low HIP temperature, 1550 \ub0C, Al2O3 was required in order to achieve full density. The use of ZrO2 and/or Al2O3 made it possible to form ceramics with an extremely small volume fraction of residual glass. A separate addition of Y2O3 increased the volume fraction of glass, and promoted the development of high aspect ratio .beta.-Si3N4 grains. So did also Y2O3 added in the form of stabilized ZrO2 powder, although the volume fraction of glass in these materials was considerably lower. The fracture toughness was primarily determined by the shape of the .beta.- or .beta.\u27-Si3N4 grains; a higher aspect ratio gave a higher toughness. However, the hardness increased with increasing amount of retained .alpha.-Si3N4. Thus, it has been demonstrated that by control of composition and fabrication process it is possible to "microstructurally design" an Si3N4 ceramic in order to obtain a suitable combination of hardness and fracture toughness. The microstructures of selected Si3N4 - ZrO2 ceramics were characterized before and after exposure to air at 500, 1100, 1250 and 1400 \ub0C. Strength in four-point bending was also determined for these materials. The microstructures after oxidation were also characterized by TEM of cross sections containing oxide scale, subscalar region and bulk microstructure. The nature of the oxide scale was dependent upon microstructure and composition of the as-received materials. The ZrO2 structures were characterized in detail by HRTEM before and after heat treatment at 1250 \ub0C. Materials formed under a HIP pressure with Al2O3 additions were not subjected to internal oxidation of the ZrO2 structure during heat treatment

Activating deep approach to learning in large classes through quizzes

Large classes are challenging when designing learning activities suitable from a perspective of constructive alignment and at the same time being restricted to large class lectures due to external factors. In the present study a learning activity was desired to increase reflection and active repetition in a large class (75-100 students) of engineering students in a basic course in Materials Science and Engineering. Current repetition by lecturing was not satisfying from a learning perspective. Well known techniques such as mud cards and concept questions were not feasible, mainly for reasons of time to manage feedback or design proper concept questions. The aim of this paper is to describe a newly designed learning activity called Reflection quizzes, the process of design and also to analyse how student learning was affected. The result of the Reflection quizzes was overwhelming. The students were all actively engaged but took on different approaches; some discussed together (peer learning), some competed against each other (increasing motivation), some wanted to sit on their own using their notes (reflecting). The student survey showed that students appreciated to test themselves without it being assessed, many stated that the best was to find out why wrong was wrong and it was clear that they took on a more deep approach towards learning

The Microstructure of Metal Oxide Additive Silicon Nitride Ceramics

This work is concerned with Si3N4 ceramics fabricated with different metal oxide additives, viz. Y2O3, Al2O3, ZrO2 and ZrO2(+3 mol% Y2O3), which have been densified by hot isostatic pressing (HIP). The resulting microstructures, characterized by x-ray diffractometry and analytical electron microscopy, have been related to oxide additive, phase content, formation process, i. e. time and temperature of HIP, and room temperature hardness and indentation fracture toughness. The different metal oxide additives made it possible to control microstructural features such as grain size, grain shape and the amount of residual intergranular glassy phase. Al2O3 had a crucial influence on the densification behaviour; at a low HIP temperature, 1550 \ub0C, Al2O3 was required in order to achieve full density. The use of ZrO2 and/or Al2O3 made it possible to form ceramics with an extremely small volume fraction of residual glass. A separate addition of Y2O3 increased the volume fraction of glass, and promoted the development of high aspect ratio .beta.-Si3N4 grains. So did also Y2O3 added in the form of stabilized ZrO2 powder, although the volume fraction of glass in these materials was considerably lower. The fracture toughness was primarily determined by the shape of the .beta.- or .beta.\u27-Si3N4 grains; a higher aspect ratio gave a higher toughness. However, the hardness increased with increasing amount of retained .alpha.-Si3N4. Thus, it has been demonstrated that by control of composition and fabrication process it is possible to "microstructurally design" an Si3N4 ceramic in order to obtain a suitable combination of hardness and fracture toughness. The microstructures of selected Si3N4 - ZrO2 ceramics were characterized before and after exposure to air at 500, 1100, 1250 and 1400 \ub0C. Strength in four-point bending was also determined for these materials. The microstructures after oxidation were also characterized by TEM of cross sections containing oxide scale, subscalar region and bulk microstructure. The nature of the oxide scale was dependent upon microstructure and composition of the as-received materials. The ZrO2 structures were characterized in detail by HRTEM before and after heat treatment at 1250 \ub0C. Materials formed under a HIP pressure with Al2O3 additions were not subjected to internal oxidation of the ZrO2 structure during heat treatment

Activating deep approach to learning in large classes through quizzes

Large classes are challenging when designing learning activities suitable from a perspective of constructive alignment and at the same time being restricted to large class lectures due to external factors. In the present study a learning activity was desired to increase reflection and active repetition in a large class (75-100 students) of engineering students in a basic course in Materials Science and Engineering. Current repetition by lecturing was not satisfying from a learning perspective. Well known techniques such as mud cards and concept questions were not feasible, mainly for reasons of time to manage feedback or design proper concept questions. The aim of this paper is to describe a newly designed learning activity called Reflection quizzes, the process of design and also to analyse how student learning was affected. The result of the Reflection quizzes was overwhelming. The students were all actively engaged but took on different approaches; some discussed together (peer learning), some competed against each other (increasing motivation), some wanted to sit on their own using their notes (reflecting). The student survey showed that students appreciated to test themselves without it being assessed, many stated that the best was to find out why wrong was wrong and it was clear that they took on a more deep approach towards learning

A New Introduction to a Master Programme in Materials Science, Turning Student Diversity into an Advantage

The paper describes how diversity problems were identified and addressed in a Master’s programme in Advanced Engineering Materials, and how organisation of a programme according to CDIO has been found to facilitate the process of organising teaching and learning to take advantage of cultural diversity. By comparing with experiences from literature, we find that our international students need to blend into an already existing group. We aim for them to be met by clear expectations and information, in an atmosphere within which students, no matter of their background, feel they have something significant to contribute. Important is pre-entry information, e.g. on course choice and on subjects and skills covered previously and to introduce our different perceptions of learning. Some international students have deep knowledge in subjects we do not teach; design of a new learning activity aimed for all students to benefit from that knowledge and to train the role of materials specialist. The paper describes in detail how needs were identified by a survey answered by students already participating in the programme (pre-project survey). It also describes a new introduction that has been designed to meet the challenge of diversity. Pre-entry information, a welcome letter, an interactive homepage and activities were designed to allow for multicultural discussions and nurture a feeling of having something significant to contribute. A new experimental learning experience was developed centred on a product and managed by peer learning. Finally the evaluation of the project is described including a survey answered by the students who participated in the introduction (post-project survey)