Development of Learning Modules for Sustainable Life Cycle Product Design: A Constructionist Approach

Abstract

Constructionism is an approach to learning in which learners construct their own understanding and knowledge through making a meaningful product. A cyberlearning environment for sustainable life cycle engineering design has been developed based upon this approach through a multi-university research project funded by the NSF entitled “Constructionism in Learning: Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering (CooL:SLiCE).” The pedagogic significance of CooL:SLiCE is to better enable university students to learn about sustainable product life cycle engineering design by realizing effective learning modules for personalized environmentally-responsible product design. The CooL:SliCE platform has developed a web-based portal with three learning modules: 1) Sustainable product architecture and supplier selection (S-PASS), 2) Visualization and CAD design, and 3) Manufacturing analysis. To test these modules, students from three different universities with different engineering backgrounds were asked to design sustainable multi-copters through the developed web-based portal. A case study of this intercollegiate collaborative pilot project is developed from multiple data sources to describe the effectiveness of constructionism to engage students in learning sustainable life-cycle engineering

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