This project is collaboration among California Polytechnic State University, Michigan Technological University, and Yale University. It is working to integrate sustainability into engineering education by creating effective learning materials and teaching strategies that enable engineering faculty to incorporate sustainability approaches into their courses. They are working to test the value of Fink's significant learning taxonomy and the accompanying assessment methodology as they develop their educational design and assessment tools. The key elements of this project include a textbook in environmental engineering, adaptable course modules on sustainability for science and engineering disciplines, engineering courses with team-based, open-ended, inter-university projects, faculty workshops to disseminate these innovative teaching and learning practices, and an assessment study including the development of new assessment tools to measure the effectiveness of these approaches. Although the curriculum is specifically targeted at the civil and environmental engineering community, it can be generalized to other engineering programs. They will be disseminating their material and results by publishing their textbook, by promoting their instructional modules, and by providing several faculty workshops on their material and instructional strategies. In evaluating their project, they are using an assortment of existing and new assessment tools to determine the effect of their new materials and strategies on student learning and retention. Broader impacts include the dissemination of the material, primarily through their textbook and workshops, and the increased awareness of engineering graduates to sustainability issues.
