This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This engineering education research award to Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University will employ researchers to combine two types of experiential learning, namely undergraduate research and internships with industry, in a format that reaches a broad population of students in three construction related degree programs at Virginia Tech. The research will support the creation of sustainable engineering and construction professionals by building on traditional summer internship programs, while at the same time serving as a self-sustaining mechanism for generating valid data to be used in sustainable engineering and construction research. This project is anticipated to fill gaps in the existing knowledge base about the impacts of experiential learning programs on diverse student populations and the efficacy of hybrid experiential learning methods for sustainability pedagogy. This will advance understanding of the role of such programs in setting the stage for positive change toward sustainability in industry and in better preparing engineering students for their roles in industry.
