This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This engineering education research award to North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University will employ researchers to develop four new environmental laboratory modules that use problem-based learning and case studies to teach new environmental sustainability concepts. This method diverges from the traditional "step-by-step" method currently used in laboratory courses and provides the opportunity for students to use the concepts they learn to develop new ideas for engineering systems. The student learning gains for this proposal will be assessed using both qualitative and quantitative measures. The modules developed can be used for a complete environmental laboratory course or individual modules can be used for other STEM fields or modified for summer K-12 outreach programs. The project team will develop hands-on activities for a local school and provide outreach through programs that benefit multiple constituents in the engineering pipeline. This work will help prepare more engineering graduates with a better understanding of environmental sustainability needed to fill engineering jobs.
