This engineering education research award to San José State University would integrate sustainability in engineering education using a novel "co-instruction" model based on team teaching from engineering, business, and humanities faculty. A senior project involving sustainability topics named "zero-emissions house" would be piloted during the 2010-2011 academic year. The project would be co-taught by five faculty from Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Organization/Management, Industrial Design, and Political Science. The hypothesis is that with effective co-instruction and planning, the benefits of multidisciplinary project-based learning can be realized without the resource intensiveness which often is cited as a barrier to implementation. The multidisciplinary project-based learning approach synergizes with effective education in sustainability. This work is expected to be a model for similar institutions and have broad impact on the incorporation of multidisciplinary sustainability education into the engineering curriculum.
