Active Experiential Sustainable Engineering Module for Engineering Education

Abstract

This paper explores the cognitive and affective outcomes of the Sustainable Metrics (SusMet) Module for introducing engineering students to concepts of design for end-of-life and design for disassembly (explicit) and sustainable metrics (implicit) through active and experiential learning in the disassembly of green office chairs. The purpose of this research is to establish the impact of the SusMet module on student cognition and perceptions of sustainability and to understand the effect of activity on learning objective retention. The SusMet Module was implemented in a total of nine courses (318 total participants): eight freshman Introduction to Engineering and one junior Engineering Projects in Community Service course at Arizona State University. Research design included one course where students completed the entire module and one comparison course where the activity was removed; both courses included a follow-on design assignment two weeks after module implementation. The module was assessed using the mixed-methods approach of anonymous, digital pre- and postmodule surveys and a rubric to test the impact of activity on learning objective retention. The activity had the greatest impact on student cognition and retention of learning objectives; students that experienced hands-on disassembly of the chairs retained concepts students tended to struggle with, i.e., design for end-of-life (explicit) and sustainable metrics (implicit), to a greater degree than students in the Intro−Act+Ret course that did not experience hands-on chair disassembly. This research suggests that active, experiential learning could serve as a method to enhance sustainable engineering education through active exploration of sustainability concepts in conjunction with engineering designs.