2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Given the role engineering plays in the design of just and climate change resilient technologies, many engineering classrooms lack structured conversations on sustainability. This abstract outlines an instructional intervention in a level 500 Mechanical Engineering class, Fundamentals of Renewable Energy Processes and Electrochemical Storage, through which students write their own case studies focused on sustainability. Students gain experience creating digital media on the open-source, case-based learning platform called Gala. The intervention aims to offer a framework to engineering students to articulate environmental and social justice issues in engineering problems/solutions. Using a combination of interviews and pre and post-test self evaluation, we study how authoring an open educational resource can help students integrate environmental and/or historical context into forward looking sustainability innovation.

The intervention integrates digital case studies from Gala into engineering and science curricula to highlight environmental justice, sustainability, and social equity. The examples presented include the use of yeast in making biofuels, sustainability in the brewing industry, producing biodegradable plastic, geothermal energy supply in Northern Canada, and a currently work-in-progress case on sustainable ammonia production: Toward Solar Powered Catalysis for Sustainable Fertilizer Production. Gala’s unique open-access structure and focus on sustainability education attracts users across geographies, expertise and intent. The classroom intervention uses these cases as a point of reference for student authorship to integrate sustainability into their engineering problem framework.

In the ammonia production case, details of traditional, unsustainable methods of ammonia production and its military use are incorporated to provide historical context. These elements offer learners the opportunity to critically analyze the past and think of innovative methods to address these unsustainable practices. This encourages student agency and creativity in the classroom by inviting their experiences, understandings of sustainability issues, and their exploration of this scientific curiosity. The analysis of environmental impacts in this case study aims to instill a sense of optimism and action-orientation within learners. The case also describes collaboration between diverse stakeholders in the lab environment while they address issues, thereby emphasizing equity as a core attribute in engineering teams.

By encouraging students to develop their own case studies highlighting sustainability issues, open learning platforms not only catalyze academic growth but can also foster a sense of responsibility towards the environment in the next generation of problem solvers. The study of this intervention makes a case for using case-based, digital learning to align discussions with sustainability in the classroom. This instructional method, driven by open learning, prioritizes inquiry-based immersive learning in the classroom. It redefines the boundaries of chemical engineering education across disciplines and geographies.