2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Climate change is one of the major problems facing the world today. Many people generally understand that there is the problem of the gradual rise in temperature of the earth’s atmosphere. This climate change has been caused by several environmental problems arising from greenhouse effect global warming. The impact of these has been found to be distressing not only to the ecosystem, but also to the human community. Many studies have documented the mental health impacts of global climate change, but the range of impacts has not been well understood.
Tackling this problem will require a diverse and expanded workforce of engineers capable of understanding how to apply fundamental conservation of energy concepts. However, many undergraduate engineering students have significant learning blockages when it comes to understanding these basic concepts. In this new preliminary study, we attempt to better understand these difficulties through student interviews and surveys. Also, we will attempt to alleviate those blockages by having engineers and scientists in the field of climate change talk to students to help them understand that, while they are now only being exposed to these difficult concepts, what lies ahead of them is a fun-filled, exciting life-long learning opportunity to more deeply understand and apply these concepts in the modern workplace. In subsequent studies, the authors intend to improve teaching techniques such as animation to bridge the gap between the more detailed and theoretical concepts and real-life applications.