2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

The field of renewable energy is constantly changing and adapting to the needs of our society as new developments and knowledge are presented. As a result, courses that focus on and provide insight into these topics can quickly become outdated. Thus, updating and managing the information presented in those courses becomes necessary to prepare future engineers and scientists and share the process used to provide students with the current state of renewable energy generation methods and their histories. To achieve this goal, new resources are created to facilitate the students’ learning and understanding. These resources include multimedia elements, interactive activities, and new assignments that focus on the practical applications of these technologies. The rationale for the inclusion of these materials is provided in this document.

Utilizing in-class discussions with the students that occurred in the first two weeks of the semester guided the approach to teaching and the layout of the course. Following these discussions, specific areas in each renewable energy topic were selected for inclusion in the course. The work shared in this document provides an outline of how this was done and how the construction of the course using scaffolding allows students to learn more about the subjects they’re interested in. By increasing focus on those things that engage the student, the desire to learn improves and the subjects align with current issues and situations encountered in the renewable energy industry. Other course goals are to provide students with the experience of talking about the materials and to keep the discussion on the topics purely technical, avoiding emotional encounters which are often found when discussing renewable energy and its impact on the environment.