2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Developing and Piloting a High School Engineering Design Course with Environmental Justice and Geospatial Data Visualization (Evaluation, Diversity)

This paper describes the development, implementation, and professional development of the classroom-tested Creative Engineering Design (CED) high school project-based engineering course that centers on sustainable transportation and environmental justice (EJ) themes.

During a three-year pilot from the 2021-22 through 2023-24 school years, fifteen cooperating teachers at twelve secondary schools in Colorado, Indiana, Texas, and Utah contributed to CED's curriculum development and instructional feedback. The CED pilot engaged about 1,200 secondary students in instructional time frames ranging from 8-week cycles to year-long classes.

Through participation in CED, students actively collaborated in engineering teams to learn and apply real-world STEM concepts related to electric vehicle (EV) technology. CED explores the intersection of air quality with EJ and sustainable transportation topics from a local geospatial perspective. Initial findings show that CED increased students’ understanding of the engineering design process and the role of incorporating EJ in design solutions.

After several years of classroom testing and revisions, CED is now published and freely available through the TeachEngineering online digital library to extend its reach and adoption.

Authors

Ms. Jennifer L. Taylor http://orcid.org/https://0000-0001-9044-8279 University of Colorado Boulder [biography]

Jennifer Taylor is the Pre-College Engineering Director of the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at the University of Colorado Boulder, and she led the Creative Engineering Design project.
Dr. Nick Stites University of Colorado Boulder [biography]

Nick Stites is the Director of the Integrated Teaching and Learning Program at CU Boulder and an instructor with the Integrated Design Engineering program. Dr. Stites is the principal investigator (PI) of the Denver-Metro Engineering Consortium, which is a partnership between local community colleges and universities to support engineering pathways for transfer students. He is also involved with ASPIRE, an NSF Engineering Research Center that is focused on developing the technology and workforce for electrifying the nation's transportation system. Dr. Stites earned degrees in Mechanical Engineering (BS Colorado State University, MS Purdue University) and Engineering Education (PhD Purdue University). His research interests include the development of novel pedagogical methods to teach core engineering courses and leveraging technology to enhance learning experiences and broaden access to engineering education. He has experience as a practicing engineer and has taught at the university and community-college levels.
Dr. Jennifer Ramos-Chavez University of Texas at El Paso [biography]

Jennifer Ramos-Chavez, Ph.D., is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Texas at El Paso where she studies the intersection between the environment, energy and education. Specifically, her research focuses on community-based participatory research and community-centered outreach. She is interested in understanding how student perceptions and behaviors are influenced by immersive environmental and engineering education programming.

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 22, 2025, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 25, 2025

For those interested in:

Pre-College
Broadening Participation in Engineering and Engineering Technology