2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This WIP presents the design, implementation, and preliminary outcomes of Bridging the Green Divide, a newly developed course at our University that fulfills the Collaborative Inquiry attribute of the University Core Curriculum. The course was designed to engage students in critically exploring the technological, economic, and policy dimensions of the global energy transition, while addressing a central question: How can societies ensure that the shift to clean energy promotes social equity rather than deepening existing inequalities?
In alignment with the Catholic, Jesuit tradition and the Core’s mission to educate the whole person, the course invites students to integrate technical understanding with ethical reflection, social awareness, and civic responsibility. Through interdisciplinary collaboration that spans engineering, environmental studies, economics, and social sciences, students examine renewable energy technologies, policy frameworks, and socio-economic impacts across communities. Class activities include team-based social impact assessments, stakeholder perspective simulations, and the development of policy recommendations for equitable sustainability transitions.
The course aims to advance several of our Core Student Learning Outcomes, particularly those related to (1) integrating knowledge from multiple disciplines, (2) recognizing transnational and global interdependence, (3) evaluating how social systems influence equity and human dignity, and (4) collaborating toward a common goal.
This paper shares lessons learned from the first iteration of the course, including student reflections, engagement levels, and challenges encountered when bridging perspectives across disciplines. Preliminary findings suggest that Collaborative Inquiry provides a valuable pedagogical framework for sustainability education by fostering systems-thinking, empathy, and evidence-based problem-solving in contexts without clear or singular solutions. The authors discuss ongoing course refinements and propose pathways for scaling such integrative, justice-centered sustainability courses across engineering and liberal arts programs.