The Climate Change Educational Partnership Climate Change, Engineered Systems, and Society: A Report of Three Workshops (2014) / Chapter Skim
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5 FORMAL EDUCATION INTERVENTIONS ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY
5 FORMAL EDUCATION INTERVENTIONS ON CLIMATE, ENGINEERED SYSTEMS, AND SOCIETY
Pages 37-46
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From page 37... ...
Among these are the Center for Sustainable Engineering, an NSF- and EPAsponsored partnership of five universities that offers workshops and web resources for engineering educators (www.csengin.org) , and a few university and professional society programs and classes (Box 5.1)
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From page 38... ...
BOX 5.1 Examples of Climate Change and Engineering Education Programs Johns Hopkins University University of Michigan Series of professional nonthesis degrees: Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences Master of environmental engineering Engineering Department has an undergraduate MS in environmental engineering and science concentration in Climate Impact Engineering, MS in environmental planning and management including courses on Earth's changing climate, Advanced certificate for post-MS study in climate core Earth system science, and environmental change, energy, and environmental sustainability impacts on Earth systems Course on climate change and global environmental sustainability: multidisciplinary; critical University of Montana assessment of science, impacts, mitigation, Joint program with Colleges of Forestry, Arts and adaptation, and policy relevant to climate change Sciences, and Technology offers an and global environmental sustainability interdisciplinary minor in Climate Change Studies that is open to all majors; educates Stanford University students in three areas of climate change: Civil and environmental engineering undergraduate science, society, and solutions subprogram in atmosphere/energy with nuanced reference to climate change American Society of Civil Engineering Certification in sustainability-themed courses, such Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure as Fundamentals of Sustainability Engineering Courses for evaluators and verifiers of the institute's Envision Sustainable Infrastructure Rating System Standards and Assessment of Educational Interventions In a session at the second workshop, Richard Duschl, Waterbury Chair professor of secondary education, College of Education, Pennsylvania State University, reviewed developments and reports produced over the last 10–12 years in the learning sciences, primarily for the K–12 curriculum, that provide useful background information for pedagogical assessment.22 He also outlined work being done to create the Next Generation Science Standards, for which he cochairs the Earth and space science part of the standards. Some of the disciplinary core ideas from the Next Generation Science Standards, specifically those for Earth and space science, are compatible with the concepts that the project team has discussed students should learn, such as the idea of Earth systems and the connection between Earth and human activity.
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From page 39... ...
? In the question and answer period, project co-PI Clark Miller, associate professor of science policy and political science, ASU, commented that if the goal was to "prepare engineering and public administration students who are going to be ready to enter the marketplace" and take leadership roles early in their careers to "help push forward thinking about and tackling the challenges that climate change poses to engineering infrastructure," then, based on Duschl's presentation, faculty need to think about developing the learning progression for these knowledge and skill sets.
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From page 40... ...
The cases demonstrate that disasters are considered simply "business as usual," and they raise questions about the feasibility of using nuclear energy to "bail out" of the climate change problem. Riley concluded by reporting that as a result of her interventions her students enhanced their communication skills, improved critical thinking abilities, developed moral reasoning skills, became more socially engaged, developed some limited community organizing skills, and learned that nontechnical knowledge can complement technical engineering knowledge.
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From page 41... ...
The first was a forum, sponsored by the NAE's Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education (CASEE) , on the impact and diffusion of transformative engineering education innovations.24 The second, a Purdue University meeting titled "Transforming Education: From Innovation to Implementation," was more broadly focused than engineering education.25 Tribal College Collaborations Bob Madsen, professor at Chief Dull Knife College, a tribal community college in Montana, described connections that tribal colleges have made in science and engineering as an example for the CCEP team in its efforts to create effective partnerships with these colleges that could bringing CC&ES education into the tribal colleges.
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From page 42... ...
These collaborations allow students and faculty to become involved with research, which puts the science in context for the students, gets them interested, and connects them with universities. What makes tribal colleges good for modifying curriculum is that, unlike larger universities with engineering schools that have a lot of inertia for changing curriculum, the tribal colleges are usually smaller and can change quickly.
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From page 43... ...
: Inquiry-Based Projects Suresh Dhaniyala, associate professor of mechanical and aeronautical engineering at Clarkson University, described his development of a general engineering class at that university with funding from a NASA grant on Global Climate Change Education (the class was categorized under general engineering science rather than a specific engineering department to reduce administrative burdens associated with department regulations and paperwork)
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From page 44... ...
Climate science must be incorporated in the engineering curriculum, and would fit best as part of the fundamental engineering background taught to students so that they are aware of the issue when they learn about mitigation, adaptation, and engineered systems. In the discussion following his presentation, Dhaniyala said that climate change education for engineers would be possible in a general earth sciences/climate change class rather than an engineering class, although an earth sciences course on climate change would provide more climate science background than engineering students might need (in his course only a few weeks of earth science knowledge had been necessary)
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From page 45... ...
Delborne asked Madsen how sociotechnical systems thinking fit into education at the tribal colleges, and whether they were better positioned to incorporate it. Madsen responded that tribal colleges want their students to think broadly and have knowledge beyond the field they want to pursue as a career, and that such a goal was compatible with sociotechnical systems thinking.
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From page 46... ...
However a number of educational interventions that incorporated issues of sustainability, justice, public trust and engagement, and governance into the curriculum with CC&ES were identified and recommended. Some of the suggested interventions were used in formal education and the results were reported so that lessons could be learned for expanding the formal education efforts of the project.
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