Designing for a Sustainable World: Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into a First-year Engineering Course in Science, Technology, and Society

Benjamin J. Laugelli

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Conference: 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access
Location: Virtual On line
Publication Date: June 22, 2020
Start Date: June 22, 2020
End Date: June 26, 2021
Conference Session: Sustainability and Social Responsibility
Tagged Division: Liberal Education/Engineering & Society
Page Count: 20
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--34407
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/34407
Download Count: 453

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Benjamin J. Laugelli University of Virginia

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Dr. Laugelli is an Assistant Professor of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He teaches courses that explore social and ethical aspects of engineering design and practice, including Science, Technology, and Contemporary Issues; Technology and the Frankenstein Myth; The LEGO Course: Engineering Design and Values; STS and Engineering Practice; and The Engineer, Ethics, and Professional Responsibility.

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Abstract

I am an instructor in a teaching team for a required first-year engineering course in science, technology and society (STS). The course enrolls 360-400 students each semester, and its primary learning goals are to introduce students to social and ethical aspects of engineering practice. The main deliverable in the course is a provisional patent application in which students describe a technological design they have developed in class. In previous semesters students would develop ideas for the patent application with relatively few parameters. They could generate ideas for nearly any kind of innovative technological device, process, service, or system as long as they could describe and illustrate it in 6-8 pages.

These open-ended parameters, however, tended to hinder instead of inspire student engagement and creativity. The ideas students came up with were often trivial and unimaginative; they frequently addressed problems of no greater significance than that of minor inconvenience. For example, each semester would yield various designs for collapsible backpack umbrellas and automated erasers for dry-erase boards. Equally problematic was that students struggled to see the value of the patent application assignment to engineering practice. On course evaluations they frequently voiced that it was difficult to appreciate the project’s relevance to a career in engineering especially as they were unlikely to become inventors or patent attorneys. Further, students had a hard time understanding how the patent assignment related to what they were learning in class lectures about social and ethical aspects of engineering practice. For example, students would often complain that the labs and lectures seemed like two distinct courses.

Because students had difficulty appreciating the value of the patent assignment, they were less motivated to challenge themselves and invest in the project. According to Ambrose et al. in their book How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, “fail[ure] to address students’ perceived lack of value for a given task or goal” can contribute to patterns of evasion or rejection [1]. These patterns often lead students “to disengage from learning situations” or to commit only to “the minimum amount of work that is needed to just get by” [1]. In view of these challenges, Ambrose and her colleagues recommend several strategies designed “to increase the value that students place on the goals and activities” of a course [1]. Among them are connecting course materials to “issues that are important to students” and to “real-world event[s]” and the needs of “an actual client in the community” [1].

Building on these principles, I proposed reorienting the patent assignment around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to augment students’ perception of its value for their learning and professional development. I developed a scenario for the project in which a trust affiliated with the university had issued a Request for Proposal that invites engineering undergraduates to submit patent applications for technologies that could help the university community achieve one or more of the SDGs. Because most of the SDGs touch on matters of social justice and equity, to write the new patent assignment students would need to integrate practical technical expertise with an understanding of social and ethical aspects of engineering design. The revised assignment, then, would help students appreciate the importance of integrating the practical and technical with the social and ethical as well as how projects undertaken in the labs complement themes addressed in course lectures. In what follows I elaborate how I developed the new patent assignment for a pilot summer version of the course and how it was then implemented in the main course in the Fall 2019 semester. I also explain how students at once welcomed and resisted working with the SDGs and the effects that reorienting the patent assignment around them have had on their perception of the course’s value.

References

[1] S. Ambrose, M. Bridges, and M Lovett, How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010.

Citation
Format

Laugelli, B. J. (2020, June), Designing for a Sustainable World: Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into a First-year Engineering Course in Science, Technology, and Society Paper presented at 2020 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual On line . 10.18260/1-2--34407

TY - CPAPER
AB - I am an instructor in a teaching team for a required first-year engineering course in science, technology and society (STS). The course enrolls 360-400 students each semester, and its primary learning goals are to introduce students to social and ethical aspects of engineering practice. The main deliverable in the course is a provisional patent application in which students describe a technological design they have developed in class. In previous semesters students would develop ideas for the patent application with relatively few parameters. They could generate ideas for nearly any kind of innovative technological device, process, service, or system as long as they could describe and illustrate it in 6-8 pages.

These open-ended parameters, however, tended to hinder instead of inspire student engagement and creativity. The ideas students came up with were often trivial and unimaginative; they frequently addressed problems of no greater significance than that of minor inconvenience. For example, each semester would yield various designs for collapsible backpack umbrellas and automated erasers for dry-erase boards. Equally problematic was that students struggled to see the value of the patent application assignment to engineering practice. On course evaluations they frequently voiced that it was difficult to appreciate the project’s relevance to a career in engineering especially as they were unlikely to become inventors or patent attorneys. Further, students had a hard time understanding how the patent assignment related to what they were learning in class lectures about social and ethical aspects of engineering practice. For example, students would often complain that the labs and lectures seemed like two distinct courses.

Because students had difficulty appreciating the value of the patent assignment, they were less motivated to challenge themselves and invest in the project. According to Ambrose et al. in their book How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching, “fail[ure] to address students’ perceived lack of value for a given task or goal” can contribute to patterns of evasion or rejection [1]. These patterns often lead students “to disengage from learning situations” or to commit only to “the minimum amount of work that is needed to just get by” [1]. In view of these challenges, Ambrose and her colleagues recommend several strategies designed “to increase the value that students place on the goals and activities” of a course [1]. Among them are connecting course materials to “issues that are important to students” and to “real-world event[s]” and the needs of “an actual client in the community” [1].

Building on these principles, I proposed reorienting the patent assignment around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to augment students’ perception of its value for their learning and professional development. I developed a scenario for the project in which a trust affiliated with the university had issued a Request for Proposal that invites engineering undergraduates to submit patent applications for technologies that could help the university community achieve one or more of the SDGs. Because most of the SDGs touch on matters of social justice and equity, to write the new patent assignment students would need to integrate practical technical expertise with an understanding of social and ethical aspects of engineering design. The revised assignment, then, would help students appreciate the importance of integrating the practical and technical with the social and ethical as well as how projects undertaken in the labs complement themes addressed in course lectures. In what follows I elaborate how I developed the new patent assignment for a pilot summer version of the course and how it was then implemented in the main course in the Fall 2019 semester. I also explain how students at once welcomed and resisted working with the SDGs and the effects that reorienting the patent assignment around them have had on their perception of the course’s value.

References

[1] S. Ambrose, M. Bridges, and M Lovett, How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based
Principles for Smart Teaching, San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2010.

AU - Benjamin J. Laugelli
CY - Virtual On line
DA - 2020/06/22
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Designing for a Sustainable World: Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals into a First-year Engineering Course in Science, Technology, and Society
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/34407
DO - 10.18260/1-2--34407
ER -