Integrating sustainability engineering education and design into the K-12 classroom: A case study in electronics recycling for middle-school youth
Conference
Wang, C, Dandridge, T, Cardella, ME et al. (2019). Integrating sustainability engineering education and design into the K-12 classroom: A case study in electronics recycling for middle-school youth
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Wang, C, Dandridge, T, Cardella, ME et al. (2019). Integrating sustainability engineering education and design into the K-12 classroom: A case study in electronics recycling for middle-school youth
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Engineers today consider how to advance technologies with limited natural resources to achieve a sustainable future. Sustainability has been integrated into a variety of engineering curricula where educators face challenges of the misconception perceived by students that technology can offer complete solutions to sustainability. In this study, a constructive educational module of sustainability was integrated into a K-12 industry-oriented curriculum at a public middle school as a practice to introduce the societal, economic, and environmental mindsets to pre-college students with reduced technological content. Data collected are instructor's reflections for the module that lead to a summative critique of the outcomes and improvements. This study provides the engineering education community the evidence that middle-school youth can well perceive sustainability framework and the insights for researchers who are looking to integrate sustainable engineering to pre-collegiate engineering settings.
