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Announcing New Fall Program: HERE
April 11, 2011
Rose-Hulman Taking Steps
to Infuse Sustainability into Engineering Education
Realizing that engineers will play key roles in
addressing climate change, Starting in the 2011-12 academic
year, the Home for Environmentally Responsible Engineering (HERE) program aims to
integrate, in an unprecedented way, the best aspects of residential
learning with a specialized pilot curriculum in which
sustainability will be incorporated into special sections of
required courses. The program will provide a model for making
sustainability a foundation of engineering education, and
increasing students' awareness of environmental issues and skills
in sustainable design. ecological crises and future energy
development, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is offering a
select group of first-year students a unique educational experience
in sustainability.
"HERE marks the beginning of a new direction for engineering
education at Rose-Hulman," said Corey Taylor, assistant professor
of English. "Through educating sustainability-conscious
engineers, Rose-Hulman has the opportunity to make the world a
better place for everyone. It's a very global, very avant
garde way of thinking."
Students in the HERE group, which could feature as many as 44
freshmen this fall, will live in the same residence hall and be
assigned to special course sections in which the disciplinary
methodologies of science, engineering, mathematics and the
humanities and social sciences will address sustainability
concerns. Faculty members will hold office hours in the
student residence hall, providing new opportunities for
mentoring. And, the residence hall itself will become a
target for design projects to produce material improvements based
on what students have learned.
"Curriculum and residence life will meld into one educational
unit to a degree that has not yet been achieved in engineering
education," states HERE Director Patricia Brackin, professor of
mechanical engineering, one of 10 faculty members who have spent
the past nine months developing the program.
"Sustainability problems pose serious challenges for engineering
education," she added. "As students learn engineering
fundamentals, design skills and professional practices, the
complexity of sustainability principles and practices is routinely
underplayed. The HERE program addresses this area in
engineering education."
Mark Minster, associate professor of English and an advocate for
sustainable education, believes that if it is important to
integrate sustainability concerns across the curriculum, then it is
equally important to incorporate them in other areas of educational
experience -- most notably the campus where students live.
"For the last 15 years, some of the most innovative and
important educational initiatives -- approaches called 'greening
the campus' and 'place-based education' -- have evolved out of the
unique opportunity presented by the university setting: that
students and faculty can face sustainability issues intellectually
in a curriculum on the campus where it is taught," Minster
said.
Middlebury College, Oberlin College and Berea College, all
liberal arts institutions, have been the most influential in
integrating a sustainability curriculum with the lived experience
of campus, allowing students to investigate, measure and even help
redesign the buildings they inhabit and the practices in which they
participate.
In the engineering area, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
is debuting this fall an effort to incorporate sustainability into
residential life in an elective residential program; California
Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) has implemented a
Sustainability Across the Curriculum program; and Rochester
Institute of Technology offers a graduate program in
sustainability.
Rose-Hulman's HERE program will combine the vital imperatives
behind the RPI and Cal Poly initiatives, and sets a new course for
engineering education.
|
HERE students will take a special
Rhetoric and Composition course, along with the introductory
College & Life Skills course during the fall quarter.
They'll then take a course in Sustainability and Its Global
Contexts during the winter quarter, and spend the spring studying
an Introduction to Design course, which will culminate with a
sustainability engineering-themed project.
Throughout the year, the students will work with faculty from
engineering, sciences and humanities with expertise in
sustainability studies.
|
 Students give
"Poster Talks" to present sustainable ideas and field questions
from passersby about what they've learned. |
Procter & Gamble has provided a grant to support the HERE
program, and other corporations desire students with exposure to
sustainability solutions for internships, co-ops and full-time
jobs, according to Kathleen Toohey, assistant professor of
mechanical engineering
An ambitious faculty development program will promote authentic,
substantial expertise in environmental issues and sustainable
engineering. Each summer, workshops advised by experts on
sustainability in engineering education will help 15 to 20 faculty
members to incorporate principles and methods of sustainability
into their courses.
"The hope is to infuse sustainability across Rose-Hulman's
curriculum," said Richard House, associate professor of
English.
Learn more about Rose-Hulman's HERE program at www.rose-hulman.edu/HERE.
Or Contact: Dr. Patricia
Brackin.
Related: Rose-Hulman's Commitment to Arbor
Life: