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Realizing that engineers will play key roles in addressing climate
change, 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..
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Green Thinking: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology’s Home for
Environmentally Responsible Engineering program strives to educate engineers
on the complexities of sustainability principles and practices. The program
will begin this fall with a group of 44 freshmen students. |
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.
“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.
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Fresh Ideas: Freshmen engineering students presented their ideas on how
to make the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology campus more sustainable
during a recent campus poster session. The spring course is giving
faculty ideas on how to incorporate design projects into the Home for
Environmentally Responsible Engineering program. |
“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.
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Program Planning: Faculty members meet to discuss aspects of Rose-Hulman
Institute of Technology’s Home for Environmentally Responsible
Engineering program. The group included (from left) Mark Minster,
associate professor of English; HERE Director Patsy Brackin, professor
of mechanical engineering; Richard Layton, associate professor of
mechanical engineering; Rebecca DeVasher, assistant professor of
chemistry; and Richard House, associate professor of English. |
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.
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/
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