Assessing impacts of a learning-cycle-based module on students' conceptual sustainability knowledge using concept maps and surveys

As engineers will be the designers of projects that will have lasting economic, environmental, and social impacts, it is important to ensure that students are equipped with the necessary conceptual knowledge to engage in sustainable design. Reforms in engineering education are needed to ensure that sustainability content is included in undergraduate curricula. In addition, previous work has demonstrated that beyond curricular content, innovative pedagogical approaches are also important for enhancing student learning. The goal of this work was to examine the impacts of a learning-cycle-based sustainability module on students' conceptual understanding of sustainability. The module was integrated into a senior-level, civil and environmental engineering capstone design course at a large, research-intensive university in the southeastern United States. Concept maps and student self-report surveys were used to compare learning gains for students in the modified design course (intervention cohort) to those in the traditional design course (control cohort). Concept map results indicated that improvements in knowledge depth, breadth, and interconnectedness were significantly greater for the intervention, as compared to the control cohort. Furthermore, while both cohorts initially over-emphasized the environmental dimension of sustainability, only those students in the intervention cohort demonstrated a more balanced understanding of sustainability at the end of the course. Survey results did not show the significant learning gains seen in concept maps, but it is expected that students' survey responses were biased by their negative perceptions of the module itself at the end of the semester. Future module implementations, which can be adapted for a variety of engineering and even non-engineering disciplines, should ensure more complete integration into the target course to improve student perceptions of the learning experience. Overall, this study provides theoretically-grounded, empirically-tested learning materials and assessment methods than can be adapted in other engineering courses.