A Case Study Approach for Teaching Students Sustainability from a Global Perspective

Engineers have the responsibility to identify and develop sustainable, culturally relevant solutions to global problems. Consequently, an engineering education must develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to find viable, desirable, and feasible sustainable solutions. One of the main challenges in engineering education, however, is the identification of an appropriate model to educate students in the area of sustainability. The aim of this paper is to develop a methodology based on the case study approach that effectively exposes students to knowledge, skills, and attitudes required for decision making attuned to the multi-dimensional contexts (environmental, social, and economic) of sustainability challenges. There are two key pedagogy-based deliverables: 1) an active learning approach that requires students to work on virtual teams comprised of students throughout the Americas to solve the case study modules and 2) the case study lessons that can be applied longitudinally throughout an engineering curriculum. The work is an international collaboration built for identifying sustainability perspectives based on geographical, educational, and cultural differences. This paper describes progress to date toward completing these deliverables.