Resumen de Sustainability interest and knowledge of future engineers: identifying trends in secondary school students
Sustainability is an innovative topic within the field of engineering and is becoming a fundamental component of theengineering curriculum in the twenty-first century. As global challenges arise, the development of sustainable designtechniques is timely as engineers aim to address issues such as population growth and climate change. This researchevaluates secondary school students based on their understanding of sustainability concepts with a focus on educationlevel, gender, and ethnicity. Over three years, a pre- and post-assessment is provided to high school students who attend asummer engineering camp and participate in a ninety-minute lesson on sustainable engineering. The assessment results(basedon 334students) are comparedover the threeyearsto identify trendsin demographics,pre-existing knowledge,post-module knowledge, as well as interest in sustainability and engineering. Demographic comparisons are explored usingstatistical analyses. Education level was found to be significant in terms of knowledge of sustainability topics andsophomores indicated a higher level of interest in sustainable engineering in comparison to all demographic groups. Threemajor recommendations are identified: (1) integrate sustainability education earlier on in the secondary school curriculumand continue integration of material throughout their junior and senior years, (2) focus on enhancing sustainabilityeducation for minority groups (such as camps, workshops, science fairs, outreach programs, etc.), and (3) continue toemphasize women in engineering disciplines and encourage all student groups to pursue engineering through exposure tosustainability topics.
