Sustainable Engineering is an exciting new semester course offered in partnership with Concord Consortium through a federally supported grant from the National Science Foundation. Engineering touches nearly every aspect of our lives—buildings, transportation, utilities, consumer goods and our food supply are some of the many areas impacted by the engineering decisions that are made at the design level and throughout the lifespan of a structure or system. Historically, engineering projects have not always considered the environmental impact of their design. Sustainable Engineering considers the environmental consequences of the design and seeks to develop structures and systems which reduce the use of fossil fuels and enhance our local, as well as global, environment.
Students will work through three modules: a three-week introduction to energy, which includes an understanding of motors and engines, generation and transmission of electricity, and systems for heating and cooling; a second three-week module on matter which includes natural resource acquisition and usage, including land management for lumber and food, fossil fuel processing for fuels and plastics, and durable goods manufacturing and recycling; and a third module focused on the demands of society, which includes the construction and maintenance of buildings, infrastructure, and transport systems and vehicles. Each week students will assess the current status of their local community around these topics, and research and present global initiatives in all of these areas. Students will also complete a design challenge for each module which will include the engineering processes of analysis, design, and evaluation.
Finally, students will conduct a capstone solar village group project where they will use the software program Energy3D and Google Earth to develop a solar panel array for sustainable energy production of four integrated buildings: a transportation center, a school, a retail store, and a community building.
Sustainable Engineering and allied careers are dynamic, are part of one of the fastest growing sectors of the global economy, and are projected to continue to experience tremendous growth throughout the 21st century as we explore alternatives to meeting the needs of our planet. Please join us as we explore the technology of today and the exciting possibilities of tomorrow!
1. Identify and explain designs that support applications in sustainable engineering. 2. Construct and revise explanations of matter cycling and energy flow through communities.
3. Define and analyze engineering problems.
4. Propose, evaluate and optimize sustainable engineering solutions, using appropriate mathematics and modeling software.
5.Evaluate solutions based on a broad range of considerations in criteria and constraints for problems of social and global significance.
This course requires both Energy3D and Google Earth for certain lessons. Energy3D now requires a Windows operating system; students will not be able to complete these lessons on a Chromebook, mobile device, or Mac operating system.