Abstract
More and more technical universities now advocate integrating sustainability in higher education and including it as a strategic goal for improving education's quality and relevance to society. This study examines 30 fourth-year chemical engineering students, graduates of a university course designed to combine their terminological domain with sustainability-oriented goals, focusing on topics like corporate sustainability, developing environmental policy, introduction to ISO 14001-Environmental Management Systems (EMS), and environmental legislation. The study explores their perception of industrial-environmental issues and asks-How did the study unit influence the students' ability to use their preexisting scientific knowledge, while relating to industrial-environmental issues? Our findings indicate that engineering students can develop industrial-environmental awareness, and make use of interdisciplinary knowledge beyond that strictly related to the realm of engineering. Regarding the research's particular aim-i. e. determining the study unit's influence on students' ability to relate industrial-environmental issues to their own field of engineering-the findings indeed show a change in the students' conceptions of environmental elements related to industry. The course graduates became more attentive to the environmental aspects associated with building and opening a factory, and the concepts they raised in connection with the topic gained in variety.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 532-545 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Science Education and Technology |
Volume | 19 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Dec 2010 |
Keywords
- Engineering education
- Environmental literacy
- Environmental management systems
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Education
- General Engineering