McGraw-Hill Research Foundation Policy Paper Advocates Expanding Sustainability Education
NEW YORK, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A McGraw-Hill Research Foundation policy paper argues that sustainability education must be expanded and more fully integrated into students' curricula in order to best meet society's long-term sustainability goals.
In A Transdisciplinary Approach to Sustainability Education, co-authors Liv Haselbach, Ph.D., and Norbert Delatte, Ph.D., hold that sustainability concepts and skills must be incorporated into higher education in more flexible, novel, and multifaceted ways. They believe that a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach to sustainability will advance the knowledge and skills needed to respond rapidly to the dynamics of the systems in both academia and in practice. The authors then review sustainability programming and curricula in civil and environmental engineering to determine how other professional programs can effectively incorporate principles of sustainability.
The authors point to sustainability programs that have been successful, such as the Center for Sustainable Education—a joint venture among Arizona State University, Carnegie Mellon University, George Institute of Technology, Syracuse University, and the University of Texas at Austin—and programs at Washington State University, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, and others. They underline the importance of learning from and building upon these examples of sustainability in education.
Haselbach and Delatte write, "Part of sustainability is adapting to the world and its needs, so educators must understand that the process is iterative—little steps turn into wider-spread arms, always reaching to embrace more of the world, its people, and their needs."
Liv Haselbach, Ph.D., P.E., is an associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Washington State University. Her teaching and research focus on sustainable construction, pervious concrete, low-impact development, environmental issues with concrete, alternative transportation, and air pollution. Dr. Haselbach serves on many national and international committees, including ASTM E60 (Sustainability), ACI 130 (Sustainability), ASCE LID (Low Impact Development), and ISO TC71/8 Environmental Management of Concrete and Concrete Structures.
Dr. Norbert Delatte is chair and professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Cleveland State University. He is the former chair of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) Committee 325 Concrete Pavements and of the American Society of Civil Engineers Technical Council on Forensic Engineering Executive Committee and Education Committee, and the current chair of the ACI faculty network (S803) and of ACI Committee 327 Roller Compacted Concrete Pavements. He is a founding member of the ACI Students and Younger Members Advisory Committee and is editor of the American Society of Civil Engineers Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice.
To download a copy of A Transdisciplinary Approach to Sustainability Education, click here: http://bit.ly/Expanding_Sustainability_Education
About The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation
The Foundation was established with the support of The McGraw-Hill Companies. It was incorporated on July 16, 2010, as a Delaware non-profit and is in the process of applying to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization.
SOURCE The McGraw-Hill Research Foundation
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