Integrating Contemporary Environmental Issues in an Introductory Environmental Engineering Course

This paper discusses the strategies, experiences, assessment, and outcomes of integrating contemporary environmental issues in an introductory environmental engineering course. Environmental engineers and scientists need to constantly be aware of contemporary environmental issues. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that our students develop a culture of reading newspapers, journals, and government/industry publications on a regular basis to become aware of the contemporary environmental issues and be prepared to discuss and debate these issues. In an introductory environmental engineering course each student is required to report on seven articles that he or she read from a variety of sources such as local/national newspapers, environmental journals, internet, etc. Students need to submit a brief summary of the environmental news along with the source to the entire class as soon as they read about it. Students also give a five minutes presentation and conduct class discussion/debate on a contemporary environmental issue as soon as it appears as a news item. Students maintain a portfolio/journal of all the articles on contemporary environmental issues they read over the semester. At the end of the semester each student is required to submit his/her portfolio of seven articles along with his/her reflections and assessment of each articles. In addition, students conduct environmental caucuses similar to town hall meetings, and write two term papers on contemporary environmental issues.