Development of Learning Modules for Sustainable Life Cycle Product Design: A Constructionist Approach

Constructionism is a learning theory in which learners construct their own understanding and knowledge by making a useful product. A cyberlearning environment for sustainable product design and life cycle engineering has been developed based on this approach through a multiuniversity research project, entitled “Constructionism in Learning: Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering (CooL:SLiCE).” The pedagogic significance of CooL:SLiCE is that it enables better learning within the sustainable engineering domain by utilizing effective learning modules for personalized environmentally responsible product design. The CooL:SLiCE platform provides a web-based portal with three learning modules: 1) Visualization and online computer-aided design (CAD), 2) Sustainable product architecture and supplier selection (S-PASS), and 3) Manufacturing analysis. These modules were first piloted by a team of students from three universities with different engineering backgrounds who were asked to design a sustainable multicopter attachment through the tools developed for a web-based portal. This paper provides a case study of this intercollegiate collaborative pilot project developed from multiple data sources and describes the effectiveness of constructionism to engage students in learning sustainable product design concepts. Introduction Sustainable engineering is a process where energy and resources are used in a way that does not compromise the natural environment or limit the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs . Over the past several decades, sustainability has become an important issue, especially in the field of engineering; however, sustainable engineering education remains under development due to its broad-encompassing and complex nature. Sustainable engineering curricula delivered solely through lectures limits students’ learning experiences, and the high expectations of students in traditional labs are compromised by, for example, time constraints and limited resources . These experiences leave students with little opportunity to construct their own knowledge about the topics covered. Current advances in science, specifically in communication and information technologies, are resulting in a renewed interest in creating physical and virtual hands-on learning activities. One such example is the distributed cyberlearning platform created by a multi-institutional team of researchers (Oregon State University, Pennsylvania State University, Wayne State University, and Iowa State University), named “Constructionism in Learning: Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering (CooL:SLiCE).” The CooL:SLiCE platform, developed under funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), applies the constructionist theory of learning [26] by facilitating the construction of environmentally responsible product designs. This platform supports engineering students’ learning of sustainable design by considering different human controlled/initiated impacts on the natural environment in team-based and personalized design activities. The CooL:SLiCE platform consists of three main modules: 1) Visualization and online computer-aided design (CAD), 2) Sustainable product architecture and supplier selection (S-PASS), and 3) Manufacturing analysis. In the summer of 2016, a pilot sustainable product design project implemented CooL:SLiCE as a developmental step in this research to gauge the feasibility of the platform’s introduction into real classroom settings. The summer pilot project focused on assessing the different sustainable product design activities by a team of graduate and undergraduate students from the three different universities in order to apply the findings to the educational design of CooL:SLiCE. The students in this team-based design project had expertise in different life cycle engineering areas and some students had previously participated in the development of different learning modules. The team was tasked with designing an attachment for a multicopter or drone, to be completed during the summer term. Related Literature The importance of designing and manufacturing products with smaller environmental and social footprints is especially important for the U.S. market, given its large number of households and high level of consumption of products. The production, consumption, and disposal of consumer products are accelerating in developing countries as well , which highlights the necessity for engineering decisions to consider sustainability-related impacts from a product life cycle perspective. An NSF Mathematics Training in the 21st century (MT21) [3] study has demonstrated the necessity of enhancing K-12 student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), which the investigators describe as being in a “state of emergency.” By integrating traditional and sustainable engineering skills, the next generation of students may become more interested in careers in engineering . Carew and Mitchell discovered that different concepts of sustainability exist within engineering, and this explicit contestation of the conceptual variation in the engineering classroom offers opportunities to improve undergraduate sustainability learning and teaching . They suggested engineering education needs to employ a diversity of teaching and learning methods to address the role of values and assumptions in sustainable decision making, rather than supporting a specific tool, sets of actions, or particular outcomes as being sustainable . Instructional design can be modified to allow learners to autonomously guide their own sustainable learning activities . Constructionism is a variation of the constructivist learning theory that offers a compelling approach to providing autonomy in learning. The constructionist approach engages learners in the design or construction of a tangible artifact in order to cement new knowledge. Papert defined constructionism as a pedagogical process that encourages learning through constructing, building, or making a product . This approach is cyclical. Learners make a product by applying their initial knowledge, which then helps them to construct new knowledge while updating their old knowledge . Autonomy is a key learning aspect inherent to constructionism. Thus, students will act autonomously when they take increased responsibility for their own learning. Learners are provided with autonomy so as to instill the sense that ideas and actions originate from oneself and are one’s own . However, the provision of scaffolding can make complex and difficult tasks accessible, manageable, and within a student’s zone of proximal development . Scaffolding can support two aspects of students’ learning: 1) how to do the task and 2) why the task should be done that way . Laboratory activities provide opportunities for students to learn by getting involved in a process of constructing knowledge by doing science . Recent research suggests, however, that helping students to achieve appropriate learning outcomes is a complex process . Gunstone supported the use of the laboratory as the setting for students to gain knowledge . Hofstein and Lunetta suggested that if students were supported with enough time and opportunities for interaction and reflection, that meaningful learning would happen in the laboratory . However, students are usually engaged in technical activities with few opportunities to interpret and state their beliefs about the meaning of their laboratory work . It is, therefore, crucial to provide opportunities that encourage students to ask questions, make design inquiries, and suggest hypotheses. Consequently, it is necessary to provide frequent opportunities for the students to reflect and modify their ideas . However, for most universities in the U.S., these types of opportunities do not exist [10, . Kim et al. have observed that learners do not have the opportunity to construct knowledge as long as they are treated as novices who are to receive existing knowledge . Design activity in a collaborative environment is an important part of this pilot project. Many researchers have defined collaborative design [16, 17, . Yesilbas et al. [18] characterized collaborative design as “the coming together of diverse interests and people to achieve a common purpose of developing a product via interactions, information and knowledge sharing, with a certain level of coordination of the variously implemented activities.” Collaborative design environments provide an opportunity for both non-remote and remote designers to work together and share their ideas and thoughts on a common project . Effective and efficient collaborative engineering environments are required for collaborators to share their knowledge and work together . To provide such environments, collaborators need to have a good perception of the challenges and opportunities of distributed teamwork and collaboration, as well as the technologies that will support a broad range of collaborative work settings . Moreover, collaborators need to understand the tools and resources that their collaborators can access, the level of information shared by all collaborators, as well as the shared expectations and objectives, metrics and criteria for evaluation, and how the work is progressing at predetermined milestones . Distributed collaboration (i.e., without face-to-face interactions), may present some drawbacks, such as reduced field of view, restricted use of gestures, time zone differences, understanding collaborators’ level of comprehension, and miscommunication [21, . The internet and web-based technologies are the best media for distributed collaborative product environments [23, . The “information utility” created by the internet and web-based technologies has many advantages, such as accessibility, usefulness in a wide range of applications, and lower costs . Case Study Our collaboration to pilot CooL:SLiCE took place through a distributed team desi