What Are We Teaching Engineers about Climate Change? Presenting the MACC Evaluation of Climate Change Education

Abstract

Engineering underpins the progress of modern societies. However, engineering activities are a key driver of climate change and engineers are responsible in many ways for disaster risk reduction. It is therefore imperative that engineering education accurately portrays the impact that the profession has on our climate and equips engineers with the knowledge to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt infrastructure for climate resilience. Here, we explore how higher education prepares engineers to address the climate crisis via a curricula analysis of three departments (mechanical, civil, and electrical engineering). The pilot study investigated the extent of mitigation and adaptation to climate change (MACC) content across different disciplines by developing and applying an evaluation methodology. We found that module descriptions and learning objectives were largely without reference to MACC, further evidencing the dissociation of engineering education from the climate reality as cited in the literature. This novel approach goes beyond curricula analysis to integrate MACC within module outlines paving the way for future integration. This research demonstrates the urgent need for climate conscious engineering curricula.

Keywords

• climate change education
• engineering education
• STEM education
• curricula evaluation
• text analysis
• higher education