Integration of environmental humanities modules into the environmental engineering classroom

In today's rapidly changing world, engineers and scientists are challenged with solving the multitudes of environmental and social problems our society is currently facing. The rapid growth of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research and pedagogy is critical for developing technical solutions to these environmental issues. However, STEM fields are not necessarily oriented towards understanding the cultural, ideological, political, and historical contexts in which environmental problems occur. In this study, both individual and team-based environmental humanities modules (EHMs) were developed for and integrated into an upper-level undergraduate introductory environmental engineering course to bring together concepts of engineering, science, and humanities in the classroom. The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of the environmental humanities on fostering an increased understanding of the broader context of multidisciplinary environmental engineering work. The overall impact of the EHMs was evaluated through student responses to a survey administered at both the beginning and end of the course. Survey results indicate that the EHMs enabled students to increase their perception of their understanding of environmental engineering and its effect on society's environmental challenges.