Education is an essential tool and factor in addressing the ongoing critical issues regarding implementing sustainable development values and making the engineering sector more globally responsible in the fight against global challenges on the planet we inhabit. We believe that the knowledge and awareness of this phenomenon would help students aspiring to be future engineers to incorporate a culture that reinforces behaviours, values, and norms of utilizing the planet’s resources to meet society’s needs and generate a concise understanding of the social, environmental, and economic impacts projects have, both locally to where it is implemented globally through supply chains and operational outputs.
The engineering profession has a huge influence in producing outcomes that meets the needs of all people. Hence, we have pitched the idea of implementing high school curriculums designed to offer students insight into sustainable engineering and renewable energy. At a time when students are making critical decisions regarding career pathways, we believe this project idea would influence students to take on STEM-related subjects at the university level.
Our project idea of reshaping the education curriculum cannot be a reality without considering the responsible steps which need to be taken to reach our proposed design to navigate through these complex and vast problems. Based on findings and research in understanding the problem’s multidimensional nature to remediate the defects and failure of school curriculums of incorporating sustainable engineering which directly addresses climate change, energy transitions, food security, social inequity and more.
Firstly, we would perform stakeholding mapping, which involves developing an understanding of stakeholders’ various roles, levels of influence, and power within the educational sector. This methodology will give us a clear road map, a well-strategized approach, and steps needed to be taken to achieve the group’s objective. We then identify students’ interests and overall general preferred learning style in comparison with students’ performance across UK schools. These steps would be achieved by carrying large scale surveys and questionnaires which in return would provide us with big data samples that can be analysed and assessed. We would host training workshops and webinars with students by visiting schools across the UK in collaboration with STEM hubs and other societies with the sole goal of encouraging students to take on STEM-related courses at the university level and creating literacy about the global challenges we face today,
These activities would allow us to test our curriculum designs and keep making enhanced changes that would suit students’ needs and expectations whilst finding the balance between making the learning outcomes engaging for students and firmly seeding the importance of sustainable development in the fight against what is already a global emergency.
After coming up with a final design of our curriculum, we would then set up meetings with the various stakeholders in particular the Minister of Education and Training who has a key responsibility in the adoption of educational policies, coordinating educative plans, and implementation of the educational curriculum across UK schools. The meeting agenda would focus on the presented data and feedback gathered from the surveys, questionnaires, webinars, and training workshops and emphasis on the reasoning regarding curriculum update/review to indulge them in the whole set of concepts including innovation, development, and adoption which should be pitched to the minute detail.
The meetings’ outcome expectation would be that implementation will take place after the adoption of our curriculum design using the Top-down approach for effectiveness. Also, we expect that the UK education committee would be set to checkmate the procedures, standards, and quality curriculum content dissemination of making a cultural effect in students that reinforces behaviours, values and norms in being more globally responsible individuals and encouraging students to take on STEM- related courses at the university level.
Sources and further reading;
A review of commitment and implementation of sustainable development in higher education: results from a worldwide survey - ScienceDirect
A review of Nigerian energy access studies: The story told so far - ScienceDirect
How can environmental education help to combat climate change? The importance of climate change education - Iberdrola
Why should schools teach climate education: Why Should Schools Teach Climate Education? | by UN CC:Learn | UN CC:Learn blog | Medium
Ovie Jacob's SMART targets:
- Commit to improving current knowledge by learning and training people about downshifting what is unsustainable in order to attaining sustainability.
- Commit to protecting the environment by enlighten others through seminars, webinars workshops, as together everyone can achieve more.
- I will often conduct surveys in order to measure the effect of our impact, which will inform us of remedial strategies for imbalance situations.
My SMART targets:
- Spread awareness of the necessity for global responsiblity amongst my peers.
- Aim to be environmentally responsible in my own habits, making sure to set an example.
- Read about global issues and research how I can play a part in tackling them throughout my own career.
MY 3 SMART actions would be to get involved in more workshops and bootcamps that recognise the global challenges we face. Secondly, I would listen to more podcasts related to global responsibility. Lastly, making connections with likeminded people who are trying to make difference in the fight against global change.