Research Papers

Document Type

Conference Paper

Abstract

Engineers should be able to demonstrate sustainability competencies transcending their specialised discipline. But all cross-disciplinary sustainability competencies are not targeted adequately in engineering education and are often mismatched with competencies required by engineers in their professional roles. Future engineers should have an understanding of the environment alongside technical knowledge, with all engineering design and product showing consideration to sustainability. The study of the Earth system is relevant to the understanding of environmental issues and the interplay between the sub-systems of the Earth (atmosphere, geosphere, biosphere and hydrosphere) . Yet, integration of Earth system literacy in the engineering curriculum has received minimal attention. This paper discusses the sustainability competencies in engineering education and, investigates if they can be addressed through Earth system literacy where weak or lacking. Based on two geology courses delivered to engineering students focusing on the sustainable management of different Earth resources with an understanding of their formation and extraction, it is evident that Earth system literacy can strengthen system thinking and, strategic and normative competencies in engineers. Most importantly it can target anticipatory competency that is not addressed adequately in conventional engineering courses.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/5F7K-5Z77

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

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