Dr. Griendling's primary objective for this project was to help students place aerospace in the global context, exploring both the positive and negative impacts of aerospace systems from the outset of their education. By fostering an early awareness of how aerospace technology intersects with large-scale societal outcomes, the goal was to cultivate ethical, globally minded thinkers who are able to better understand and evaluate the societal impacts of their aerospace designs. This approach aims to prepare students to consider broader implications as they progress through their future courses and careers.
Dr. Griendling explained that she made a lot of changes to her initial plan. She had initially planned to focus only on Advanced Air Mobility. However, she realized that she wanted to broaden to include other aspects of aerospace spread throughout the course. She decided to shift to a series of smaller case studies with broader exposure.
The biggest benefit that Dr. Griendling observed was hard to evaluate quantitatively, but very clear to her in the classroom. As compared to previously, she felt like the student engagement was higher and the questions were deeper and more conceptually challenging. The questions she received from students demonstrated that they were more able to connect the technical content to the real world and were more aware of the potential wider impacts of aerospace systems.
It was presented at a workshop during Sustainability Week in Spring of 2024.
"I actually found it really helpful to go through the process of considering a more global context for this course. It also helped me find better ways to connect content in my other courses to real world impact and talk about sustainable design tradeoffs in other classes. I also think it really helped me better see how content like this can improve engagement and critical thinking skills, and it's something I should be doing more of in my other courses."