Service Learning as Pedagogy for Promoting Social Awareness of Mechanical Engineering Students

Engineering education agencies worldwide echo the need of graduating engineers to be aware of the societal context of engineering. Service learning is a viable pedagogy that can bring students to understand this dimension in a rather direct way. Undergraduate engineering students visited low-income households in their community and installed insulation materials on doors and windows, thereby reducing heating costs. The students calculated the resulting dollar amount of energy savings using heat transfer principles. A quantitative analyses of the reflections of the students clearly showed that they became more aware and sensitive to their roles as engineers in a societal context.