Loden, D., and Biswas, W., Enhancement of university curriculum and secondary school education through utilisation of sustainable engineering and appropriate technology workshops Proceedings of the 2010 AaeE Conference, Sydney, Copyright © Loden and Biswas, 2010 Enhancement of university curriculum and secondary school education through utilisation of sustainable engineering and appropriate technology workshops Daniel Loden Engineers Without Borders Australia, Perth, Australia d.loden@ewb.org.au Wahidul Biswas Curtin University, Perth, Australia w.biswas@curtin.edu.au Abstract: Engineering faculties can struggle to find practical and meaningful tasks for students to undertake as part of their coursework whilst continuing to meet the broader requirements of Engineers Australia’s Professional Engineering Attributes. Engagement between university and secondary school curriculum through sustainable engineering and appropriate technology workshops developed by Engineers Without Borders Australia (EWBA) aims to address these challenges. This paper outlines EWBA’s new curriculum based initiative which provides university students with the opportunity to meaningfully engage with the broader community whilst educating secondary school students of the application of science to solve real world problems. The survey of teachers and secondary school students found that the program has effectively engaged secondary school students in what it means to be an engineer whilst surveys of university students has demonstrated that they have developed skills and knowledge aligned with the Engineers Australia’s Professional Engineering Attributes. Introduction The paper presents the applicability of the Engineers Without Borders Australia’s (EWBA) Future Engineers Program to enhance university’s engineering curriculum and improve secondary school education. Understanding the concepts of sustainable development is one of the professional engineering attributes identified by Engineers Australia (Nafalski et al, 2001). Many professional engineers aim to work towards creating sustainable solutions, but there still exists a gap between the knowledge that they acquire in their university degree and the understanding of sustainability which they will require in their future careers (King, 2007). The engineering context of sustainability involves the design and management of sustainable technology, research into environmental and social impacts and limitations, living within global limitations, and management of resources from cradle to cradle (Boyle, 2004). Engineering innovations need to respond to social demand, while taking ecological principles into account. University engineering degrees need to produce engineering graduates who are able to apply sustainability principles in their professional career. The Future Engineers Program enables engineering students to disseminate knowledge to the community and learn about social demands and ecological principles whilst ensuring that the lack of understanding of the engineer’s role in society by the community is addressed (Goodman et al, 2002; Ambrose, Lazarus and Nair, 1998). The EWBA Future Engineers Program could also enhance the enrolment of female students, as one of five primary reasons for women entering into an engineering degree were that they were attracted to the work engineers complete, such as helping people and society or improving the environment (deGrazia et al, 2001; Goodman et al, 2002). The Future Engineers Program reinforces these attributes to help maintain student enthusiasm for the engineering profession. The benefits of teaching secondary school students about engineering principles and encouraging them to undertake engineering as a profession is well established (Moskal, 2007; Symans, 2000). DeGrazia et al. (2001) have also demonstrated that teaching engineering in secondary schools improves the content of 559