Teaching industrial ecology to undergraduate students: Lessons learned

Abstract

Industrial ecology (IE) education is a topic that has received attention in institutions of higher education throughout the world. Some universities have been teaching and researching IE for the past 20 years but its scope is still being defined. There is a need to catalog and exchange experiences of IE teaching and their results. Based on a literature review, this paper aims to provide a framework composed of content and strategies for IE teaching. This framework is tested in teaching IE as a general education course for undergraduate students at Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). The methodology applied in this paper is of a descriptive and empirical nature and thus this paper focuses on a practice-oriented perspective in describing the experience of BIT. A range of different strategies, including lectures, group discussions, case studies, role playing games, oral presentations, evaluation, and student feedback have been incorporated in the course. The results show that the course received a highly positive evaluation by the participating students. Students were impressed by IE’s characteristics of interdisciplinarity, ways of thinking, and practical value. Additionally, the course appears to influence students’ values, attitudes, and behavioral intentions. The paper concludes with some thoughts on ways of improving IE education in the future.