Integrating Sociotechnical Issues Into Introductory Circuits Courses: Seven Emerging Modules

Integrating sociotechnical content into foundational engineering courses is a critical, but often overlooked, goal of engineering education. To accomplish this goal, we developed several one-hour modules for the Introduction to Circuits course that include learning objectives, pre-class activities, detailed class guides (with presentation slides, in-class activities, and instructor talking points), and post-class homework and exam questions. We have successfully implemented two initial modules in small and large classes, and in Summer 2024 we collaborated with a diverse cohort of graduate students from across the U.S. to create seven new modules. The modules address issues including sustainable development and energy efficiency, environmental and social impacts of lithium mining, global energy access, and <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\text{CO}_{2}$</tex> emissions. In this paper, we describe the seven emerging modules.