Engineering education on sustainability and the reuse of electronic components: a novel, hands-on educational method that emphasizes student creativity

Introduction Engineering students are experientially introduced to the concepts of sustainability, recycling and the cyclic economy through a novel educational method proposed, implemented and evaluated within an Electrical and Electronics Engineering undergraduate curriculum. Methods Students work in groups in a hands-on laboratory to disassemble damaged electrical/electronic devices, reclaim electronic components, recycle the damaged ones and reuse the functional ones, either to repair similar devices or to design and construct new devices. Students get a lived experience of a collaborative sustainability project that aims at developing their cognitive, social/emotional and metacognitive skills, creativity being a central one among them. An educational intervention of two phases is implemented and evaluated via multiple tools. Results Results document student gains of varying degrees across all three domains of learning; an increase in creativity, in particular, is measured between the two phases. Discussion The formation of a community of learning is another important outcome that opens directions for future research.