Blended Learning in Theoretical Mechanics with a Sustainable Development Orientation: An Exploratory Historical Cohort Study

To align foundational engineering education with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), this study proposes a four-stage blended learning framework for Theoretical Mechanics that integrates theoretical knowledge, virtual simulation, classroom instruction, and project-driven tasks. An exploratory, non-equivalent historical cohort comparison was performed to examine recorded performance in the “Measurement of Moment of Inertia of Rigid Bodies” experiment between the 2023 traditional cohort (n = 83) and the 2024 blended cohort (n = 75). Among students with available scores, the blended group had a mean score 2.66 points higher than the traditional group (student-level Welch 95% CI: 0.02–5.30; p = 0.048; Hedges’ g = 0.316), and also had a larger proportion of students scoring at least 90 (18.7% vs. 6.0%). In the civil engineering subsample, the positive difference remained 2.63 points, while class-level resampling yielded a wider confidence interval (−1.89–7.00; permutation p = 0.260). Analyses of individual-observation and missing-score scenarios further illustrated the sensitivity of this comparison approach. These results indicate a positive observed association, accompanied by substantial uncertainty arising from historical cohort differences, class structure, and uneven score coverage. This framework links mechanics learning tasks to curriculum objectives including safety, professional responsibility, and sustainable design. The proposed learning mechanisms and sustainability competency outcomes of this framework require separate process and outcome assessments for further verification.