Penn State environmental sustainability effort receives $400,000 NSF grant

University Park, Pa. -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Penn State a three-year, $400,000 grant for integrating sustainability in the curriculum.

The grant will fund "Teaching Sustainability in Engineering Through Public Scholarship." The principal investigators on the grant are David Riley, associate professor of architectural engineering and director of the Center for Sustainability, and Carol Colbeck, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education.

Riley stated that the grant will help foster project-based learning and service to the environment and communities.

"Many universities are looking at how to integrate sustainability in the curriculum." Riley said. "This project will explore how projects in green design and sustainability can make a difference to both students and communities."

The project will focus on existing project-based courses and ways to help faculty introduce environmental context, foster the notion of service and develop action skills.

Riley added that the grant would be used to develop a tool to help faculty integrate and demonstrate sustainability to their courses. The basis for the project was formed through the American Indian Housing Initiative, a research program and popular course series in which Penn State students help to design and build green buildings on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation.