THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENERGY POLICIES BY UNDERGRADUATE ENGINEERING STUDENTS

This paper describes the incorporation of a project involving the development of energy policies by students in a senior-level technical elective course in Mechanical Engineering. As part of the course, students were engaged in a semester-long project that resulted in the development by each student of an energy policy that outlined the direction that they thought the United States should take over the next 25 years with regards to electricity generation. The project consisted of several steps. First, each student had to choose one of nine possible electricity-generation techniques to research in depth. The students were then given two months to research the current state and projected improvements of their chosen technology, as well as the economics, environmental impact, and public perception of their technology. The students then were asked to prepare two reports on their research. The first report presented a detailed summary of their research, intended primarily for the instructor. The second report was a short summary of their findings, which were distributed to everyone in the class. The next stage of the project lasted for two weeks. In this part, the students were to read the summaries provided by the other students, and then develop their own vision of the electricit