“Earth & Society” Mini-Projects: Thinking About Energy and the Environment in All Their Complexity
In late January, first-year civil engineering students presented their mini-projects from the “Earth & Society” course in the form of scientific posters during a session open to the public.
These mini-projects give students the opportunity to explore in depth a topic related to energy and environmental issues, in the broadest sense. Divided into small groups, they choose a topic at the beginning of the year from among those proposed by faculty members, who guide them throughout the project. The projects involve literature reviews, estimates or calculations based on simplified models, and sometimes modeling exercises. The final presentation takes the form of a poster, presented before a panel of judges and the entire class, with a short presentation followed by an in-depth discussion to evaluate the quality of the work, the presentation, and the students’ responses to questions.
These presentations are part of the broader “Earth & Society” program, which aims to provide engineering students with the tools to understand major contemporary issues. The program combines instruction in the geoscientific approach and the Anthropocene, an introduction to sociopolitical and environmental responsibilities, and a series of lectures led by experts on the impacts of climate change on our societies.
