Paper ID #11079 Sustainability Challenges & the Opportunities for Global Engagement: Link- ing Caribbean secondary school classrooms and Engineering Departments at US Universities Dr. Maya A Trotz, University of South Florida Dr. Trotz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. She works at the nexus of geochemistry/water quality and global/community sustainability and education. Her interests are interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, applied and forge non traditional university partnerships with local and international entities. Dr. Joniqua Howard, University of Texas Arlington Ken Darrie Thomas, Auburn University, Biosystems Engineering & The Honors College Ken D. Thomas, Ph.D. is the Honors Lecturer in Biosystems Engineering of both The Honors College and Department of Biosystems Engineering at Auburn University, Auburn, AL. He received both his BSc Chemical & Process Engineering and MSc Environmental Engineering from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Ph.D. Civil Engineering (Environmental & Water Resources Engineer- ing) from the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL. His current research interests are in sustainability science, sustainable development and sustainable development engineering, especially in a West Indian context, and engineering education. Dr. Helen Muga, University of Mount Union Dr. Muga is an assistant professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Mount Union. She teaches undergraduate courses, primarily for civil and mechanical engineering students. She is the lead professor in establishing and building the mandatory international engineering field experience for both civil and mechanical engineering students in the Department of Engineering. Her primary research interests are in water and wastewater treatment and design, sustainability, alternative energy, international development work, and engineering education. Dr. Jeanese Christine Badenock, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Jeanese Badenock received her BSc in Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Barbados, graduating in 1996 with First Class Honours as the Valedictorian of her class. After teaching Mathematics at a local high school in Barbados for two years, she attended Dartmouth Col- lege, New Hampshire, USA, as a GAANN Fellow under a Department of Education training grant, for her PhD. Working in the group of indole chemist, Prof Gordon Gribble, her research focused on heterocyclic chemistry with special interest in radical indole chemistry and the synthesis of indole alkaloids. She re- ceived extensive teacher training at Dartmouth and was awarded the John H. Wolfenden Teaching Prize at the end of the three year mandatory teaching period. After her graduation from Dartmouth College in 2003, she returned to Barbados and was appointed to her current post as Lecturer in Synthetic Organic Chemistry at the Cave Hill Campus in 2004, where she continues to research and publish in the field of indole chemistry. At the UWI Cave Hill, Dr. Badenock has served as the Chair of the Safety Committee for the Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, a member of the UWI Scientific Team (Environ- mental Monitoring) and currently functions as the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology (Research and Outreach). She is also a member of the Barbados National Ozone Steering Committee, a former consultant to the United Nations Environment Programme Regional Office of Latin America and the Caribbean (UNEP ROLAC) dealing with Ozone depleting substances, the founding manager of the Caribbean Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) Solvent Support Facility and a member of the governing council of the Caribbean Science Foundation. 20.37.1 Page Dr. Sheena A Francis, University of Technology, Jamaica 235 Old Hope Rd Kgn 6. Jamaica Dr. Maya A Trotz, University of South Florida c American Society for Engineering Education, 2014 Paper ID #11079 Dr. Trotz is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. She works at the nexus of geochemistry/water quality and global/community sustainability and education. Her interests are interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, applied and forge non traditional university partnerships with local and international entities. Page 20.37.2 Page c American Society for Engineering Education, 2014 Sustainability Challenges & the Opportunities for Global Engagement: Linking Caribbean secondary school classrooms and Engineering Departments at US Universities Maya A. Trotz1, Joniqua Howard1, Helen Muga2, Ken Thomas3, Sheena Francis4, Jeanese Badenock5 1Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of South Florida, 2Department of Civil Engineering, University of Mount Union, 3The Honors College & Biosystem Engineering Department, Auburn University, 4Department of Biology, University of the Technology, Jamaica, 5Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, University of the West Indies Cave Hill, Barbados. Abstract Sustainability is recognized as being critical for the framing of engineering research and education with unique opportunities for engineering student training through non-traditional university partnerships, including international ones. With limited natural resources, high vulnerability to catastrophic events, and isolated by the sea, Caribbean islands have been pushing for sustainable development and have championed adaptation as the main mechanism to deal with climate change. Actual demonstration projects or widespread educational initiatives needed to solve issues such as water scarcity are limited and only a very small work force has training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). This paper discusses a secondary school student challenge that was developed in the Caribbean to address these issues with particular attention paid to Belize and the types of linkages that evolved with US based engineering students and the ways in which students in the Caribbean and the US were exposed to a global environment. Twenty-four projects entered the challenge from Belize, two of which were formally engaged with student classes from two different US universities. A teacher and 5 students from a private secondary school in Caye Caulker, a Belizean island, were matched with a mentor at a US University. That mentor required the twenty students in his senior level Geospatial Technologies for Biosystems Engineering class to work on the Belize request to design a composting system based on material, financial, and local environmental constraints. Teams of two or three university students worked with the teacher and students from Belize and presented their findings via SKYPE and as a written report. While being mentored by a local Belizean engineer on a stormwater management project for their school in Belize City, connections were made to a Professor of Civil Engineering at another US university who focused her International Engineering Field Experience course on their project. In May 2013, thirteen students from her class visited Belize to survey the site, teaching survey methods to the secondary school students as well. In May 2014, another group will visit to continue working on the project, which involves the creation of a detention pond and an ecological park for outdoor laboratory experiments. Page 20.37.3 Page 1 Introduction Sustainability is recognized as being critical for the framing of engineering research and education with unique opportunities for engineering student training through non-traditional university partnerships, including international ones (Mihelcic et al., 2003; Mihelcic and Trotz, 2010; Trotz et al., 2009; Zimmerman and Vanegas, 2007). Universities are also investing in mechanisms to ensure they graduate globally competitive and competent engineers (Downey et al., 2006) like that of global service learning (Mohtar and Dare, 2012), field trips, and integrated class experiences (Downey et al., 2006). The Caribbean community (CARICOM), a regional group of Caribbean islands and coastal countries in Central and South America, have supported a sustainable development agenda since 1994 with priority areas of climate change, natural and environmental disasters and climate variability, freshwater resources, coastal and marine resources, energy, and tourism (United Nations, 1994). In 2013, the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge for secondary school students in the Caribbean (an equivalent to a combination of US middle and high schools) presented an opportunity for US engineering students to gain global competency skills through sustainability focused solutions to challenges linked to issues like food and water security. This paper first describes the Sagicor Visionaries Challenge and then discusses two case studies, showing how engineering undergraduates in the US engaged with the sustainability challenge projects of the secondary school teams in Belize. Using Downey et al.’s (2006) categorizations for global competency pathways, the case studies represent an integrated class experience and an international field trip. Sagicor Visionaries Challenge The Sagicor Visionaries Challenge aims to promote sustainable Caribbean communities through innovation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). It asks secondary school students to: 1. Identify a challenge facing their school and or community, 2. Propose a sustainable and innovative solution, and 3.