An algae-based curriculum is being used to teach engineering fundamentals and concepts from the humanities such as ethics, gender and racial biases, discrimination, and public policy. The project involves hands on experiments with algae that relate to core concepts in engineering such as materials, energy, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, water treatment, and green engineering. Each experiment requires data collection, analyses, and interpretation. Technical and reflective writings along with oral presentations are integrated with the course. Students are exposed to case studies through movies, readings, and documentaries that allow them to learn about ethics, race and gender issues, and public policy. The experiments of the curriculum give students the fundamental skills and knowledge necessary to tackle some of the world's most challenging issues and encourage interest in solving them. They also give students a broad knowledge base of humanities and global issues that are commonly not included in typical engineering courses.

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Rowan University has been hosting an NSF REU Site which focuses on Pollution Prevention and Sustainability since 2004. The site has been established for three consecutive summers. The initiative is based on current global initiatives to integrate sustainability into the science and engineering curriculum. Students need to be exposed to enriching experiences that require them to have concerns for human conditions and the environment that are conservative and protective. The REU site allows eleven undergraduates to participate in pollution prevention and sustainability research activities at Rowan University for eight weeks during the summer. Engineering and science faculty participate in mentoring activities along with Rowan undergraduate and graduate students. Social building skills such as community outreach seminars, workshops, social picnics, field trips and communication strengthening exercises are also an integral part of this REU experience. Environmental ethics, diversity and community impact of engineering activities are the topics of mini workshops. All these topics have tremendous relevance to pollution prevention and sustainability but can be absent from a traditional engineering curriculum. It is anticipated that the undergraduate research experience promotes interest in pursuing graduate school and strengthens leadership skills and self esteem.

Engineering education needs to be attractive, relevant and practical to attract talented individuals to the profession. Using a known fun living system can bring engineering alive as a viable career option. An aquarium is a great example of a living system that can be used as a teaching tool for future engineers. It is an exquisite combination of live interacting systems which can be analyzed using multidisciplinary engineering and science principles. While children are familiar with an aquarium via personal aquariums or school field trips to a commercial aquarium, they seldom make a connection to the engineering and science principles behind the design, operation and maintenance of such a living system. Students can easily be introduced to different engineering topics, principles and disciplines via the study of such a system. Common topics such as mass and energy balances; fluid flow; work, energy, and efficiency; forces and levers; material strength and stresses; water quality and treatment; and electrical signal processing can be made relevant to the workings of a living system. The aquarium theme also adds to the need for an understanding of biological systems, ecosystems, pollution and sustainable development. This paper describes the use of a living system such as an aquarium to teach science and engineering concepts to students of all ages.

Engineering educators have typically used non-living systems or products to demonstrate engineering principles. Each traditional engineering discipline has its own products or processes that they use to demonstrate concepts and principles relevant to the discipline. In recent years engineering education has undergone major changes with a drive to incorporate sustainability and green engineering concepts into the curriculum. As such an innovative initiative has been undertaken to use a living system such as an aquarium to teach basic engineering principles. Activities and course content were developed for a freshman engineering class at Rowan University and the Cumberland County College and K-12 outreach for the New Jersey Academy for Aquatic Sciences. All developed materials are available on a dynamic website for rapid dissemination and adoption.