tThis paper describes a hands-on project that introduces first year engineering students to life cycle assessment (LCA)through the comparison of the environmental impact of the production and use of three diesel fuels: petroleumdiesel, biodiesel from new vegetable oil, and biodiesel from waste vegetable oil. The purpose of this LCA projectwas to incorporate life cycle thinking into the engineering design process, to apply the four main steps of LCA(definition and scope, inventory analysis, impact assessment and improvement assessment), and to explore some ofthe challenges associated with each step. The inventory for biodiesel production (from both new and waste vegetableoils) was based on measurements obtained by the students in laboratory experiments. The fossil diesel productioninventory was obtained from the SimaPro®database. The inventory for the use of all three fuels was obtained frommeasurements taken during combustion of the fuels in a generator. A cradle-to-grave life cycle analysis was thenconducted using SimaPro®for each fuel. The assessment of learning outcomes indicates a significant increase inconceptual understanding of the four stages of life cycle assessment, and an average gain of over 55% in overallknowledge of life cycle assessment.