A Framework for Integrating
Sustainability Education,
Research, Engagement, and
Operations through Experiential
Learning
Barbara S. Minsker, Professor and Associate
Provost Fellow for Sustainability
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
minsker@illinois.edu
Acknowledgments
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Funding provided by U of Illinois (Office of Provost, Office
of Sustainability, Institute for Advanced Computing
Applications & Technologies) and Microsoft Research
Hundreds of faculty, staff, and students from across
Illinois contributed to this presentation.
The ideas of the following individuals were particularly
influential in shaping the Illinois vision & implementation:
Brian Anderson
•
Robert McKim
Suhail Barot
•
Jesse Ribot
Val Beasley
•
Bill Stewart
Hans Blaschek
•
Madhu Viswanathan
Brian Deal
•
Michelle Wander
Gale Fulton
•
Dick Warner
Praveen Kumar
•
Carl Wegel
Objective of the Illinois Sustainability Vision
•
Become a world leader in creating new knowledge
and innovative solutions to the following grand
challenges:
1.
Maintaining or restoring critical ecosystem function
while providing essential human services; and
2.
Sustainably raising quality of life for the poor to
acceptable levels.
•
To do so, we will infuse sustainability programs
across campus to foster a level of cross-disciplinary
engagement comparable to a unit or center.
2010-11 Illinois Sustainability Implementation Plan
• Climate Action Plan
• Process Improvement
• Policies & Incentives
• Sustainability Week
• Improved Marketing
Efforts
• Identify Opportunities
for Shared Investment
• Sustainability Education
Outcomes
• Course Development
• Teaching Academies
• Scholarship of
Sustainability Series
Operations
Curriculum
Raise
Visibility
Build
Capacity
• Sustainability
Collaboratives
• Campus Engagement
• Assess and Adapt
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide
for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses &
programs
3. Develop programs to support sustainability
curriculum development and fill gaps
4. Create experiential learning sites (living
laboratories)
Overall Goal: Create campus-level structures that enable
grassroots infusion of sustainability across the curriculum so
that every Illinois student meets the education outcomes.
Sustainability Outcomes
http://sustainability.illinois.edu/SETF-LO.html
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide
for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses &
programs
3. Develop programs to support sustainability
curriculum development and fill gaps
4. Create experiential learning sites (living
laboratories)
Online Course Inventory
Mapped General Education Course Options to
Sustainability Outcomes & Approaches
Inventoried Sustainability-Related Majors
and Minors
• Impressive breadth of program offerings
–
–
–
–
–
8 undergraduate majors
5 undergraduate minors
6 graduate majors
1 graduate minor
3 certificates
• Not all programs highlight “sustainability” yet
connect directly to learning outcomes
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide
for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses &
programs
3. Develop programs to support sustainability
curriculum development and fill gaps
• Social dimension
• Full integration of social, economic,
environmental dimensions
4. Create experiential learning sites (living
laboratories)
Scholarship of Sustainability Series
http://sustainability.illinois.edu/scholarship.html
• Reading & debating seminal sustainability literature
• Public discussions linked to disciplinary courses
across campus
• Videotaped and archived for future courses
• Engaged hundreds of students, faculty, staff, &
community members in Spring 2010 and 2011
Prairie Project: Infusing Sustainability
Across the Curriculum
http://sustainability.illinois.edu/prairieproject.html
• Modeled after AASHE national curriculum workshops,
but added greater curriculum focus in 2nd offering
• May: 2-day hands-on curriculum retreat with
faculty & resource experts (curriculum &
experienced faculty from multiple disciplines)
• Brainstorm ideas and define initial plans
• Follow up reviews and discussion over
summer
• January: Follow-up debriefing &
brainstorming lunches
Prairie Project Improvements
• More hands-on curriculum development
• Engaging sample teaching activities
• Curriculum and topic advisors work hand-in-hand with
instructors
• Plans for education goals, activities, and assessment
submitted by end of retreat
• Invited participation in Illinois Climate Action Plan activities:
• Facilities & Services
• Student Sustainability Committee
• Celebrated successes – reception with Provost Wheeler
presenting certificates of completion
Participant Evaluations, 2010 vs 2011
The retreat aided me in shaping the
course I proposed
P
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f p
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The retreat met my expectations
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15
10
2010
5
2011
0
1
Strongly
Disagree
2
3
4
5
Strongly
Agree
Rating
12
10
8
6
2011
2
0
I would recommend this program to
colleagues next year
P 14
a 12
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2010
4
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Strongly
Disagree
2010
2011
1
Strongly
Disagree
2
3
Rating
4
5
Strongly
Agree
2
3
Rating
4
5
Strongly
Agree
Prairie Project: Next Steps
• First cohorts of 35 instructors in 2010-12 will reach 6,500
students/yr
• Goal: Scale up to 60 faculty/year (reach 20% of 3,000
faculty in 10 yrs for institutional transformation)
• Need to engage more faculty and administrators through:
• College- and department-level workshops and
presentations
• Sustainability Education Summit for Department Heads and
Deans
• Who should spearhead this work in the future?
• Office of Provost and Center for Teaching Excellence do not
provide topic-specific education support, yet they have
expertise and contacts needed for success
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide
for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses &
programs
3. Develop the Prairie Project, a sustainability
curriculum development program
4. Create experiential learning sites (living
laboratories)
Experiential Learning Sites (Living Laboratories)
• Enable synergistic research, education, engagement, &
operations on campus & in regional & global communities:
• Long-term partnerships & infrastructure that support
hands-on learning on real-world problems
• Multiple classes interact, supported by advanced
information systems:
• Synthesizing:
• Citizen & embedded sensing data
• Models
• Documents and other information
• Social networking
• Digital observatories
• Decision dashboards
Energy Farm Site
Fluxes:
N2O
CH4
CO2
Meteorology:
wind
Air Temperature
Net radiation
Humidity
Canopy Temp
PAR
Fluxes:
CO2
H2O
S
Photos:
phenology
Soil:
Heat flux
Temperature (to 1 m)
Moisture (to 1 m)
Source: Energy
Biosciences Institute
Instrumented field drains
Digital Observatory for Upper Embarras Watershed
Partnerships With Communities &
Industries
Research
Consumption and Entrepreneurship
Across Literacy and Resource Barriers
Marketing and Management in Subsistence
Marketplaces
Literacy, Poverty, Culture
and Psychology
Consumer and
Entrepreneurial
Literacy Program
- India
Nutrition Education
Materials - USA
Social Initiatives
Sustainable Prod. & Mkt. Dev. for
Subsistence Marketplaces
Sustainable Businesses for
Subsistence Marketplaces
Sustainable Marketing
Enterprises
Teaching
Source: Madhu Viswanathan
Experiential Learning Sites (Cont’d.)
• Emerging examples:
• Building Green Economies in Underserved Communities
Through Student-Community Entrepreneur Teams – Illinois
and India
• Industrial Agriculture to Feed and Fuel a Growing World
Sustainably – South Farms experimental farm and
Embarras Watershed
• Net-zero Energy Building for Electrical and Computer
Engineering – Champaign
• Biofuels Living Laboratory – C-U campus
• Sustainable watersheds, with Tsinghua U. – Beijing, China
• International Sustainable Development Studies Institute
expedition field courses in Thailand
Experiential Learning in Civil and Environmental
Engineering
 Learning objectives:
 Identify and evaluate connections between real-world engineering
solutions and the environment, society, and economy
 Analyze and recommend solutions to real-world sustainability
problems through a systems analysis approach
• Watershed case studies (Spring 2011):
– Embarras River Basin (Illinois)
– Shiyang River Basin (China, partnership with Tsinghua U.)
• Urban case study in Champaign-Urbana, IL (Fall 2011)
11.1 Global Education
Sustainability Education
Education is the most powerful weapon which
you can use to change the world.
Nelson Mandela
You can never have an impact on society if
you have not changed yourself.
Nelson Mandela
Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I may
remember. But involve me and I'll
understand.
Chinese Proverb