Green Thread Course Revision Explanation
David Shively, Dept. of Geography
2011 Green Thread Participant
My greatest challenges with incorporating sustainability into my teaching arise in my Introductory
Human Geography course (GPHY 121). In other courses I teach, thinking about and using sustainability
as an analytical framework is an inferred and necessary imperative (these courses include two dealing
with water resources management and at least four others that focus on environmental and land use
planning).
GPHY 121 is a GenEd course taken by a cross-section of students from across campus in terms of their
class standing, their majors, their backgrounds, and their levels of interest in academics and things such
as sustainability. Therefore, I elected to revise my course significantly to have students engage with the
major themes that are explored in an applied manner. With assistance, they will select a place and/or
region to investigate throughout the semester, collecting information about the people and
environments found there. This information will then be analyzed using the three legged stool of
sustainability (Environment, Economy, Equity), and a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
framework to complete a sustainability assessment for the region/place they are working with. This will
represent a capstone activity for the course.
I think that this approach will make the concept of sustainability more palatable to students, that they
will take it more seriously once they have invested themselves in a place and/or region, and that it will
reinforce both disciplinary content and the sustainability imperative for higher education and our larger
society.