Reasons to teach sustainability
Ways to change your course
Learning outcomes (reprise)
Nanette Chadwick
Interconnectedness among systems
Why teach sustainability?
Importance = ever-increasing
(world economics, climate
change, social issues, health)
Understanding
= increasing but low
Leadership capacity to address
= even lower
Long ago
Now
Human History
9 reasons to teach sustainability:
Justifying changes to upper admin, peers, students
-- Peer inst. are doing (GA Tech, U Georgia, Emory, U Florida, etc.)
-- enhances PR and recruitment to AU
-- student and employer demand (training for green jobs)
-- increases program prestige to upper admin, positive feedback
-- increases chances for external funding and awards
(Gogue and Univ. presidents climate change award – interested!)
-- saves $$ over the long run (millions to utilities & disposal by AU)
-- engages the local community and alumni
-- enhances interdisciplinary connections and opportunities
-- increases depth of understanding by students & quality of
education
9 (not another list!) ways to engage sustainability in courses:
“Not one more thing to do, but a way to do what you already do.”
(1) Hidden curriculum: use as examples/subject matter for class exercises
(2) New readings: update/alter to reflect new, integrated sustainability
issues
(3) Change or add assignments – get students outdoors, on-campus field
trips, show a film, youtube videos, TED lectures
(4) New unit or module within an existing course – new aspect of subject
that relates to sustainability
(5) New student project – relevant to student’s lives, new/future social
issues (ie: ecological footprint, behavior change challenge)
Try Earthscore packet (more long term and in depth, order ahead, $5
per packet) [see on web first!]
(6) Invite a guest speaker/add a co-instructor – don’t try to be the
expert on all things sustainable! Invite faculty/staff from outside
your department – resources of the office
(7) Develop a whole new course –put together ideas from several
faculty for an interdisciplinary course. Ie: water, food, or energy
course that examines ecology, sociology, and politics.
(8) Change the world view of your course: same course, different
strategy and goals -- paradigm shift
(9) Engaged learning / community experience: link to a local or
campus issue – service learning
Beyond your course:
Tell students about the Office of Sustainability
Inform students about the Minor in Sustainability Studies
Campus as a living laboratory
Use campus/city operations and systems to give students hands-on, local
experience with real-world sustainability issues:
Water – campus & arboretum tours, self- or group-guided
Food – campus food gardens, food service systems
Transportation – solar to electric cars, bicycles, pedestrians, parking & cars
Buildings and energy – Building Science LEED tour, solar house
Community programs: food bank, day care center, churches, city government
How to incorporate (minimal to maximal):
-- extra credit assignment/opportunity – do on their own, turn in proof
-- required course homework assignment – do on own, graded
-- class field trip or group exercise – guided, on class time
-- focus for class project or term paper – intensive involvement of instructor
Example: Zanzot course and “Landscape interventions” PM Creek, Bike path
Systems thinking tools
Iceberg model [see handout]
(1) Behavior/Actions
What trends relate to an event or issue?
Behavior over time graphs (BOT)
Example: Walkability of Auburn (flipchart)
(2) Underlying causes
What causal structures explain these trends?
What are the long-term effects of these trends?
Any feedback loops? Positive or negative?
Causal Loop Diagrams (CLD)
(3) Mental models
What beliefs/assumptions/mental models perpetuate these
trends?
Learning outcomes exercise (Reprise)
Small groups of 4-5 faculty from different disciplines identify (45 mins):
(1) 3-5 broad learning outcomes related to sustainability:
What do students need to know?
What should they be able to do?
(2) Mechanisms to measure outcomes:
How do we know what students have achieved, what they now know and can
do?
(3) How to use or disseminate the evidence:
How to use these measures to improve and revise course goals?
Individual work (10 mins):
Identify 1-2 outcomes in the course you are revising, that will help students
achieve broader outcomes determined by the group.