Sustainability Learning Outcomes (SLO) Course & Curriculum Proposal Form
(please return to Deane.Wang@uvm.edu or lhill@uvm.edu )
Background and introduction to the SLO requirement
Four sustainability learning outcomes were approved by the UVM Faculty Senate in April of 2014. At that time a preamble providing the rationale for this
requirement was part of the approved resolution. It is repeated here.
As stated in Our Common Ground, “The University of Vermont is an educationally purposeful community seeking to prepare students to live in a diverse and
changing world.” In the context of the emerging challenges of the 21st Century, this preparation includes envisioning and planning for a sustainable society. In
addition, Our Common Ground speaks to "the transforming power of education." Thus UVM's vision for sustainability embraces the goal of educating all of its
students to understand and contribute to the sustainability of human society. That is, we recognize that the pursuit of ecological, social, and economic vitality must
come with the understanding that the needs of the present be met without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Through its
General Education Initiative, The University of Vermont will integrate its sustainability vision across curricular and co-curricular activities. Whatever their chosen
discipline, each student will demonstrate their understanding of the defined learning outcomes in the knowledge, skills and values categories, as well as the
personal domain.
Students who are prepared to address the challenges of creating a sustainable world have knowledge of current issues in sustainability and the social, ecological,
and economic dimensions of these complex problems. With the knowledge gained through coursework from varied disciplines, students develop the skills to engage
in rigorous and complex discussions around creating sustainable solutions. Coursework and experiences in sustainability are meant to widen social, historical, and
cultural perspectives and strengthen students' ability to negotiate multiple values that routinely come into play when planning for sustainability at the local,
regional or global scales. Students connect conceptual learning to challenges and opportunities in the world outside of the university classroom by critically
analyzing their own experiences in order to make sustainability meaningful and guide their personal actions.
Please provide three components as part of your proposal submission:
1. Background/explanation: a brief history of the course/curriculum, general reasons why the course satisfies the Sustainability Learning Outcomes (SLO),
and any other contextual information that can assist the committee in its review process.
2. Completed SLO table (see below).
3. Most current version of your course syllabus (syllabi in the case of a curriculum)
The SLO table will allow you to describe how your course/curriculum meets each of these outcomes. For each SLO, please indicate the level of exposure that you
plan to incorporate in your teaching. The level of exposure to the learning outcome can be variable. The Committee seeks some level of exposure to all four (4)
sustainability learning outcomes (SLOs). It is also expected that for three (3) of the outcomes, the level of exposure will at least be to "reinforces." A brief
description of these expectations follows:
 Introduces indicates that the course objective is to familiarize students with the learning outcome so they can define terms. For example, the student has
been exposed to some applications of the topic/concept through a lecture and/or reading. Other educational frameworks used to organize learning levels
may use language like "fundamental" and "factual," imparting the ability to remember and understand.
 Reinforces indicates that the course objective will follow up the introduction of topic(s) with student work to apply the topic/concept themselves, either
in a personal domain or that of organizations, institutions, municipalities, etc. This might include critical reflections, case studies, or laboratory exercises.
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
The readings and related assignments should be substantive. Other educational frameworks may use language like "intermediate" and "conceptual,"
imparting the ability to apply and analyze.
Mastery level is NOT an expectation for sustainability learning outcomes associated with a single first course addressing sustainability. However, if you
feel that the course work provided in your course attains this level, we would like to value that learning outcome. This level might entail educational
concepts like "advanced" and "procedural." Students would be able to evaluate and create in the context of these learning outcomes.
Activity title/type, lecture or activity, content, topics taught, etc.
Here we would like to know what type of activity is relevant to achieving the sustainability learning outcome. Is it lecture, an assignment, a service-learning
projects, journal assignment, class exercise like a debate, etc.? If you title this activity, please include that here as well (e.g. "sustainability blog"). If there are
associated topics, please also include these (e.g. "renewable energy, environmental justice, homeostasis"). If multiple teaching approaches are employed, please
them.
Description of the activity and how it addresses the UVM SLO
Please explain your approach to achieving the sustainability learning outcome. This might start with a more detailed description of the activity followed by a
discussion of how the learning outcome results from this learning activity. In some cases it will be self-evident, so the description of the activity will suffice. This
section provides the most useful material for the committee to evaluate your sustainability learning outcome, so adequate detail will be helpful. The committee's
goal is to encourage the development and expansion of sustainability-related curricula, but we need enough detail to carry out our responsibility. We encourage
and invite faculty to communicate with the co-chairs of the committee if you need assistance with this process or have questions.
If any assessment methods will be used to demonstrate student learning, please include a brief description. We may request your specific assessment as it could
help other faculty to develop similar methods for their course. The committee would also like to encourage faculty professional development around
implementation of these sustainability outcomes, and sharing of faculty tools and approaches is an important part of the process.
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Title of Course: BCOR 102 ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
Submitted by: Jane Molofsky, Nick Gotelli, and Don Stratton
Contact info: Don.Stratton@uvm.edu
Background/explanation:
BCOR 102 Ecology and Evolution is a 4 credit lab/lecture course that is required for all Biology, Biological Science and Environmental Science majors and several
other life science programs. The main focus of the course is on basic processes in ecology and evolution and the mathematical underpinnings of those two fields.
In a very real sense, the entire course is about the sustainability of biological systems. Students learn to critically assess the long-term stability and the
evolutionary potential of populations in the face of environmental change and human exploitation. During the semester students are introduced to many
important scientific issues that relate to the theme of sustainability including human population growth, human health issues as they relate to modern societal
practice, the preservation of endangered species, the maintenance of species diversity, and how human values influence which species are targeted.
Note: This course is typically taught by Dr. Nick Gotelli in the fall and by Drs. Jane Molofsky and Don Stratton in the spring. All versions of this course emphasize
sustainability through the study of population dynamics, species coexistence, and the evolutionary potential of populations to respond to environmental change.
All versions emphasize the way humans have altered the environment (for example, through habitat fragmentation) and the consequences of that for population
persistence over ecological and evolutionary time scales. All versions include applications of ecology and evolution to the sustainability of human populations and
human health. But the specific topics and examples vary from semester to semester and year to year. Here we highlight topics from the current semester (spring
2016) and mention a few other examples and exercises that have been used in recent years.
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SLO #1: Students can have an informed conversation about the multiple dimensions and complexity of sustainability. (knowledge category)
Level of exposure: Reinforces
Activity title/type, lecture or activity content,
Description of the activity and how it addresses the UVM SLO and any assessment methods used to demonstrate
topics taught, etc.
learning (if applicable).
Ecological Sustainability
Population growth (lectures and
case studies on ‘exponential
growth’, ‘logistic growth’, ‘age
structure’ and ‘size structure’,
‘applied demography’;
Labs on ‘population growth’ and
‘demography’).
Species coexistence
(lectures and case studies on
‘competition’, ‘species diversity’
and a lab on ‘forest diversity’)
Evolutionary potential (topics
titled ‘natural selection’,
‘mutation/selection balance’,
‘migration/drift’, ‘captive breeding’
and ‘quantitative genetics’).
A major theme of the course is to understand population growth and the factors affect the dynamics of
populations. Resources are necessarily finite, so the dynamics of biological and human populations will depend
on the way those resources are allocated. Students explore those topics through lectures, case studies, homework
assignments and laboratory exercises.
In class we formalize the concept of sustainability by though the mathematics of population growth and
evolutionary change. Students learn to take an ecological problem and express it mathematically, solve for the
equilibrium (if any) and determine if the equilibrium is stable. In lab, students simulate populations that have
different possible growth rates to understand how exponential and logistic growth work. Students vary growth
rates and/or resource use parameters, predict the consequences of those changes over many generations, and
assess whether the system reaches a stable equilibrium.
What happens when two or more species compete for the same finite resources? Through in-class activities and
homework assignments students predict the changes in abundance of competing species, determine the
conditions for coexistence, and whether there is a stable equilibrium.
A recurring theme in these lectures is that humans are rapidly changing the environment through habitat
alteration and climate change. Will populations be able to adapt to those changes? Though readings, lectures,
and homework students learn to predict the equilibrium genetic variation that is maintained in the face of
mutation, migration, selection and genetic drift. They use the equations of evolutionary change to understand
how the level of genetic variation determines the response to natural selection and the ability of populations to
adapt to changing environmental conditions. Student understanding of these topics is assessed through graded
homework assignments, quizzes and exams.
Economic Stability and
Management
Lectures on ‘population growth’,
‘metapopulations’ ‘inbreeding’ and
‘genetic drift’
Increasing fragmentation of habitats is a common result of economic development. Small populations are
vulnerable to local extinction via demographic stochasticity as well as the effects of inbreeding in what has been
called the “extinction vortex”. Through an analysis of case studies, students learn to estimate the probability of
extinction and its relationship to population size. We also discuss the potential for genetic rescue by introducing
new breeding individuals (as in the prairie chicken).
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Metapopulation theory shows how populations can persist on a regional scale through a balance of migration and
extinction even when local conditions do not allow long-term maintenance of a single habitat fragment. Through
in-class activities and homework assignments students predict the equilibrium frequency of occurrence of a
species in a system of many independent fragments and determine whether that system has long-term stability.
Similarly, we discuss problems of scaling local species diversity up to global diversity and the effects of migration,
speciation, and extinction.
Social Stability and Human
Health
(lectures on ‘natural selection’ and
‘applications in ecology and
evolution’).
Combating resistance evolution is important for the sustainability of our food systems and health systems. This is
one of the prime examples of evolution in action so various case studies have been featured in different
semesters. We have used examples that include crop pests evolving resistance to Bt toxin and other pesticides,
the evolution of DDT resistance in malaria mosquitoes, warfarin resistance in rats, and antibiotic resistance in
bacteria. Students learn to predict the rate of spread of resistance alleles using the equations for natural
selection. The strength of selection depends on the prevalence of use of the antibiotic or pesticide, leading to
discussions of overuse of antibiotics or the importance of buffer strips in agricultural systems.
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SLO #2: Students can evaluate sustainability using an evidence-based disciplinary approach and integrate economic, ecological, and social perspectives. (skills
category)
Level of exposure: reinforces
Activity title/type, lecture or activity content,
Description of the activity and how it addresses the UVM SLO and any
topics taught, etc.
assessment methods used to demonstrate learning (if applicable).
Ecological Sustainability
‘exponential growth’
‘size structure’
‘quantitative genetics’
‘captive breeding’ lab
Social Sustainability and
Human Health
‘population growth’
‘disease ecology’
‘mutation/selection balance’
Through the analysis of case studies, students learn to predict the recovery time and/or the time to extinction for
endangered species such as the whooping crane and black-footed ferret. Students must then apply those skills to
predict the dynamics of other species on exams and homework.
In a case study of an invasive plant, students must use a demographic model to predict the potential for success of
two biological control insects (that target leaves vs. flowers) for stopping the spread of that plant.
Students learn to predict evolutionary response to selection using the breeder’s equation and apply that to assess
trait evolution in response to global climate change. For example, earlier phenology in the arctic has produced a
mismatch between the timing of squirrel reproduction and spruce seed production. Using the general equations
for phenotypic trait evolution, students can estimate the strength of selection and predict how fast the population
can adapt to the changing climate.
In lab, students simulate a captive breeding program for endangered monkeys in a zoo setting. Students calculate
the rate of loss of genetic variation in that captive population and, in a short lab write-up, evaluate the
consequences and relative merits of some potential interventions (egg. increasing population size or transferring
some individuals between zoos. )
Perhaps the most fundamental general threat to sustainability is human population growth. Students apply
population growth theory to data for human populations. Through homework assignments, students look up birth
rates and mortality schedules for various countries and calculate the population growth rate. They also use
historical data from the US population censuses to estimate the growth rate and predict the carrying capacity of
the US. (see also SLO #3 and 4)
In class we introduce a simple model infectious disease transmission and students learn to predict vaccination
levels needed to stop disease transmission during an epidemic. They then apply that to real data on bird flu,
seasonal influenza, and measles. Their ability to understand and apply those skills is assessed through homework
and exams.
Students analyze data on genetic diseases (such as cystic fibrosis) to estimate mutation rate and/or equilibrium
frequency of occurrence. One interesting result is that with a constant mutation rate it is impossible to ever
completely eradicate genetic diseases.
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Economic Sustainability and
management
Again, students analyze case studies, solve homework problems and do hands on laboratory exercises. Through
each of those avenues they gain experience analyzing real data to evaluate the long-term sustainability of
populations.
‘harvesting’ and ‘logistic growth’
lectures and case studies.
‘harvesting’ and ‘logistic growth’
‘demography’ lab
Evolution in exploited populations
(lectures on ‘natural selection’)
A unit on Maximum Sustainable Harvests teaches them the mathematics of maximizing sustainable yield and
introduces some of the ecological, political and economic tradeoffs involved. One case study used this spring is
managing pacific salmon fisheries. What harvesting level will maximize the economic yield (number of fish
caught) while still allowing the population to stably persist? Through homework assignments and in-class
exercises students compare the effects of two different management scenarios, a constant effort scenario vs. a
constant harvest scenario. They are asked how (in general) those two scenarios might be implemented and figure
out the conditions that can lead to a stable equilibrium population size. The specific examples often change from
semester to semester. In other semesters students have used this approach to examine data on the collapse of the
North American cod fishery and the collapse of the Peruvian anchovy fishery. Students must apply those
techniques on homework assignments, quizzes, and exams.
In laboratory simulations, students use demographic models to assess the sustainability of exploited populations.
Choosing one of several real datasets (ranging from by-catch of green sea turtles to harvesting wild ginseng), they
simulate changes in harvest intensity and the age classes that are targeted (juveniles vs. adults) and measure the
effects of those changes on the growth (or decline) of the target population. Students submit a short lab write-up
explaining their results.
Hunting and fishing regulations often specify minimum sizes of individuals that can be taken. As a result selection
favors smaller, earlier-maturing, individuals. Students learn to estimate the rate of evolution of body size in those
kinds of exploited populations.
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SLO #3: Students think critically about sustainability across a diversity of cultural values and across multiple scales of relevance from local to global. (values
category)
Level of exposure: reinforces
Activity title/type, lecture or activity
content, topics taught, etc.
Ecological Sustainability
Description of the activity and how it addresses the UVM SLO and any
assessment methods used to demonstrate learning (if applicable).
Introductory lectures
Why save endangered species at all? Students are introduced to three common arguments for conserving
species: a moral argument based on intrinsic value, an economic argument based on potential future
usefulness, and an ecological argument for maintaining ecosystem function.
Social Sustainability and Human
health
‘Disease Ecology’ (lectures and case
studies)
‘natural selection’
This spring, in graded homework exercises, students will analyze real data from a case study of a measles
outbreak in a community with a high frequency of people who chose not to vaccinate their children against
measles. That leads to a discussion of herd immunity and the public health benefits of vaccination.
We also look at data from the international campaign to eradicate polio and fit that to the vaccination model to
predict the vaccination coverage that will be needed.
Students analyze various case studies about the ability of pests to evolve resistance to pesticides (for example,
classic data on the evolution of resistance to rat poisons and mosquito resistance to DDT, and management
strategies that can slow the ability of crop pests to evolve resistance to BT toxin). Students must apply those
concepts to other examples on exams and homework assignments.
In previous semesters we have often included a lab exercise on the evolution of bacterial resistance. Students
did experiments to measure the frequency of resistant bacteria on their skin and experimentally tested the
ability of those bacteria to evolve new resistance to a common antimicrobial in hand soaps over a 2 week
laboratory period. A major portion of the discussion section of their lab report is to reflect on the long-term
wisdom of using antimicrobial soaps.
‘Applications in Ecology and
Evolution’ (lecture and case studies)
Economic sustainability and
management
A lecture on biogeography of invasion focuses on cultural differences on how societies view pest species
around the world and students learn how trade with countries like China that have poorer environmental
controls can be responsible for importing pest species into our country.
This spring, as part of the case study on salmon, we will look at international treaties that govern salmon
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‘Harvesting’
harvest. In many populations fish are harvested in US waters at the mouth of rivers but they travel to
headwaters in Canada to spawn. Regulations govern the number of fish that must escape to Canada each year.
Students learn how to use mark recapture models to estimate abundance and apply that to real data.
Again, the case studies change from semester to semester. Last fall, a key example was looking at the effects of
the illegal ivory trade on elephant populations.
We discuss the “Tragedy of the Commons”, the concept that short-term cost-benefit analysis can often lead to
over-exploitation of shared resources.
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SLO #4: Students, as members of society, can recognize and assess how sustainability impacts their lives and how their actions impact sustainability. (personal
domain)
Level of exposure: introduce
Activity title/type, lecture or activity content,
Description
topics of the activity and how it addresses the UVM SLO and any
taught,
assessment methods used to demonstrate learning (if applicable).
etc.
Ecological sustainability
Introductory ecology lectures
Social Sustainability and Human Health
‘logistic growth’
The biomass pyramid places limits on the abundance of top trophic levels (including humans). In class discussions
of this, students are prompted to think about the potential benefits of eating low on that biomass pyramid.
In class students are asked to reflect on ways carrying capacity would manifest itself in human populations. The
only two ways population growth can slow is through a decrease in the birth rate or an increase in mortality and we
discuss the very different ethical and societal consequences of those two scenarios.
A lab exercise on ‘graveyard demography’ that is usually done in the fall semester has students estimate
demographic parameters for males and females from early and late 20th century headstones. In the discussion
portion of their lab report they are asked to reflect on changes in society that may have caused in survivorship and
fecundity schedules.
Disease ecology and evolution (lectures
and case studies on ‘human health and
adaptation’, ‘disease ecology’)
See SLO #3 for exercises on vaccination and disease transmission. In class students reflect on the importance of
vaccination for enhancing herd immunity of the population.
A lecture on the evolution of influenza virus shows how chicken and pig farming affect transmission of avian flu
virus and may impact human health. Another class is devoted to the way many “modern” diseases (such as
myopia, diabetes, and some cancers) are the result of a mismatch between our modern lifestyle and the conditions
under which we evolved.
In previous semesters we have often included a lab exercise on the evolution of bacterial resistance. Students did
experiments to measure the frequency of resistant bacteria on their skin and experimentally tested the ability of
those bacteria to evolve new resistance to a common antimicrobial in hand soaps over a 2 week laboratory period.
A major portion of the discussion section of their lab report is to reflect on the long-term wisdom of using
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Resistance evolution
antimicrobial soaps.
Economic Sustainability and
management
‘Trees and carbon lab’
A lab on ‘trees and carbon’ that we sometimes do in years when snow persists in April has students estimate the
total carbon mass of Centennial woods during hands on lab exercise. They then examine their own carbon
footprint by estimating how many “tree-equivalents” they use for transportation or other daily needs.
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