Key concepts of sustainability in our courses and disciplines
1. Key Concepts of Sustainability
in our Courses and Disciplines
“Bending the curves: every kind of change we
can think of in every sector.” Tom Termes
“Are there ways in education that we can bring
about the shifts that are necessary?”
Susan Singer
2. Key Concepts of Sustainability
in our Courses and Disciplines
GOAL: Make sustainability concepts, skills, and
“habits of mind” part of courses in ways that
have curricular integrity and “standing” – both
for faculty members and students.
TO ACHIEVE THIS: Sustainability content
needs to be part of the trunk of a course, not
out on a twig.
3. Key Concepts of Sustainability
in our Courses and Disciplines
THE CHALLENGE: As faculty, we constantly
struggle with “curriculum scarcity.” How can
we possibly fit in everything we want to?
ONE STRATEGY: Add a new course.
ANOTHER: Add a minor. Add a major!
AND ALSO: Begin to shift existing courses.
4. Key Concepts of Sustainability
in our Courses and Disciplines
GOALS FOR THIS WORKSHOP:
1.Identify possible integration points for
sustainability content in our disciplines.
2.Also, identify possible integration points for
the geosciences.
3.Offer a model for a workshop that you could
adapt on your home campus.
5. Step 1: Group up in “disciplinary groups:
• Geoscience • Biology
• Environmental • Chemistry
Studies • Economics/and
• Geography Business
• Sustainability • History and
Science Philosophy
• Engineering and • Political Science
Technology
6. Step 2: Working individually, identify
key “tree trunk” concepts in your
course or field of study
Working individually, call to mind 1-2
courses that you teach that are foundational
to your discipline or professional field.
Identify what, for you, are the key concepts
or “big ideas” that form the “tree trunk” of
your course. Write each concept legibly on
a separate sticky note. Generate about 7-10
concepts. (5-7 minutes)
7. Key concepts or “Big ideas”
Concepts are:
• Theories, principles, questions, animating ideas
that matter to faculty, to the discipline, or to the
field of study.
• Key concepts should be powerful enough that
students can remember them, see them at work,
and use them –years into the future.
8. Step 3: Discuss and distill your
concept lists
In your small group, “put your concepts on
the table” in a way that everyone can see
what has been generated. For about 10
minutes, share your concepts. Then, there is
one more task that each of your groups will
find in the InTeGrate Workspace. Feel free
to move around , group up the sticky-notes
to mover along your discussion. (~40 min.)
9. What we have generated:
1.Lists of disciplinary concepts that might
lend themselves to sustainability
connections and contexts.
2.Environmental studies concepts that
might be integrated with geoscience
concepts.
3.Sustainability science concepts that could
be usefully integrated into lower division
courses in the traditional science
disciplines.
10. Closing reflection and discussion
• How did this go?
• What did you notice?
• Does this make sense?
11. Curriculum for the Bioregion Initiative’s
Approach for Designing Integrative
Sustainability Assignments
“Big Idea” Sustainability
or concept context
in the discipline or “Big Idea”
Integrative
Assignment
12. Curriculum for the Bioregion Initiative’s
Approach for Designing Integrative
Sustainability Assignments
“Big Idea” Sustainability
or concept context
in the discipline or “Big Idea”
Integrative
Assignment
Editor's Notes
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
We have chosen a “big ideas” approach. That is, we are asking faculty to consider sustainability a context for teaching the core ideas of their courses.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
While sustainability is inherently interdisciplinary, and while interdisciplinary courses and learning communities have great promise, “sustainability thinking” will not become a norm unless it begins appear in all disciplines in ways that have significance for students.
This is the approach. We ask faculty members to identify one or more “big ideas” in their discipline or in a course that they teach, and then to identify a sustainability context or concept…and then to develop an integrative assignment that brings these ideas together. Why an assignment? Because it is ASSIGNMENTS that students take seriously, It is ASSIGNMENTS where they are asked to use higher order thinking skills. It is in ASSIGNMENTS that we can really see what the learning look likes. It is one thing to be exposed to sustainability ideas; it is quite another to work with them, through an assignment – ideally a really interesting, memorable assignment.
This is the approach. We ask faculty members to identify one or more “big ideas” in their discipline or in a course that they teach, and then to identify a sustainability context or concept…and then to develop an integrative assignment that brings these ideas together. Why an assignment? Because it is ASSIGNMENTS that students take seriously, It is ASSIGNMENTS where they are asked to use higher order thinking skills. It is in ASSIGNMENTS that we can really see what the learning look likes. It is one thing to be exposed to sustainability ideas; it is quite another to work with them, through an assignment – ideally a really interesting, memorable assignment.
