Serve-Learn-Sustain (SLS) at Georgia Tech promotes transdisciplinary learning by linking courses across various colleges with community partners to tackle sustainability challenges. By engaging in collaborative inquiry and utilizing diverse expertise, students gain practical experience and develop multi-faceted approaches to complex societal issues. The program aims to foster problem framing over quick solutions and emphasizes the importance of community engagement in education.

1. SERVE-LEARN-SUSTAIN’S
LINKED COURSES FOR
TRANSDISCIPLINARY LEARNING
RUTHIE YOW,
SERVICE LEARNING & PARTNERSHIPS SPECIALIST
DAVID EADY,
INDUSTRY ENGAGEMENT MANAGER

2. WHAT DOES SLS DO?
SLS works with all six colleges to offer students
opportunities inside and outside the
classroom to collaborate with diverse partners -
across the community, nonprofit, government,
academic, and business sectors – on key
sustainability challenges.
Through SLS, students learn to use the
knowledge and skills they are acquiring at GT
to help “create sustainable communities.”

3.  Systems thinking
 Collaborative inquiry
 Support for ongoing learning
 Emergent design
 Multiple strands of inquiry and action
 Transdisciplinarity
SYSTEMIC ENGAGEMENT: KEY PRINCIPLES
McNall, M., Barnes-Najor, J., Brown, R., Doberneck, D., & Fitzgerald, H. (2015). Systemic Engagement: Universities as Partners in Systemic
Approaches to Community Change. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 19(1), 7-32.
Retrieved from http://openjournals.libs.uga.edu/index.php/jheoe/article/view/1390

4. SUSTAINABILITY FROM A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
Environment
SocietyEconomy
Environment
Society
Economy

5. SDGs FROM A SYSTEMS PERSPECTIVE
Image Credit: Azote Images for Stockholm Resilience Centre,
taken from World Wildlife Fund, 2018 Living Planet Report

6. RCE GREATER ATLANTA – PRIORITY SDGs
Image Credit: Azote Images for Stockholm Resilience Centre,
taken from World Wildlife Fund, 2018 Living Planet Report
MORE INFORMATION AT: https://serve-learn-
sustain.gatech.edu/rce-greater-atlanta

7. WHY TRANSDISCIPLINARITY?
“Because complex problems do not respect disciplinary boundaries, we argue that precisely this
kind of new transdisciplinary and transsectoral knowledge is needed to effectively address them.”
(McNall et al, 2015, p.7)
McNall, M., Barnes-Najor, J., Brown, R., Doberneck, D., & Fitzgerald, H. (2015). Systemic Engagement: Universities as Partners
in Systemic Approaches to Community Change. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 19(1), 7-32.
Source of Diagram:
Alexander Refsum
Jensenius,
http://www.arj.no/2012/
03/12/disciplinarities-2/

8. CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES
The joining of . . .
 Diverse academic disciplines and non-academic experiences and perspectives
 Academic approaches and “real world” challenges
 Faculty and courses from fields with different fundamental assumptions
. . . Leads to:
 Fresh questions
 New relationships
 Experimental, non discipline-bound ways of thinking, teaching, and acting together

9. WHAT ARE “LINKED COURSES”?
SLS links together classes from
multiple GT colleges and schools
with some key community partners,
under broad sustainable
communities themes. Through a
series of joint workshops and
activities, students, faculty, and
partners together explore problems
and solutions from different
academic and practitioner
perspectives.
Example theme: Equitable and Sustainable
Development, Summer 2018 & 2019
Partner- and faculty-guided tour of Atlanta BeltLine and Old Fourth
Ward Park, Summer 2018, which was complemented by Opening
and Closing Workshops and a lecture from Ryan Gravel

10. WHAT DO LINKED COURSES LOOK LIKE IN ACTION?
Course Project:
Health, Design, and the “Just Food”
Pop-Up Market on Campus
Priority Issue: Community Health
Courses: Jon Sanford’s (CoD) Health and
Design Studio, Michael Elliott’s
(SCaRP) Sustainable Food Systems
Partners:
• Anthem Healthcare
• Georgia Farmer’s Market Association
• IPaT
• SLS
• Klemis Kitchen
Possible Additional Partners:
participants in/members of the RCE
Greater Atlanta

11. WHAT DO LINKED COURSES LOOK LIKE IN ACTION?
Course Project:
Valley Branch Greenway (proposed
hardscape “wellness” focused trail)
Priority Issue: Green Infrastructure
Courses: SLS 3110: Technology and
Sustainable Community Development
EAS 4813/EAS 8813/BIOL 4813/BIOL 8813
Extreme Atlanta: Climate Change in Urban
Spaces
ENGL 1101 Immoral Energy: Slavery and
Fossil Fuels in the Anthropocene
ARCH 4803/ARCH 8803 Urban Design Studio
Partners:
• Grove Park Foundation
Additional Partners:
Environmental Engineering Capstone Team
and CoA Watershed Management

12. LINKED COURSE GOALS // BIG PICTURE PRIORITIES
GOALS:
1. Lead students to question a single-discipline
or single-perspective approach
2. Expose students to a framework that
incorporates multiple intellectual and
methodological approaches to a single topic
3. Urge students to pause to problem-frame
rather than rush to problem-solve
4. Engage students in collaboration and co-
learning outside academia in communities
possessing expertise different from their own.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS FOR
SYSTEMS CHANGE:
3 of SLS’s Key Principles
1. Engage in “collaborative inquiry”
2. Incorporate technological expertise
as one of many types of expertise.
3. Highlight community expertise and
assets.

13. QUESTIONS?
David Eady
Industry Engagement Manager
Serve-Learn-Sustain
Georgia Institute of Technology
+1 678-570-9030
david.eady@gatech.edu
Ruthie Yow
Service-Learning and Partnerships Specialist
Serve-Learn-Sustain
Georgia Institute of Technology
+1 404-394-9220
ruth.yow@gatech.edu