D a v i d Ko e t j eP r o f e s s o r o f B i o l o g y, C a l v i n C o l l e g e

D e b r a R o w eP r e s i d e n t , U. S . P a r t n e r s h i p f o r E d u c a t i o n f o r S u s t a i n a b l e D e v e l o p m e n t

C o r r i n e Ta y l o rD i r e c t o r, Q u a n t i t a t i v e R e a s o n i n g P r o g r a m , We l l e s l e y C o l l e g e

A m y Wi l s t e r m a n nA s s o c i a t e P r o f e s s o r o f B i o l o g y, C a l v i n C o l l e g e

Getting to the Point: Teaching STEM Content Through Societal

Challenges

Framing the Question

Why teach sustainability/societal issues?

Developing competence: national trends

What do we want students to know?

What do we want students to be able to do?

Benefits of Teaching Sustainability

“Sustainability Improves Student Learning”SISL!

13 Academic Disciplinary Societies as Founding Members AIBS, NNN, ACS, ASEE, APA, NABT, AAPT, SIGCSE,

ACTE, MAA, NAGT All STEM disciplines - Biology, Math/QR, Chemistry,

Engineering, Psychology, Physics, Computer Science, Geosciences, Career and Tech Ed

Online Resources with Starter Kit for Faculty

Sustainable Development…

“meeting the needs of the present without comprising the ability of

future generations to meet their needs”~ “Our Common Future,” United Nations Brundtland Report,

1987

Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability

StrongEconomy

SocialWell-being

Flourishing Environment

SustainableSociety

Economics as if people and the planet mattered

Education for a Sustainable Society:

“enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions …, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet for the future.”

Higher Education

Private Choices and Behaviors-Habits

Public Choices and Behaviors-Laws

Sustainable Communities

Sustainable Economies

Ecosystem

Ecosystem

EcosystemEcosystem

Green jobs: the obvious choices

Traditionally, community college, career and technical education, and even the National Science Foundation focus on technicians:

• Energy auditor• Wind energy technician• Insulation and weatherization technician• Photovoltaics (solar electricity) installer• Thermal solar installer (hot water and space

heating and pool heating)

• Industrial Engineer• Engineering Manager• Green products distribution designer/manager • Sales & Marketing Staff for Sustainable Products• Brownfields Real Estate Developer• Sustainable Business Process Designer• Corporate Recycling Manager• Environmental Economist• Sustainability Entrepreneur• Environment, Health and Safety Director• Environmental Quality Certification Specialist• Geographic Information Systems Specialist

Partial list of jobs: all need STEM -the less obvious choices???

• Hazardous Materials Handler• Sustainable Operation Manager/consultant• Socially Responsible Investment Advisor• Sustainability Officer• Trainer/Educator for Green Jobs• Sustainability Communications• Fostering Sustainable Neighborhoods Community

Organizer• Environmental Journalist• Permaculture Designer and Contractor • Sustainable Landscape Architect• Natural Resources Manager• Sustainable Communities Planner

Partial list of green jobs: All need STEM - the less obvious choices????

The Pervasiveness of Sustainability

• STEM is crucial to career skills for a sustainable future.

• Every job will have a green/sustainability component to it, since we all make related decisions in all of our jobs.

• Doing nothing supports energy waste, toxins, food chain disruption and ecosystem destruction. Costly in dollars and in human suffering of billions - unacceptable.

• Green Ribbon Schools!!!

• Including Green/Sustainability into Career Pathways - National Association of State Directors of Career and Tech Ed – Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources – June 2012

• Funds from multiple federal agencies in energy/ environment/climate change – e.g. CAMELclimatechange.org Integrate from NSF, NOAA, EPA, FIPSE…

• Sustainability Improves Student Learning - Mobilizing Disciplinary Societies on Behalf of our Students … and our Planet, Sustainability and STEM - Textbook and civic engagement/ policy/resources/professional development - http://www.aacu.org/pkal/disciplinary societypartnerships/mobilizing/index.cfm

Key Government Initiatives

Higher education is taking a leadership role.

What does it look like?

Role of Higher Education

For higher education, sustainability is being integrated into:

Curricula Research Operations

CommunityOutreach andPartnerships

Student Life Professional Development

Mission andPlanning Purchasing

public awarenesslegislation

Thanks to Wynn Calder for this diagram

Why is it such a high priority?

1. Much of the public doesn’t know that we are exceeding the carrying capacity of the planet. (www.myfootprint.org)

2. Public doesn’t know we can reduce human suffering and environmental degradation now while building stronger economies

3. Core pedagogy. Education to action is the key. Catalyzing sustainable communities as academic assignments. More action learning.

Curricular Trends

1. Over 1800 new interdisciplinary courses/programs/certificates

2. Minors in Sustainability at Penn State, Utah State, Michigan, MSU and many others

3. Included in general education core for all degrees

4. Infused across the curricula

Honor your good work!!

• Continue the trends to change the norms for undergraduate and graduate education to include creating a sustainable future

• Reducing cynicism and passivity, and building skills and self efficacy to create systemic, positive change using STEM knowledge

life supporting

resources

declining

consumption of life supporting

resources

rising

In higher education, focus is on engaging students and the community in building

solutions – NOT doom and gloom

Vision: Sustainable development integrated into education and learning in the United States• Non‐partisan, multi‐sector partnership of over

360 registered organizations

• The Partnership’s current Sector Teams are:• Communities• Business• Faith Based Organizations• Higher Education• K-12 and Teacher Education• Youth

Committed to the advancement of sustainability throughout higher

education

National Networks in HE

AACC American Association of Community Colleges

AASCU American Association of State Colleges & Universities

AASHE Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education

ACCED-I Association of Collegiate Conference & Events Directors - International

ACE American Council on Education

ACPA College Student Educators International

ACUHO-I Association of College & University Housing Officers International

AGB Association of Governing Boards of Universities & Colleges

APPA Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers

CCCU Council of Christian Colleges & Universities

NACA National Association for Campus Activities

NACUBO National Association of College & University Business Officers

NAEP National Association of Educational Procurement

NAICU National Association of Independent Colleges & Universities

NIRSA National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association

SCUP Society for College & University Planning

Professional Associations for:

1. Presidents2. Academic Officers3. Student Affairs4. Trustees 5. Campus Activities6. Facilities7. Business Officers8. Planners9. Events Directors10. Recreation Directors11. Purchasers12. More….. All Working on

Sustainability

HEASC Resource Center - Socially, economically and environmentally responsible procurement, operations, planning, leadership, learning outcomes and more!!

Resources

DANS – the Disciplinary Associations Network for Sustainability

www.aashe.org/dans - click on Resources

Including sustainability in many disciplines and degrees

National Networks in HE

DANS – Participating Associations

• American Psychological Association

• Sociology• Religion• Philosophy• Math• Broadcasting• Architecture• Engineering (civil,

mechanical, eng. ed.)• Business

• Ecological Economics• Chemistry• Biology• American Association

for the Advancement of Science

• Computer Research• Humanities• STEM disciplines• Political Science• Anthropology• More…

Academic Disciplines and U. S. Partnership created DANS

Infusing sustainability into:

1. Curricula, including textbooks2. Promotion and tenure and accreditation3. Informing legislation and policy4. Informing the public

Click on “Resources” at www.aashe.org/dans - scroll down the page!!!

The American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment

Climate Leadership in Higher Education

Over 650 presidents in all 50 states

ACUPCC

Resources from the ACUPCC…

Pledge… to make all students literate about our challenges

and engaged in solutions

• Education for Climate Neutrality and Sustainability – very good!!

• ACUPCC Webinar Series• ACUPCC Solutions Page (includes links to further resources)

More Key Sites: Activities

1. U.S. - Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education – www.aashe.org Sign up for the free bulletin and search the extensive resources and share what you are doing

2. American Association of Community Colleges and its members colleges – a leader in greening the curricula and the community – visit their Sustainability Education and Economic Development Resource Center at www.TheSeedCenter.org

Student Learning OutcomesACPA President’s Sustainability Taskforce, 2006 – College Student Educators International

1. Each student will be able to define sustainability.

2. Each student will be able to explain how sustainability relates to their lives and their values, and how their actions impact issues of sustainability.

3. Each student will be able to utilize their knowledge of sustainability to change their daily habits and consumer mentality.

4. Each student will be able to explain how systems are interrelated.

5. Each student will learn change agent skills.

6. Each student will learn how to apply concepts of sustainability to their campus and community by engaging in the challenges and solutions of sustainability on their campus.

7. Each student will learn how to apply concepts of sustainability globally by engaging in the challenges and the solutions of sustainability in a world context.

These outcomes match international declarations and other countries’ learning outcomes…Svanström, Lozano-G, Rowe (2008) “Learning outcomes for sustainable development in higher education”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education; Volume: 9 Issue: 3; 2008

Student Learning OutcomesACPA President’s Sustainability Taskforce, 2006 – College Student Educators International

Essential Instructional Approachreal world problem solving for

sustainability

Sustainability literacy and engagement for all students – a 21st century core competency – in all jobs

* Change agent skills list - http://www2.aashe.org/heasc/resources.php#ACPA

Goals for Our Students:What do we want students to know / be able to do?

Backward Design

Course Goals

Final Assessmen

t

Learning Outcome

Learning Activities

Learning Outcome

Learning Activities

How will my students be different?

How will I know they have changed?

What must they think and do to successfully complete the final assessment?

Learning Outcome

Learning Activities

What must they think and do to successfully achieve this learning outcome?

1 2 3 4

Discussion

Which of the goals described would you most like to incorporate into your institutional, departmental, and/or classroom goals?

What additional goals do you have for your students?

Practicalities:How do we do this?

Sharing Strategies: Developing Learning Objectives

Thinking in Systems

Collaborating

Engaging with Local Challenges

Empowering as Change Agents

Assessing Growth

Sustainability: A Broad Approach

Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss

Food Systems and Health

Relationship with Microbes: Microflora, Infectious and Inflammatory Diseases

Developing Learning Objectives

Biology 123 Learning Objectives

Articulate global challenges facing contemporary biology.

Diagram systems interrelations of these challenges.

Use collaborative problem-based learning and scientific reasoning to effectively address complex, real-world problems.

Effectively communicate the results of collaborative work.

Approach the learning process with mindfulness and gain skills in accurately self-assessing one’s learning.

Developing Learning Objectives

Biology 123 Learning Objectives

Relate new knowledge to existing understandings, recognizing and correcting misconceptions.

Apply core scientific competencies and biological concepts to assess information and effectively answer questions. Understand biodiversity, ecological interrelationships, evolution, climate

change, ecological risks, and interconnections between these concepts.

Understand interconnections between agricultural production practices, food/social systems, ecological sustainability, human health/nutrition and food policies.

Explain origins and dynamics of infectious diseases, including factors that affect transmission; understand the basic functioning of our immune system and gain a new appreciation of the natural “microflora” in/on the human body.

Thinking in Systems

Goals:Appreciate connectedness of ____ to sustainabilityUnderstand system dynamics and behaviorsAppreciate effect of actions on a system

Resources:Thinking in Systems, Donella MeadowsCmap Tools http://cmap.ihmc.us/Vensim http://www.vensim.com/

Thinking in Systems

“A system is a set of things – people, cells, molecules, or whatever – interconnected in such way that they produce their own pattern of behavior over time. The systems may be buffeted, constricted, triggered, or driven by outside forces. But the system’s response to these forces is characteristic of itself, and that response is seldom simple in the real world... The system, to a large extent, causes its own behavior!”

- Thinking in Systems, p. 2

Thinking in Systems

Components of a system:

Stocks (e.g. populations) that are coherently organized (Meadows, p. 11).

Flows of information or materials

Loops (self-governing feedback) Balancing loops function as

brakes Reinforcing loops function as

accelerators

Discussion

Thinking broadly, identify some of the sustainability issues in your field.

Select one of these issues and consider some practical ways to integrate systems thinking into analysis of this issue.

Systems Thinking

Collaborating:National Reform Recommendations

New Biologists need…

• depth of knowledge in a discipline, fluency in several others

• quantitative , computation, and interdisciplinary communication and collaboration skills

New Biology curricula need to emphasize…

• interconnections among biology system levels and across disciplines

• science as a collaborative exercise that solves real-world problems

Labov, J. B., A.H. Reid, and K. R. Yamamoto, CBE – Life Sciences

Education, 9, 2010.

Collaborating

With colleagues – modeling collaboration:Team approach to teachingAcross disciplinary boundaries

With and among students:Partner with students in course development

processTeam problem-solving activities

Engagement in Local Challenges

Our “Laboratory”Plaster Creek Watershed

Pedagogical ProgressionService-learning ProjectsPlace-based Research

Community PartnershipsWest Michigan Environmental Action CouncilWest Michigan Land ConservancyGrand Rapids Parks

Empowerment as Change Agents

Goals:Recognize world’s big problems, yet remain hopefulProvide opportunities to develop collaboration and

problem-solving skills within a local context

Examples:Service learning – recognize

challenges and meet local change agents

Place-based research – usedisciplinary knowledge andskills to contribute to local solutions

Example Activity

Diet for a Hot, Fat, and Crowded World

Assessment Strategies

Linking Assessment with Learning ObjectivesHow do you know that a particular learning activity

promotes learning?How do you know that your students are meeting your

learning objectives in your course?How do you know that your students are gaining skills,

literacy, and competencies in your program?

Using Direct and Indirect MeasuresFormative and Summative AssessmentsCritical Thinking AssessmentAssessment of Student Attitudes and Perceptions of

Learning Gains

Assessment Tools

Formative summative assessments Formative assessments help to identify misconceptions;

summative assessments gauge whether learning activities have been effective in reconstructing these conceptions.

Comparisons provide direct measurements of learning gains.

SENCER-SALG (www.salgsite.org) SALG aids reflection and connection within and between

courses. Measures students’ attitudes and perceptions of learning

gains.CAT (www.criticalthinkingtest.org)

The CAT is a nationally-normed short-answer test that measures components of critical thinking and problem solving that faculty across disciplines think are most important.

Recommended by NSF for TUES grant recipients.

Practice!

Your goal: Develop a lesson plan that teaches your

disciplinary concepts and skills through a sustainability issue.

Identify opportunities to: use systems thinking, collaborate, engage with local challenges, empower students as change agents, use diverse assessment strategies

Discussion

What challenges inhibit change at the classroom level? Department or division level? Institutional level?

How have others overcome these challenges?

Some Specific Challengesfrom the Pre-conference Survey and FAQs

Coverage Issue: How do I introduce new material into an already jam-packed course?

Resource Issue: Where do I find resources? Do I need to develop my own?

Interdisciplinary Issue: How do I integrate material that is outside my area of expertise?

Incentive Issue: What can I do to insure that these efforts are recognized and rewarded at my institution?

Promoting Systemic Change

Strategies

Challenges

Solutions

Connecting to National and Global Efforts

Benefits of Teaching Sustainability

Focus Questions

1. What are you going to take back to do at your home institution?

2. What will it take to accomplish this? What resources do you need? Who else should you involve?

3. What will be the impact of your initiative(s)?