Sustainability & the Curriculum

Mini-Course

Overview of the Mini-Course
This mini-course leads you to identify discipline-specific sustainability competencies and embed these sustainability-related objectives into your course. Our guiding questions for this course include:

• What does 'sustainability' look like in your discipline?
• How does place-based learning align with target sustainability competencies, such as those that overlap with your discipline?
• How can we lead our students to articulate the benefits of sustainability and its relation to our community and our collective future?

Timeline and Expectations
This mini-course runs from January to March and will take roughly 6 to 10 hours to complete. You can expect to:

• Participate in 3 in-person meetings and create online course-related artifacts.
• Engage with online activities (1-3 hours); leave the course with:
  • A sustainability-related objective and a course activity that assesses this objective
  • A place-based learning activity or project
  • Integration of your course in the Sustainability Minor course list
  • A new book of your choice!
• Receive a digital badge for your participation.

Faculty Learning Community

As a structured community of practice, Faculty Learning Communities (FLC) are cross-disciplinary, small groups of scholars who are interested in investigating and sharing resources on a particular theme in higher education. The Sustainability (FLC) provides a space to explore and share course resources and artifacts (e.g., assignments, assessments, activities) related to the Sustainable Development Goals, place-based learning, or other themes related to sustainability competencies. Some discussion questions may include:

• Thinking about incorporating a sustainability-related objective into your course: How does sustainability overlap with your discipline? How do you lead students to articulate an awareness of sustainability?
• Thinking about courses that include a sustainability-related objective: What assignments have you used to assess this objective? What recommendations do you have for faculty adding sustainability-related objectives?
• Thinking specifically about climate change: What activities have helped students process the emotions of climate change? How has your course allowed students to ask big questions related to climate change?
• Other questions as they arise through the implementation of place-based learning and sustainability-related objectives. 

This FLC will meet 3 to 4 times during the spring semester. If you are interested in joining, please complete this form and let us know what days/times work best for you.

The FLC is scheduled so that it compliments the Sustainability Mini-Course.