A Framework for Integrating Sustainability Education,
Research, Engagement, and Operations through Experiential
Learning
Barbara S. Minsker, Professor and Associate Provost Fellow for Sustainability
University of Illinois [email protected]
Acknowledgments
• Brian Anderson• Suhail Barot• Val Beasley• Hans Blaschek• Brian Deal• Gale Fulton• Praveen Kumar
• Robert McKim• Jesse Ribot• Bill Stewart• Madhu Viswanathan• Michelle Wander• Dick Warner• Carl Wegel
• Funding provided by U of Illinois (Office of Provost, Office of Sustainability, Institute for Advanced Computing Applications & Technologies) and Microsoft Research
• Hundreds of faculty, staff, and students from across Illinois contributed to this presentation.
• The ideas of the following individuals were particularly influential in shaping the Illinois vision & implementation:
Objective of the Illinois Sustainability Vision• Become a world leader in creating new
knowledge and innovative solutions to the following grand challenges:
1. Maintaining or restoring critical ecosystem function while providing essential human services; and
2. Sustainably raising quality of life for the poor to acceptable levels.
• To do so, we will infuse sustainability programs across campus to foster a level of cross-disciplinary engagement comparable to a unit or center.
2010-11 Illinois Sustainability Implementation Plan
• Sustainability Collaboratives
• Campus Engagement• Assess and Adapt
• Improved Marketing Efforts
• Identify Opportunities for Shared Investment
• Sustainability Education Outcomes
• Course Development• Teaching Academies• Scholarship of
Sustainability Series
• Climate Action Plan• Process Improvement• Policies & Incentives• Sustainability Week
Operations Curriculum
Build Capacity
Raise Visibility
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs
3. Develop programs to support sustainability curriculum development and fill gaps
4. Create experiential learning sites (living laboratories)
Overall Goal: Create campus-level structures that enable grassroots infusion of sustainability across the curriculum so that every Illinois student meets the education outcomes.
http://sustainability.illinois.edu/SETF-LO.html
Sustainability Outcomes
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs
3. Develop programs to support sustainability curriculum development and fill gaps
4. Create experiential learning sites (living laboratories)
Online Course Inventory
Mapped General Education Course Options to Sustainability Outcomes & Approaches
Inventoried Sustainability-Related Majors and Minors
• Impressive breadth of program offerings– 8 undergraduate majors– 5 undergraduate minors– 6 graduate majors– 1 graduate minor– 3 certificates
• Not all programs highlight “sustainability” yet connect directly to learning outcomes
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs
3. Develop programs to support sustainability curriculum development and fill gaps• Social dimension• Full integration of social, economic,
environmental dimensions4. Create experiential learning sites (living
laboratories)
Scholarship of Sustainability Serieshttp://sustainability.illinois.edu/scholarship.html
• Reading & debating seminal sustainability literature
• Public discussions linked to disciplinary courses across campus
• Videotaped and archived for future courses• Engaged hundreds of students, faculty, staff,
& community members in Spring 2010 and 2011
Prairie Project: Infusing Sustainability Across the Curriculumhttp://sustainability.illinois.edu/prairieproject.html
• Modeled after AASHE national curriculum workshops, but added greater curriculum focus in 2nd offering
• May: 2-day hands-on curriculum retreat with faculty & resource experts (curriculum & experienced faculty from multiple disciplines)• Brainstorm ideas and define initial
plans• Follow up reviews and discussion
over summer• January: Follow-up debriefing &
brainstorming lunches
Prairie Project Improvements• More hands-on curriculum development
• Engaging sample teaching activities• Curriculum and topic advisors work hand-in-hand
with instructors• Plans for education goals, activities, and
assessment submitted by end of retreat• Invited participation in Illinois Climate Action Plan
activities: • Facilities & Services• Student Sustainability Committee
• Celebrated successes – reception with Provost Wheeler presenting certificates of completion
Participant Evaluations, 2010 vs 2011
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The retreat aided me in shaping the course I proposed
20102011
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The retreat met my expectations
20102011
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I would recommend this program to colleagues next year
20102011
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Prairie Project: Next Steps
• First cohorts of 35 instructors in 2010-12 will reach 6,500 students/yr• Goal: Scale up to 60 faculty/year (reach 20% of
3,000 faculty in 10 yrs for institutional transformation)
• Need to engage more faculty and administrators through: • College- and department-level workshops and
presentations• Sustainability Education Summit for Department
Heads and Deans• Who should spearhead this work in the future?
• Office of Provost and Center for Teaching Excellence do not provide topic-specific education support, yet they have expertise and contacts needed for success
Four-Step Approach to Education
1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development
2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs
3. Develop the Prairie Project, a sustainability curriculum development program
4. Create experiential learning sites (living laboratories)
Experiential Learning Sites (Living Laboratories)• Enable synergistic research, education, engagement, &
operations on campus & in regional & global communities:• Long-term partnerships & infrastructure that
support hands-on learning on real-world problems• Multiple classes interact, supported by advanced
information systems:• Synthesizing:
• Citizen & embedded sensing data• Models• Documents and other information
• Social networking• Digital observatories • Decision dashboards
Fluxes:CO2 H2O
S
Meteorology:wind
Air TemperatureNet radiation
HumidityCanopy Temp
PAR
Fluxes:N2OCH4
CO2
Soil:Heat flux
Temperature (to 1 m)Moisture (to 1 m)
Photos:phenology
Instrumented field drainsSource: Energy Biosciences Institute
Energy Farm Site
Digital Observatory for Upper Embarras Watershed
Marketing and Management in Subsistence Marketplaces
Consumption and Entrepreneurship Across Literacy and Resource Barriers
Literacy, Poverty, Cultureand Psychology
Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program
- India
Nutrition Education Materials - USA
Sustainable Prod. & Mkt. Dev. forSubsistence Marketplaces
Social Initiatives
Research
Sustainable Businesses for Subsistence Marketplaces
Teaching
Sustainable Marketing Enterprises
Partnerships With Communities & Industries
Source: Madhu Viswanathan
Experiential Learning Sites (Cont’d.)• Emerging examples:
• Building Green Economies in Underserved Communities Through Student-Community Entrepreneur Teams – Illinois and India
• Industrial Agriculture to Feed and Fuel a Growing World Sustainably – South Farms experimental farm and Embarras Watershed
• Net-zero Energy Building for Electrical and Computer Engineering – Champaign
• Biofuels Living Laboratory – C-U campus• Sustainable watersheds, with Tsinghua U. – Beijing,
China• International Sustainable Development Studies
Institute expedition field courses in Thailand
Experiential Learning in Civil and Environmental Engineering
Learning objectives: Identify and evaluate connections between real-world engineering
solutions and the environment, society, and economy Analyze and recommend solutions to real-world sustainability
problems through a systems analysis approach
• Watershed case studies (Spring 2011): – Embarras River Basin (Illinois)– Shiyang River Basin (China, partnership with Tsinghua U.)
• Urban case study in Champaign-Urbana, IL (Fall 2011)
11.1 Global Education
Sustainability Education
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.
Nelson MandelaYou can never have an impact on society
if you have not changed yourself. Nelson Mandela
Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I may remember. But involve me and I'll understand.
Chinese Proverb