Background and Context

Course History | Place in the Curriculum | Funding Sources

Course History

The Power of Water course will be in its 7th iteration in Fall 2007. In the first two offerings (Fall 2003 and Fall 2004) the course was team-taught by two SENCER team members, a biologist (A. Fink) and a physicist (M. Parry). That first course offering was exceptionally difficult for the faculty and arguably for the students as well. In the team's effort to develop the course, we discussed the option of offering a pilot course as a special topics offering. Had we gone that route and not proposed the course formally, it probably would never have been offered again after the challenging and disappointing first round. However, it was in the catalog and the primary instructors, while bruised, remained committed.

The course was dramatically revised for the second offering (Fall 2004). Significant time and effort were invested in reorganizing the course to make the connections among science topics and between science and civic topics more clear. The course was organized around several of water's important properties, providing students with a clear road map for the term. Formal and informal student feedback were significantly more positive.

The course was dramatically revised again for the third offering (Fall 2005). The course was taught by a single instructor (A. Fink), as it has been since that time. This round focused on major thematic units (the global water paradox, water as a limiting factor, and water for life) and drew significantly from world events, most notably the Katrina disaster. The fourth offering (Spring 2006) was slightly modified from its immediate predecessor, retaining the major unit structure and topics. In both 2005-2006 academic year course offerings, students were required to purchase The New York Times and incorporate it into regular homework assignments.

In the Fall 2006 version of the course, it retained much of the content, assignments, and vision of the 2005-2006 offerings, but it was reorganized slightly to exploit an interesting opportunity. The 25 August 2006 issue of Science focused on freshwater resources. In order to more rigorously engage students in reading and understanding the primary scientific literature, student lab fees were used to purchase one copy of the issue for each student in the course. The unit structure from the previous year was redrawn somewhat to line up with the major articles from the issue.

While the evolution of the course continues, it has become the responsibility of one faculty member rather than the entire SENCER team. Though the team structure still existed on paper, until recently it was in practice no longer functional. This was in no way a result of a lack of interest or dedication but rather was a product of teaching commitments to other service courses. However, a reorganized team will return to the SSI in August 2007 to develop a strategy for increasing our SENCER course offerings.

What is the role of the "Power of Water" in undergraduate curriculum at Longwood University?

Longwood University has a 15-goal General Education program that engages students from their first semester (Goal 1: freshman seminar) to their senior year (Goal 14: advanced "writing for citizenship" seminar) and includes traditional on-campus coursework (Goals 1-14) as well as a required internship or research experience (Goal 15). One goal is focused on the natural sciences: "Goal 6: The application of the methods of science to the acquisition of knowledge, and an appreciation of the major contributions of science to our cultural heritage and to the solution of contemporary problems (four credits).

Goal 6 is the responsibility of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Chemistry and Physics. These two departments offer six course options to students seeking to complete this goal requirement:

BIOL 101 Biological Concepts and Applications
CHEM 101 General Chemistry
EASC 210 Physical Geology
PHYS 101 General Physics
GNED 162 Introduction to Environmental Science (new, Fall 2006)
GNED 261 Exploring Science in Our World

GNED 261 was added to the Longwood undergraduate curriculum as the direct result of our SENCER team's participation in the 2002 SENCER Summer Institute (SSI). Our team of 5 faculty members (two chemists, one biologist, one physicist, and one science education specialist) and one administrator returned from the SSI with a clear goal: to develop a new and unique Goal 6 course and propose it for addition to the curriculum for the 2003-2004 academic year. The product of those efforts was Exploring Science in Our World, which is described in our undergraduate catalog as "an interdisciplinary science course designed to involve students in learning science concepts related to world problems and studying issues important to our local community."

In developing the course, we sought to have a rather general course title and description so that specific course "bylines" could be added each term to identify the focal topic for the semester. The campus politics associated with the changing byline proved to be quite interesting, though the course proposal successfully passed four levels of curriculum committees and was approved by the Faculty Senate. We agreed that "The Power of Water" would be the first byline for GNED 261 due to the depth and breadth of science and civic issues offered by the water topic as well as its potential to engage a wide range of science faculty.

From Fall 2003 to Fall 2006, POW was the only topic offered under the GNED 261 course heading. In the winter intersession (January) of 2007, we offered "Ecology in Context" as a new topic for a GNED 261 course taught in Venezuela. As part of our campus' participation in the national American Democracy Project, a second iteration of "Ecology in Context" is in development to be taught in Yellowstone National Park in the Summer 2008. Additionally, in the fall term of 2007, we will offer a new GNED 261 byline focused on medical geography.

While a guiding value of the Longwood General Education program is that students should select goal courses that fit their interests, it is worth noting that POW is a recommended Goal 6 course for our Liberal Studies majors. Our Liberal Studies major is the largest on campus (approximately 800 students in any given year), and it is the course of study for our students seeking teaching licensure for grades kindergarten through eighth. While the current POW offerings can not accommodate each of these students, a sizable portion of our graduating pre-service teachers have completed this course.

The Power of Water: Funding Sources

Internal Funding through Longwood University

General Education Program

Provided funding for attendance of a water-related conference to present instructors with new perspectives on emerging water issues:

American Water Resources Association's International Congress on Watershed Management for Water Supply Systems, New York, New York, June/July 2003.

Longwood University Innovative Projects for Enhancing Student Learning ($5,000).

PIs: M. Parry and A. Fink. Developing a lifeline-preparation of topic-focused course materials to support science content and civic engagement in an innovative interdisciplinary science course. (For Spring/Summer 2004)

Longwood University College of Arts and Sciences Dean's Fund for Scholarship Excellence ($7,400)

PI: A. Fink. Excellence and innovation in undergraduate science education: using SENCER as a catalyst for change. (For Spring/Summer 2007)

Miscellaneous

Various activities related to our campus SENCER project have been supported through limited funding and in-kind support from the Department of Natural Sciences; College of Arts and Sciences; Fund for Student Research, Internships, and Public History; and Honors Program.

External Funding

SENCER support - initial funds to start our campus SENCER initiative, additional funds to support travel

Applied for but not funded (December 2003 submission deadline)

National Science Foundation CCLI-A&I ($107,889). PIs: A. Fink and M. Parry. Project title: Seeing the big picture-engaging faculty and students through development of an interdisciplinary, team-taught, topic-driven science curriculum. (For 2004-2006)