Issue Brief

Tait Chirenje
,
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Author Profile

Summary

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Context

Audience

Undergraduate introductory general education course (see course profile) for non-majors

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students must have completed the first part of the course that discusses the impact of humans on the environment and the various environmental philosophies

How the activity is situated in the course

This brief is done after the fourth week of class. I used it once in Fall 07, but I often use it twice or thrice in courses taken by majors

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

The first part of this exercise is focused on the student's ability to remember and understand factual and conceptual knowledge on environmental quality and how it affects the quality of life.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

The second part requires students to apply and analyze conceptual, procedural and conditional knowledge to complex situations governed by competing interests. I started using this exercise after attending the "Teaching policy in geosciences workshop" two years ago.

Other skills goals for this activity

The important skill I look for in this type of assignment is the ability to describe a problem from one point of view, analyze the impact on the greater society, and then appreciate that there are a lot of competing interests that have to be taken into account in order to come up with a solution. This explains why some apparent solutions do not seem to make sense to the outside observer.

Description of the activity/assignment

This assignment is meant to make students stop and think about an environmental issue that gets to them and do some research on what type of solutions would be appropriate. It also challenges them to go out and research the effectiveness of the solutions to that problem and propose other options. An important part of the assignment is to make students realize that sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to do "nothing." Some solutions, especially those arrived at from consensus, may worsen the problem.

Determining whether students have met the goals

The second pdf file posted below discusses the evaluation criteria for this assignment.

More information about assessment tools and techniques.

Teaching materials and tips

Other Materials

Supporting references/URLs

N/A