Using the Zero-Waste Circular Economy Module in Innovation, Social Equity, and Entrepreneurship in Media

Furkan Amil Gur, Northern Illinois University

Course Description

I integrated the module in an honors seminar on Innovation, Social Equity, and Entrepreneurship in Media which I co-teach with an instructor from Communications department who is also a documentary director. Together we focus on social issues using various forms of media and incorporate entrepreneurship to address these issues. This module was a natural fit to this class and worked out seamlessly. This class is taught in hybrid format as students we have one in person and one virtual synchronous class period every week. The seminar will feature an experiential teaching style and is designed to further students' ability to critically assess the impact of creative solutions in popular media stories that propose solutions using the theme of justice and equity.

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Relationship of the Zero-Waste Circular Economy Module to Your Course

We skipped the personal waste audit as we wanted to fit this module into a single week as we do with all of our modules. In the beginning of the semester, I delivered a brief lecture on systems thinking and wicked problems which basically applied to every single social issue in the course. We also had modules on climate change and on sustainability before the circular economy module so students were already well primed on the topic. We assigned videos and readings related to the circularity of t-shirt manufacturing before hand and students came prepared for the gallery map exercise. We did the gallery map exercise in class and we also had time to debrief with them after the exercise during the class period. In our virtual class, we focused on finding practical solutions to other major circularity problems that students brought up for our course-specific exercise.

Integrating the Module into Your Course

I teach courses on entrepreneurship. My classes focus on experiential learning and developing creative solutions to problems. So I thought the overall premise of the basics module and our specific module works well with my courses. I integrated the module in two separate courses each semester. First, I used it in a senior level entrepreneurship course, in which students start to run a small business. This course was in hybrid format, so we only met once a week in person, and students review record lectures, and other resources asynchronously other times. We used the first week to gauge and raise awareness on the topic of sustainability. I delivered the presentation on systems thinking, sustainability, and circular economy, and we debriefed on the personal based audit exercise. The second week students were assigned to read and watch videos about the issues regarding the circular economy in the T-shirt industry. When we were in the in-person class I showed them the YouTube video on the topic and we ran the gallery map exercise. The following week I had a guest speaker who also specialized in sustainability and together we helped students to put what they learned in context and develop a plan to make their own businesses more circular for the course specific exercise. Students changed aspects of their businesses accordingly to make them more circular, and overall, this was a great experience for everyone.

What Worked Well

Students noted that this was a good learning opportunity.

Challenges and How They Were Addressed

The main challenge, the first time I taught this module was that this took a huge chunk of my classes. It basically took about three weeks and I had to rush and skip some other content I usually cover in this class. Also, the amount of material required from students was too much, which made it complicated to integrate to a class with already a lot of project work. The next time, the second time I taught the module, I integrated the module in a non-honors seminar: innovation, social equity, and entrepreneurship media, which I co-teach with an instructor from the communications department, who also happens to be a documentary director. Together we focus on social issues using various forms of media and incorporate entrepreneurship to address these issues. This module was a natural fit to this class and worked out seamlessly. This class is taught in hybrid format, as students we have one in person, and one in virtual synchronous class period every week. This time we skipped the personal based audit, as we wanted to fit this module into a single week, as we do with all of our other modules. In the beginning of the semester, I delivered a brief lecture on systems thinking and wicked problems, which basically applied to every single social issue we were focusing on in this course. We also had modules on climate change and on sustainability, before the circular economy module, so students were already valid primed on the topic. We assigned videos and readings related to the circularity of T-shirt manufacturing beforehand, and students came prepared for the gallery map exercise. With the gallery map exercise in class, in person, and we also had time to debrief with them after the exercise during the class period. In our virtual class, we focused on finding practical solutions to other major circularity problems the students brought up for our course specific exercise. I think we didn't have any other challenges we had to deal with related to this module in the second time I taught the course.

Student Response to the Module and Activities

Students thought this was the best overall module experience for them, so we received very pleasant feedback. We had already integrated the required assignments work into our class and managed the workload so this did not create extra pressure in that regard either.