Course-Specific Exercises

Course-specific exercises are activities, modules, projects, or other assignments designed by BASICS faculty to build on the content of the common exercise: The Wicked Problem of Water Quality in the Mississippi River Watershed.

Action Plan for Impacting Your Sustainable Development Goal
Ryan Bouldin, Bentley University
Using the article "Stop Raising Awareness Already" by Cristiano and Neimand and a six-step template, students create a plan to show how they apply the knowledge learned throughout the term to make a ...

Subject: Environmental Science:Sustainability
Resource Type: Activities:Project

Externalities, Public Goods, and Common Resources – Navigating the market equilibrium
Laura Jackson Young, Bentley University
Consider our new understanding of what makes water quality a "wicked problem" using the example of the Mississippi River Watershed. In particular, focus on the SDGs related to clean water & sanitation ...

Subject: Economics:Micro policy, Markets, Micro
Resource Type: Activities:Classroom Activity
Grade Level: College Lower (13-14)

Lecture on unilateral externalities
Anna Klis, Northern Illinois University
The BASICS module fit in so well on its own and is a lot of work for everyone, so I didn't have an additional activity. Instead, the BASICS lecture was broken up to fit into lecture. I had a lecture on the ...

Subject: Economics:Markets, Environmental Science:Policy:Environmental Economics
Resource Type: Activities:Classroom Activity
Grade Level: College Lower (13-14)

Nutrient Pollution in the Mississippi River
Nicole Hill, Bentley University
Students are introduced to the fundamentals of nutrient cycling (specifically, nitrogen and phosphorus cycling) along with the wicked problems of eutrophication, oxygen depletion, and the development of dead zones. ...

Subject: Environmental Science:Water Quality and Quantity
Resource Type: Activities:Classroom Activity
Grade Level: College Upper (15-16), College Lower (13-14)

Cultural Anthro: Final Paper and Poster
Nona Moskowitz, Wittenberg University
Students research a case of environmental injustice. They select a situation where the actions of a more powerful group have created an environmental problem for a group of people that have less power or less ...

Subject: Anthropology
Resource Type: Activities:Project, Writing Assignment
Grade Level: College Lower (13-14):College Introductory, College Lower (13-14)

Where do drugs go?
Zoë Wagner, Bentley University, Natural & Applied Sciences
This classroom discussion centered around the biological/chemical mechanisms by which drugs leave the body and where the drugs go from there. We discussed renal clearance via urine, then transitioned into a ...

Subject: Biology:Anatomy & Physiology, Environmental Science:Water Quality and Quantity, Waste:Toxic and Hazardous Wastes:Bio/Medical Wastes, Geoscience:Hydrology:Surface Water:Water Quality/Chemistry , Health Sciences, Geoscience:Hydrology:Ground Water:Water quality/chemistry
Resource Type: Activities:Classroom Activity
Grade Level: College Upper (15-16)

Town Meeting Reflection
Sheryl Cunningham, Wittenberg University
Students were asked to reflect on a specific set of questions after the Town Meeting but before completing the final stakeholder map. This is for a communication course, so students were asked to reflect on their ...

Resource Type: Activities:Writing Assignment
Grade Level: College Upper (15-16)

Save the World! (With a Toilet)
Theodore Hogan, Northern Illinois University
Sanitation and the availability of safe water are closely allied. Access to safe human waste disposal is more than a human right. It can change the world for the better by reducing disease, death, and poverty.

Subject: Environmental Science:Water Quality and Quantity:Sewage Treatment, Environmental Science:Waste
Resource Type: Activities:Classroom Activity
Grade Level: College Lower (13-14)

Putting Entrepreneurship to Work on Wicked Problems
Bart Sharp, Northern Illinois University
In this assignment students are asked to explore how the concepts and frameworks of entrepreneurship may be applied to the search for progress on Wicked Problems. Students are given free reign to decide which of ...

Subject: Business:Entrepreneurship, Economics
Resource Type: Activities:Writing Assignment
Grade Level: College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

ESG Reporting Research Paper
Lindsay Meermans, Wittenberg University
Students will select a topic of their choice related to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governmental) reporting to explore further, culminating in a 5-page research paper. The research paper will have milestones ...

Subject: Business:Accounting
Resource Type: Activities:Writing Assignment, Assessments:Written Report
Grade Level: College Upper (15-16)


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