The Benefit of Acknowledging and Addressing Students' Uncomfortable Emotions when Learning about Environmental Issues: Fostering Growth and Change in Action-Oriented Exercises
Ellen Moore
Research reveals that if students are presented with negative information about environmental issues and they are not also provided with a plan for action, they often manifest denial on many levels. This exercise is designed to get students to directly address the emotions they face when learning about environmental issues and to make an action plan to address them in their individual lives.

Afghan Poppies, Climate Change and US Heroin: Thinking Systemically About Us and Them
Karen Litfin, University of Washington-Seattle Campus
This very simple contemplative exercise is rooted in my "Person/Planet Politics" approach, which invites students to into an experiential relationship with a global socioecological phenomenon: in this instance, Afghan poppy production. It can be adapted to a range of courses and a range of topics within those courses. The basic question is: "Who am I in relation to this?"

Our World, Our Selves
Tim Walsh, South Seattle Community College
Students will understand how ethics and psycho-emotional factors influence our relationship to and our use of the natural world. Students will read, mark, and summarize text and will use writing as a tool to explore the connections between ethics, psychology, and sustainability.

Climate Instability and Disease
Clarissa Dirks, The Evergreen State College
The module was designed to introduce students to a variety of biological processes of infectious disease that are connected through human activities and climate instability.

Using Debates to Engage Students in Sustainability Controversies and Conundrums
Robert Turner, University of Washington-Bothell Campus
A primary feature of this "Water and Sustainability" course is a series of 10 debates on controversial sustainability topics. Each student in the course participates in one of the debates.

Detox Me: How To Reduce Your Exposure To Toxins Found In Everyday Products
Surya Tewari, Bellevue Community College
I use the topic when I am discussing cancer in either nutrition or biology class. Talking about genetic and environmental factors that can increase the incidence of cancer, and the homework, helps students understand how adjusting their environment can help reduce their risk for developing cancer.

Organic Chemistry: Friend or Foe? An Organic Chemistry Special Investigation
Neal A. Yakelis, Pacific Lutheran University
Students are asked to work in teams to find a claim in the media relating to the impact of an organic compound (or class of organic compounds) on the environment and its inhabitants. Their chosen compound should have an effect on the sustainability of plant or animal life, or, in particular, the sustainability of human health.

Sacred Food and Carbon Footprint
Hirsh Diamant, The Evergreen State College
This activity examines how understanding cultural or religious studies and ecology can help us to become grounded, focused, mindful, and engaged world citizens.

Extending "The Land Ethic" and The Golden Rule to the Whole Biotic Community
Don Foran, The Evergreen State College and Centralia College
A component of an Introduction to Ethics course involving research and reporting on a specific sustainability issue. The class presentation will help the student think about extending Leopold's "Land Ethic" and "The Golden Rule" to the whole biotic community.

Meditation and Collection: "Garbage Reduction"
Gary L. Chamberlain, Seattle University
The course examines a number of unsustainable practices, the "worldview" or framework which emerged from the confluence of Christianity, the Renaissance and rise of modern science, and industrialization. We then examine new forms of Christian theological reflection leading to the construction of a framework reinforcing practices of sustainability and environmental justice.