An Assessment of Riparian Vegetation in a Human-Influenced Landscape
Lisa Carlson, Centralia College
Given that humans historically have heavily used rivers and the lands along them for agriculture, transportation and other activities, how does human impact currently affect riparian ecosystems in a rural region? Students will address this question through several activities.

Swimming Upstream: Relating Trapped Energy in Organic Hydrogenations to Use of Reduced Hydrocarbons as Energy Sources
Shane E. Hendrickson, Wenatchee Valley College
An activity designed to inform the student of the potential and pitfalls of storing energy by the generation of reduced organic molecules, particularly as pertains to the generation of ethanol from molecules of a greater oxidation state and the ultimate fate of oxidized carbon when the energy potential is realized. As a part of a discussion of sustainability issues, the activity will be part of a discussion of global energy generation and use and couched in a form similar to the US energy flow trends.

Sustainable Public Health: Walkable Neighborhoods, Obesity and Diabetes in the Bioregion
Jean McFarland, Edmonds Community College
Students generate hypothesis regarding the causes and consequences of obesity. Based on these putative causes and consequences they propose sustainable solutions (e.g. walkable neighborhoods, community gardens, etc.) that would be appropriate for and effective in their bioregion.

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.

What is the True Cost of Burning Coal?
Justin C. Lytle, Pacific Lutheran University
This activity is a framework for general chemistry students to explore the costs, ethics and alternatives to coal-fired electricity.

Writing and Walking, Pilgrimage and Process: Working with the Essays of Linda Hogan & Henry David Thoreau
Rebecca Chamberlain, The Evergreen State College
By comparing and contrasting the essays of Hogan and Thoreau, students begin to develop a more complex understanding of their own identity and sense of place; the historical and cultural context around issues of sustainability and environmental ethics.

Maps and Legends: (Re)placing Composition
Jared Leising, Cascadia Community College
Because maps tell stories, offer perspectives, and make arguments, maps also act as a metaphor for the writing assignments students are given. The writing that students do in this class creates maps to where students have been (writing stories from memory), where they currently are (writing profiles from observations of places), and where they're headed. This course approaches sustainability from the viewpoint of learning to value the places in which we live through listening to and telling stories about those places.

Recognizing the Impact of Dominant Culture Privilege
Robin Jeffers, Bellevue Community College
This sequence of five assignments, starting with the study of texts, has students taking a look at the concept of dominant culture privilege and then moving them out into their own world to analyze what they're seeing there.

Skeleton Keys: Bonified Biology
J. Brian Hauge, Peninsula College
This series of exercises focuses on: the importance of observation in science; the proper use of scientific terminology and writing; the interrelationships between anatomy and position in a food web or energy pyramid; the biology of exotic species; toxins in the environment; animal use; and, the evolutionary significance of each of these topics.

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.