Courses and Materials

Part of the InTeGrate Shippensburg University Program Model

Courses and teaching materials adopted, adapted, or developed by the project.

Courses

Conservation of Natural Resources (Geography & Earth Science)

Instructors: Tim Hawkins, Claire Jantz, Kay Williams
Term(s) and Year(s) Offered: J-Term Winter 2015-2016, Spring 2016, Fall 2016
Course Level: Geo 108 - Introductory
Syllabus ESS 108 Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 198kB Nov29 16)

Given the emphasis and primary learning objectives of this course, it was one of the two primary focus courses of this team. In order to improve stewardship and sustainability educational outcomes on campus, we felt it was critical to start with these introductory level courses which clearly have natural resources, land use, and human-environmental interactions at their core. Since this course is taught by multiple faculty each semester, each participating faculty member has decided to integrate in diverse ways. Dr. Claire Jantz for instance has utilized units from several different modules and adapted them to existing course materials. The primary modules employed were Soils, Systems and Society, and Environmental Justice & Freshwater Resources. Dr. Jantz has taught the course twice and this fall has encouraged service-learning at the Campus Community Farm and participation in the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge as extra credit opportunities to motivate student learning and engagement in high-impact co-curricular activities. In this manner, her integrate activities have also utilized InTeGrate strategies indirectly. Dr. Williams primarily focused her efforts on re-development of a field trip to a local waterway that was restored and turned into an environmental education site. Through her InTeGrate activities, she enhanced her field trip by requiring students to use local case studies to relate to regional/global issues (i.e. through the Chesapeake Bay Watershed). She also required students to complete a mapping activity to physical connect the local field site to the regional watershed and required them to write a reflective essay to relate their work in the course to their field trip experience. Finally Dr. Hawkins has taught his CNR class, typically online in summer and winter terms. In this capacity, his students have completed an exercise utilizing the Ecological Footprint Assessment system produced by the Global Ecological Footprint Network. This activity was particularly successful in engaging students, and helping them to understand their footprint and the components of their daily activities that contribute to their overall impact. Together with the work of Dr. Thomas (Environmental Biology class), the footprint assessment became a primary mechanism to assess student engagement and motivation across most InTeGrated courses.

Environmental Biology (Biology)

Instructors: Nathan Thomas, Tim Maret
Term(s) and Year(s) Offered: J-Term Winter 2015-2016, Spring 2016
Course Level: Bio 145 - Introductory BIO 145 Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 143kB Nov30 16)

As an introductory level, non-majors general education course this is a very well suited course to introduce students to concepts of sustainability and the interconnections of biology, earth science, sociology, psychology, math and chemistry. This is one of the two primary courses that was chosen by the team to be a key course to include in this project. Dr. Nathan Thomas taught this course during both winter and spring terms, but modules were only used during the spring course. These modules were adapted to fit with existing course materials and to increase the societal impact concept. Environmental Justice and Freshwater Resources and A Growing Concern: Sustaining Soil Resources through Local Decision Making were the two primary modules that were used. Integration of concepts from Carbon, Climate, and Energy Resources and Climate of Change: Interactions and Feedbacks Between Water, Air and Ice were already incorporated into this Dr. Thomas's course and thus were not an addition. This course uses a large number of current events, local to international, with reflective assignments associated with them as a tool for students to better relate the role of society and everyday actions with environmental science and sustainability. Dr. Maret's sections of this course already included key areas from a variety of modules. Although no single modules were used in large part, the material presented was already reflective of an InTeGrated course. Both courses used the carbon footprint assignment from the Global Ecological Footprint Network and responsive assignments with discussion to emphasize the importance of reducing carbon footprints. Students in Dr. Thomas's class also completed a reflective course summary that included conducting the footprint assignment again as a comparison of the gained understanding and need for greater sustainability.

Introduction to Geology (Geography & Earth Science)

Instructor: Sean Cornell
Term(s) and Year(s) Offered: Fall 2016
Course Level: ESS 110 - Introductory for Non-Majors
Syllabus (or link to course description?) ESS 110 Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 91kB Nov29 16)

Introduction to Geology is a non-majors course and was not originally planned as an integrated course. However, given successes in Physical Geology classes (for majors) in the spring implementation, the non-majors class was chosen for integration. In this class, units from the module on Human's Dependence on Earth's Mineral and Rock Resources and Soils, Systems, and Society were utilized in part. Additional course modules were developed to engage students in hands-on activities to connect with local geologic sites through participation in the Outdoor Nation Campus Challenge, and through completion of a "group sustainability project." The latter was designed to encourage students to participate in a service-learning project or to explore different geologic issues (i.e. soil development, geologic hazards, mining and natural resource extraction, sea-level rise and coastal flooding, water resources, etc.) in the context of the three domains of sustainability (Ecology, Economics, and Ethics). All students were required to reflect on their projects and consider explicitly how their project related to sustainability. These group projects are still coming in, but students were directed to SERC Integrate for inspiration and to develop ideas of their own interest.

Physical Geology (Geography & Earth Science)

Instructor: Sean Cornell
Term(s) and Year(s) Offered: Spring 2016
Course Level: ESS 210 - Introductory for Majors
Syllabus (or link to course description?) ESS 210 Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 205kB Nov29 16)

Physical Geology is primarily a majors course, although it is open to other students, especially those interested in geoscience. In the spring semester implementation, students were required to utilize units from the modules on Human's Dependence on Earth's Mineral and Rock Resources and A Growing Concern: Sustaining Soil Resources through Local Decision Making. In particular units 1, 2 and components of unit 3 were utilized from the former module. Students were broken into groups when completing their traditional mineral and rock identification labs and were required to go further and explore the ways that specific minerals are mined and the products they are used for. Students also explored case studies to illustrate the complexity of environmental and social justice issues that arise through the beneficiation of these rock and mineral resources and their conversion to manufactured goods and transportation via supply networks. With regard to the soil module, students were briefly introduced to units 1 and 2 so they could better understand the context of our local region (agriculture) and especially gain a perspective for our field trip to Gettysburg where we discuss the role of geology in the Civil War. In both cases, students not only are learning the technical terminology as required, but they gain a much deeper understanding of the connection/importance of geology to both society and sustainability and can see the benefit of stewardship practices necessary to conserve mineral, rock, and soil resources.

Applied Statistics (Mathematics)

Instructor: Ben Galluzzo
Term(s) and Year(s) Offered: Spring 2016
Course Level: Mat 117 - Introductory
Syllabus (or link to course description?) MAT 117: Spring Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 144kB Nov30 16)

Applied Statistics is a first course on the concepts and methods of statistics with applications from the humanities, social, behavioral, and physical/natural sciences. Most students enrolled in the course take the course before they get into advanced math courses and is used often to satisfy a general education requirement, but for others it is a terminal math class. In this course, students traditionally explore inferential methods and interpretation of statistical results. Topics often include numerical and graphical descriptions of data, sampling methods, probability, correlation and other methods. In the context of this class and due to his experience with USE MATH and SISL (http://serc.carleton.edu/sisl/sustain_in_math.html), Dr. Galluzzo asked students to complete a project for the course. As a lead up to help them gain perspective, his students completed the Ecological Footprint Assessment to develop their own understanding of sustainability. He pointed students to many of the InTeGrate resources for background readings and Dr. Cornell (Geography & Earth Science) was invited to speak to students during class to explore their perceptions and questions about sustainability science. Although it is not clear to what extent students used InTeGrate resources, students were required to complete a course project for which 10% of their class work was dedicated. This project required students to design a survey based on one administered by the Pew Research Center so that students could administer their own survey, tabulate and assess local results, and compare that to national data all from 2015. Students were able to collect a total of 335 surveys from other ship students in which students at large from our campus were asked 3 questions: A) How serious is global climate change? B) Does global climate change harm people now or in the future? and C) How concerned are you, if at all, about global climate change impacts on you personally? With a robust data set to draw from, students were able to tackle 6 different questions posed by Dr. Galluzzo see: MAT 117: Sustainability Project Survey Data and Reserach Questions (Acrobat (PDF) 56kB Nov30 16). In this regard, the students were able to collect a robust data set which gives us a perspective and baseline for students as a whole and the way in which they view climate change and at least on our campus, 88% of our students (compared to 30% nationally) see climate change as a very serious or somewhat serious problem, while 82% of students (compared to 70% nationally) surveyed say that climate change is harming people now or in the next few years. These data alone help us understand where our campus stands as a whole, and helped to inform development of co-curricular programming so that we can inspire students to be motivated to do their part to be more sustainable.

Teaching Materials

Modules Adopted

Modules Adapted

A Growing Concern: Sustaining Soil Resources through Local Decision Making
This module is excellent, although in the context of a geology class that does not have a separate lab, there isn't significant time available to cover all materials.

Climate of Change: Interactions and Feedbacks between Water, Air, and Ice
Required students to use local case studies to relate to regional watershed and global issues.

Environmental Justice and Freshwater Resources
Redeveloped a field trip to a local waterway that was restored and turned into an environmental education site.

Humans' Dependence on Earth's Mineral Resources
Great module, but units 1, 2 and 3 were adapted and used in tandem with mineral ID labs in both Introduction to Geology and Physical Geology.

Soils, Systems, and Society
Tied in with the campus community farm for a service-learning component of the course. Also used in Physical Geology to provide background readings for class discussions on soil conservation.

Materials Developed

Applied Statistics Course Project MAT 117: Sustainability Project Survey Data and Reserach Questions (Acrobat (PDF) 56kB Nov30 16)
Mentioned elsewhere, students in MAT 117: Applied Statistics completed a project that required students to administer a survey modeled after one carried out by the Pew Research Center. This project required students to administer their own survey (a total of 335 Shippensburg University respondents participated), tabulate and assess local results, and compare those to national data collected in. In their project reports, students were asked to answer several key questions (see page two of the file above) that specifically required them to use chi-squared tests, two-proportion z-interval tests, etc. to estimate differences apparent in their data set. With a robust data set to draw from, students were able to tackle 6 different questions posed by the instructor. Many other future possibilities exist to address even more questions from this same experiment, and we are currently exploring ways in which these data can be used in other classes and co-curricular programs to enhance their outcomes, and to enhance our progress of .

Burd Run Field Trip ESS 108 Burd Run Field Trip (Acrobat (PDF) 28kB Nov30 16)
Faculty at Shippensburg University have worked collaboratively over the last decade or more to develop the Burd Run Interdisciplinary Watershed Research Laboratory, all made possible through previous grant awards. Most work has been completed by faculty in the Department of Geography & Earth Science and Biology in tandem with numerous community members and professionals who served on and advisory oversight board. See the following link for more details: https://www.ship.edu/Geo-ESS/BurdRun/Project_Summary/.

Since its inception students, classwork, and research have been directly tied to the field lab and we are lucky that it is located immediately adjacent to campus where it is easily accessible. Dr. Williams has utilized the Burd Run field lab for several years to connect students to conservation through action in her Conservation of Natural Resources class. Given her participation in the InTeGrate program this year, she made modifications based on several of the InTeGrate strategies to her field trip assignment (course summative assignment) to help students build a better understanding of our tiny community creek and its relationship to the larger watershed. In this capacity, Dr. Williams decided to add a Google Earth component (Part 3 of the assignment), wherein students were required to trace the creek from its headwaters through its physical connection downstream to the Atlantic Ocean. The document above outlines the assignment. She utilized both time during the field trip as well as some class time to engage students in discussions and shares with them background information so they can better understand the history of the site and its historical issues so that they can compare that to what they observe and document during their field trip.

Ecological Footprint Assignment Ecological Footprint Assignment (Acrobat (PDF) 65kB Nov30 16) 
Many of the InTeGrated courses at Ship utilized Foot Print Network's Ecological Footprint Calculator as an activity to help build student's awareness of their own lifestyles and choices as they pertain to their ecologic footprint on the planet. Students learn directly, if everyone on this planet lived like they do, how many Earth's would be required to supply everyone with the same lifestyle and choices. It also helps them understand how many acres they use each year to supply their food needs, and they learn how much CO2 they are responsible for emitting whether directly or indirectly. The calculator also gives them opportunities to investigate how they compare to others around the world. The assignment is variably implemented across different classes, and assessments are equally variable. However, if students complete the activity, they are encouraged to submit their scores anonymously to an IRB-approved database (https://www.ship.edu/Sustainability/Report_Your_Footprint/). Instructors are then able to compare their own student scores to others and because of the national/international nature of the calculator faculty/students can go further if there is a need to do so quantitatively (this has not yet happened). The survey also asks students questions about whether they interested in sustainability/knowing their footprint and asks them to rate their motivation in changing their footprints in the future. The file attached here is the assignment utilized specifically in BIO 145 by Dr. Thomas who uses the activity as both a formative activity early in the course, and as a summative activity later in the course to help students connect their learning throughout the semester. Dr. Hawkins and Dr. Jantz, who teach ESS 108: Conservation of Natural Resources have also implemented this assessment in various formative ways.

Introduction to Geology Group Sustainability Project ESS 110 Sustainability Group Project Description (Acrobat (PDF) 83kB Nov30 16) ESS 110 Sustainability Project Idease (Acrobat (PDF) 76kB Nov30 16) 
This assignment is the first attempt to integrate a group project into the Introductory Geology class. Students were exposed to sustainability topics early in the course, although indirectly through other InTeGrate units (i.e. from Human's Dependence on Earth's Mineral and Rock Resources and Soils, Systems, and Society). Nevertheless, students are still very unsure about what sustainability actually is as many of the students in this class are first semester, first year students. Moreover, most are not science majors to begin with, and most will not take other classes geoscience classes like ESS108: Conservation of Natural Resources because both Introduction to Geology and CNR satisfy the same general education category and they must take other sciences to satisfy the other science requirements. With that in mind, if our InTeGrate project was to realize headway towards its goal of "engaging sustainability through general education classes," it was critical that we try to reach as many incoming students so we could impact a campus culture shift that is so important to realize.

Thus this class project was developed to engage students in learning a bit about sustainability and required students to explore different ways that sustainability and geology are related. The first file above outlines the expectations for the project, and these were provided on the course syllabus. Students were reminded to develop their projects, but most struggled to come up with viable ideas. So the second document "for inspiration" was developed to help students with some background readings on sustainability appropriate to their level and a few field-based activities were suggested. Once these were provided, students generally were able to come up with a plan relatively quickly, and it was much easier because they had other background knowledge from lecture from which to draw inspiration. As designed, the projects were conceived of as a summative assessment and students were required to complete and submit two components. The first was the "deliverable" element (poster board, presentation, video essay, etc.) and the second was a reflective element that required students to post to the Course Management System (Desire2Learn) so they could provide additional details about the project where they were specifically asked to address:

  • where each student contributed to the project's outcome
  • conceptual developments (i.e. development of ideas, researching geologic concepts, etc.) for the project
  • practical developments (i.e. what was done, how it was done, and by whom it was done) for the project
  • their own strengths and contributions to the project
  • any improvements that could have been made to the final project (in hindsight) and how they could have helped to make the project better
  • what they learned individually about their topic and sustainability
  • whether they changed their own personal views on sustainability and natural/geologic resources after this experience

In this fashion, students are given opportunity to explain their growth on the topic through a meta-cognitive approach and most importantly they were all required to justify their individual contributions to a group project (no freeloading was possible). Final grades for the assignment will be compiled following a shared group project grade for 50% of the project points together added to an individual grade for the other 50% of the project. 

Public Relations Class Project Sipes Com Class Client Brief (Acrobat (PDF) 71kB Nov30 16) Sipes Com Com Class Competition Reqirements (Acrobat (PDF) 72kB Nov30 16) Sipes Com Class Interview Guide (Acrobat (PDF) 47kB Nov30 16) 
Shippensburg University has been actively committed to sustainability in many areas of university life and is working to realize these commitments through curriculum improvements, facilities management efforts, and student programs. www.sumag.org/features/2016/7/11/saving-the-world-a-sustainable-ship-plans-for-future-generations?rq=recycling

Research shows that sustainability is a priority for Millennials, but it is unclear how much students at Shippensburg are aware of these ongoing efforts and exactly what they know about it. Sustainability has never been the focus of an integrated campaign at Ship, until now! So while most Millennials support sustainable initiatives, the potential of that support has not been known or harnessed on campus in a significant way. Thus this class project, termed the "Shippie Competition" by Dr. Carrie Sipes (Department of Communications and Journalism) challenges students to understand students' perceptions and knowledge of sustainability, as well as measure awareness of and attitudes toward campus sustainability efforts. In this assignment students must use research and tactics to address issues they uncover in the process of their research, the latter of which students were directed to many of the InTeGrate website resources to further their research. The ultimate goal of this specific project is to develop and promote the university's sustainability efforts to the student population, especially around the topics of single stream recycling and water usage. The documents above include the "Client Brief" an "Interview Guide" and a detailed "Shippie Competition Requirements" handout that was provided by Dr. Sipes to the students in the COM 201 class. These PR campaigns take various forms, but a couple of them have already been put in action through the campus newspaper and are available here: