Engaging Geoscience Students in Community & Policy Activities

If the earth and environmental science education community doesn't engage our students in current issues in meaningful ways, who will? Especially important is providing a place for students to reflect on their own viewpoints and the viewpoints involved or missed in local or policy decision making. Below are some tips for getting started and example activities that help students reflect on the perspectives of people in their community and how to learn from and amplify them.

Getting Started:

• Have students complete a PEW Political Party Quiz and read Rob Baker's essay Political Talk is Important to Democracy; compile and discuss class results: How do they compare with national results? Why are political discussions important? What voices are we hearing from? Who is not heard?
• Identify current earth and environmental policy issues (i.e. climate, energy, hazards & water) using Congress.gov or on American Geosciences Institute Policy News Briefs
• Explore earth and environmental evidence (e.g. trends from relevant figures) that relate to current policy and support small group discussions on issues. Discussion questions for small groups might explore the intersection of science, communication, community needs, resilience planning, marginalized populations, and reflection on how each student's world view shaped their group's collective ideas. Example questions: What factors need to be considered? Who are the impacted populations and will they all be affected equally? What evidence supports or refutes the policy? Are there any lobbyists (i.e. paid to advocate or oppose)?
• Explore the views of your member of congress and schedule a district visit. See AGU's guide to a successful district visit and consider participating in the Geological Society of America's Congressional Visits Days

Activities and Design Resources that Help Students Explore Information, Community & Cultural Perspectives

Information Literacy:

• Association of College and Research Libraries, Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education
• CCO Online, The CRAP test, Currency, Reliability, Authority
• InTeGrate, Logical Fallacies Activity
• Johnson, Mica, Knowledge Quest, School Libraries Fight Fake News; includes class activities such as exploring the source of memes]
• University of Michigan, http://guides.lib.umich.edu/fakenews 'Research Guides: What is Fake News' Walks students through activities that build competencies evaluating fake news.

Recognizing Diverse Perspectives (InTeGrate Activities for Undergraduate Courses):

• Risk Communication
• Family Stress and Building Family Resilience to Hazards
• Social Network Survey to Understand Perceptions of Hazards and Risk
• Cli-Fi Module exploring representations of climate
• National & Class Opinions on Climate Change
• Exploring How Food Security Issues Vary by Region
• Creating an Agricultural Fact Sheet for Local Farmers
• Incorporating Stakeholder Perspectives into Landscape/Ecosystem Service Decisions
• Introduction to Environmental Justice
• Environmental Justice Curricular Resources
• Teach Using Contrasting Narratives that Engage Students in Considering Diverse Perspectives

Environmental Justice and Teaching Tolerance Resources:

• EPA, Case Studies from the Environmental Justice Problem Solving Program
• C2ES, Regional Impacts of Climate Change, Four Case Studies in the United States
• McGraw Hill, Environmental Science Case Study Library
• National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
• Standing Rock Syllabus, features readings on NODAPL
• Standing Rock, #NoDAPL, and Mni Wiconi, Cultural Anthropology, 2016, essays and photographic resources compiled by Jaskiran Dhillon and Nick Estes
• Syllabus for Teaching NODAPL in Ethics and Other Courses, by Kyle Whyte
• Southern Poverty Law Center, Teaching Tolerance Classroom Resources/

Explore Current Issues in Earth and Environmental Science:

• E&E News (features top Earth & Environmental policy issues)
• Congress.gov explores Current Legislation
• Union of Concerned Scientists, advocates for using science in decision making for a sustainable planet

Other Resources:

• Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE), 2017) Beyond Doom & Gloom:Climate Solutions, includes climate policy resources, advocacy strategies, & organizations
• Pozner, Jo Ellen, 2017, Talking Trump in the Classroom, Inside Higher Education
• Saunder, Shari and Kardia, Diana, University of Michigan, Creating Inclusive College Classrooms
• Union of Concerned Scientists, 2012, A Climate of Corporate Control: How Corporations Have Influenced the U.S. Dialogue on Climate Science and Policy

Want to do more? Consider Designing Courses around Key Issues in Your Community.