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Download a zip file that includes all the web pages and downloadable files from the instructor's materialsCourse Design and Structure
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Suggested approach for teaching in a learner-centered environment
This course is designed to facilitate the "flipped-classroom," learner-centered mode of instruction. An article on flipped classrooms is at: Flipped classroom methods (Microsoft Word 114kB Jun27 14)
In the traditional classroom students spend most of their time listening to a professor, viewing PowerPoint presentations, and taking notes. The classroom time is devoted to delivery of the basic course content. Consequently most college students avoid assigned readings, and many never even obtain an assigned textbook.
The flipped classroom takes an entirely different approach. Students are expected to arrive in class having acquired the basic material by reading for meaning, viewing videos, and engaging in other learning activities outside the classroom environment. The classroom time is reserved for active learning activities, such as discussion, student presentations, experimentation, reflection, small group work, etc. It is important to teach the students how to engage in the flipped classroom at the beginning of the course. For most of them it will be a completely new experience with novel expectations and attendant behaviors. We suggest that you use the first class meeting to teach the students how to participate in the process.
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The first class meeting
Introduce the course, explaining the course objectives and the importance of what they will learn in the larger picture of sustainability. You may wish to administer the pre/post test in class at this time, or later. You can download it here: Pre and Post Test (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 34kB Jun28 17).
Next provide a detailed explanation of student responsibilities and expected classroom behaviors in the flipped classroom (described below). The material below on student responsibilities is assembled in a handout for you to provide to the students. It includes explicit instructions for the students. They should have this with them in the first meeting of the class so they can follow along with your presentation. It is a good idea to put it in the course syllabus so the students can always find it.
Student responsibilities:
Also available as a Word document: Student responsibilities (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 22kB Jun28 17)
Student responsibility #1. Students must read the student section of the module in depth prior to coming to class.
Student responsibility #2. Student-generated quiz and discussion questions. The students will be required to develop six written questions based on the readings. The first two questions are based upon the topic covered in the preceding class meeting. These will be used for the daily quiz. The professor calls on five different students to state their questions. All students write answers. Then the professor calls on five other students to state their responses. The class discusses each answer as needed until everyone understands what constitutes a correct answer. Students score their quizzes based upon the right answer as indicated by the professor. The quiz should take 10–15 min.
Student responsibility #3. After the quiz, the class will turn to the next four student-generated discussion questions. These are based upon the current readings for the day. Professor-controlled discussion will be used, with the professor calling on one student for a question and another for an answer. Any particular question may involve multiple inputs from different students as the discussion unfolds. The discussion should take around 20 min. Note that "professor-controlled discussion" ensures that all members of the class participate on a near-equal basis. Volunteer-based discussion is typically limited to the most vocal 25%.Students earn points for bringing the quiz and discussion questions, as well as for their performance on the quiz. Emphasis is placed on developing thoughtful questions that go beyond simple definitions or facts, to address higher levels of cognition. The size of the class will determine how often a student is called upon for a quiz or discussion question.
It is important to explain that science is as much about asking the right questions as it is about finding the correct answer. This will be a new experience for most of the students, and they will need to be taught how to ask a question of higher-level cognition. We suggest that the first class meeting includes an exercise to teach the art of asking good questions. The professor should provide a short reading for the students to do in class. Then the professor will ask the students to write three questions, one being a simple definition or fact-based question, the next requiring synthesis or other higher level of learning, and the last requiring application or evaluation.
Student responsibility #4. Student presentations. The professor will generate a list of topics to be addressed in student presentations. These will appear in the course syllabus. On the first day of class, students will sign up for their chosen presentation topics. The number of topics and the length of presentations will be governed by the size of the class. There should be a minimum of one student presentation per class, and every student should present at least once. The topics will cover an appropriate subject for that day's material. They may drill deeper into an issue from the readings, or be based upon contemporary events that link to that day's work. The rest of the students in the class should be asked to write two questions to ask the presenter at the end of the talk. The professor should use a mix of volunteer and instructor-controlled discussion for these questions. Presenters will be scored with a rubric that incorporates the course and InTeGrate goals.
Student responsibility #5. Participation in laboratory experiments and writing of the associated report. The remainder of each class will be devoted to a hands-on laboratory exercise designed to integrate with that day's topic. The students will perform experiments and collect data in class. They may also be called upon to analyze online data sets from outside of class. These analyzed data, along with answers to questions around application and understanding, will be addressed in the module report. The students will be assessed using a rubric that incorporates the course and InTeGrate goals. Each module requires a report.
Appropriate classroom behaviors — this should be included in your syllabus
The flipped-classroom setting requires that students be fully engaged for the duration of the class. It is good to explicitly state the expected behaviors in the course syllabus and to emphasize this in the first class meeting.
- Students must arrive on time and with the required work for the day.
- Students must not leave class prior to dismissal unless they are ill.
- No texting or similar activity is allowed during class. However, students are encouraged to use smart phones or other devices for smart reasons, such as note-taking, referencing the module material, or searching a topic as part of their classroom work.
- Students must treat all other members of the class with respect and listen closely to what they say.
- Students must attend all class meetings unless they are ill or have an emergency situation.
The second class meeting
We suggest that you devote the second class meeting to Module 1, Electricity, Work, and Power which provides an introduction to the basic concepts that inform the technologies to be discussed. This module also will serve as a resource for students when they need to review basic concepts while exploring the various technologies in subsequent modules.
The third and subsequent class meetings
A suggested ordering of the modules is given in the Course Outline. However you may wish to revise that sequencing in response to weather conditions. For example, the exercises for the module on wind do not work on a still day. Other modules that require sunlight are best attempted when it is not raining! In practice this means that the first part of the class may be devoted to the scheduled module for that day, but the students may actually end up with a different exercise due to weather conditions. The modules on Efficiency and Conservation, Energy from Biomass, and Composting Toilets are good rainy-day fare. While such last-minute substitutions do require flexibility on the part of the professor and the students, matching labs to the weather will in the end make for a better course.
The final class meeting
The final class meeting should be devoted to putting the entire course in context, helping students draw their newly acquired knowledge together in a systems-thinking way. It also is important that the the students do some metacognition that lets them take ownership of the scaffold of knowledge where they see the connections between each technology, and to sustainability. This will require some reflection on their part. To this end, we provide a suggested capstone activity that incorporates summative evaluation of a student's mastery of the course content. This is presented below in the fifth form of evaluation.
