Sustainability Essays

These essays were submitted by faculty in preparation for the Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences workshop in July 2012. Participants were asked to share their approaches to teaching sustainability in an interdisciplinary context and ideas for exploring opportunities for enhancing the integration of geoscience and sustainability.

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Value of Co-Teaching, Project-Based Learning, and Common Communication for Teaching Sustainability to an Interdisciplinary Class
Steven Burian, University of Utah
This academic essay page discusses interdisciplinary sustainability education, emphasizing co-teaching, project-based learning, and shared communication as key strategies, authored by an engineering educator reflecting on pedagogical successes and challenges. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

The Waldo Canyon wildfire: A case study of the western urban-wilderness interface
Mari Lee, Colorado College
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the Waldo Canyon wildfire as a case study of urban-wilderness interface challenges in the western U.S., exploring themes of sustainability, forest management, climate stress, and community resilience within an interdisciplinary environmental science and policy context. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Economics, Sustainability and Teaching Interactive Approach
Nelson Altamirano, National University
This essay page discusses integrating geosciences into economics education through interactive, game-based learning to teach sustainability, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches for business students and providing a downloadable PDF of the full text. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

The Relevance of Place and Sense of Place to Sustainability
Steven Semken, Arizona State University Campus Immersion
This academic essay page explores the role of place-based education in promoting environmental and cultural sustainability, emphasizing how sense of place fosters ecological integrity and community attachment in contested landscapes, with applications in geoscience and interdisciplinary teaching. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Service Learning in Interdisciplinary Courses
Maureen Padden, McMaster University
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the integration of service learning in interdisciplinary sustainability courses, highlighting pedagogical challenges, student outcomes, and real-world application in higher education. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Feeding the World - Teaching Sustainability in a Plant Biology Course
Susan Singer, Carleton College
This essay page from the InTeGrate project details how plant biology is taught through a sustainability lens at Carleton College, emphasizing interdisciplinary learning, food security, soil science integration, and long-term student projects analyzing agricultural sustainability and policy. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Sustainability, Collaboration and Complexity Science
John Motloch, Ball State University
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the intersection of sustainability, collaboration, and complexity science, emphasizing humanity's role within complex adaptive systems, the need for co-adaptation, interdisciplinary collaboration, and systems-based approaches to global environmental challenges, authored by John Motloch for the InTeGrate initiative. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Teaching sustainability through project based learning
James Stone, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology
A standalone essay page from the InTeGrate project detailing an interdisciplinary, project-based course on sustainability in engineering education, covering water conservation, renewable energy, and life cycle assessment, authored by James Stone of South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Geoscience is by its nature interdisciplinary
David Kobilka, Central Lakes College-Brainerd
This webpage is an educational essay discussing how geoscience, particularly in environmental contexts, is inherently interdisciplinary, integrating chemistry, physics, biology, and social sciences, with a focus on teaching methods, current event integration, and sustainability education in undergraduate courses. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Sustainability in Mining Activity
Stephen Kissin, Lakehead University
This webpage is an academic essay discussing sustainability in mining activities, focusing on environmental, economic, and social dimensions, with a case study on northwestern Ontario, and highlighting Lakehead University's initiative to establish a multidisciplinary Centre of Excellence in Mineral Exploration and Sustainable Mining Development. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Demonstrating why sustainability is complex
Cailin Huyck Orr, Carleton College
This essay page from the InTeGrate project discusses the complexity of teaching sustainability, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches, adaptive management, and scenario planning through water resource case studies to help students grasp the multifaceted challenges of achieving sustainability. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Questions about application, theory, and engagement with sustainability
Mary Ann Cunningham, Vassar College
A faculty essay page from the InTeGrate project addressing challenges in sustainability education, including ideological resistance, the theory-practice divide, multidisciplinary integration, and institutional support gaps, with emphasis on pedagogical strategies and curriculum design in geoscience and geography. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Making Connections between Geoscience and Sustainability
Laura Rademacher, University of the Pacific
Essay page from an InTeGrate workshop discussing interdisciplinary strategies for integrating geoscience and sustainability in undergraduate education, emphasizing quantitative literacy, real-world applications, and student behavior analysis through fingerprint activities. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Sustainability: The Key To Student Engagement
Ben Fackler-Adams, Skagit Valley College
This essay page presents interdisciplinary teaching strategies for integrating sustainability into geoscience and chemistry education, emphasizing student engagement through real-world relevance, cognitive learning principles, and hands-on activities across courses like environmental geology and oceanography. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Interdisciplinary Environmental Science Reflection and Communication
Kathleen Phillips, Stanford University
This webpage is an educator-authored essay within an InTeGrate workshop collection, detailing strategies for teaching interdisciplinary environmental science through reflective seminars that emphasize peer learning, science communication, stakeholder analysis, and presentation skills development across diverse sustainability topics. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Teaching Sustainability Through History
Derek Larson, Saint Johns University
An academic essay page detailing how interdisciplinary environmental studies programs integrate historical context into sustainability education, emphasizing curriculum design, historical precedents in green building and resource management, and pedagogical strategies for teaching sustainability through history. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Using Small Team Presentations to Examine Energy Production and Energy Utilization
Tom Termes, Black Hills State University
This webpage is an educational essay detailing a teaching activity where small student teams research and present on U.S. energy production and utilization topics to foster consensus on unsustainable energy trajectories, part of the InTeGrate project’s sustainability pedagogy collection. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Instilling a sense of sustainability in a large introductory course
Brooke Crowley, University of Cincinnati-Main Campus
This webpage is an academic essay detailing strategies for integrating sustainability into a large interdisciplinary introductory course, "Humans and Nature: Living in the Anthropocene," co-taught in Geology and Anthropology, emphasizing real-world applications, student engagement, stewardship, ecological footprint analysis, and community impact. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Market Based Economies and Sustainability
Chris McIntosh, University of Minnesota-Duluth
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the integration of sustainability within market-based economies through an interdisciplinary economic lens, emphasizing teaching methods, active learning games, and data-driven topics like energy, food, water, and environmental policy, authored by Chris McIntosh for the InTeGrate project. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

Using process-focused assessments for teaching sustainability
Meghann Jarchow, University of South Dakota
An academic essay page advocating for process-focused assessments in sustainability education, emphasizing systems thinking, student creativity, and risk-taking through reflective evaluation of learning processes rather than end products. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.