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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Credibility as a Challenge in the Integration of Science and Sustainability
Holly Ewing, Bates College
An academic essay page discussing the challenge of maintaining scientific credibility when integrating science with sustainability in education, emphasizing the importance of teaching scientific uncertainty and context within interdisciplinary environmental studies. 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 at the Tempe Campus
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.

Sustainability and Understanding Time
Mary Savina, Carleton College
Sustainability and Understanding Time is an academic essay page from the InTeGrate collection that explores how geoscience education can reframe sustainability by emphasizing deep time, paleoclimate analysis, and historical context to better understand human impacts on natural systems and inform future societal resilience. 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.

Historicizing Water and Development
Abigail Schade, Davidson College
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the historical perspectives on water and development, emphasizing how human perceptions and valuation of freshwater resources shape sustainability and economic development discourse, particularly within undergraduate education and systems thinking. 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.

The imperative for chemists to teach about sustainability
Scott Cummings, Kenyon College
This essay page argues that chemistry education must integrate sustainability due to shifting student interests, career demands, and global challenges, emphasizing chemistry's role in clean energy, pollution remediation, and green technologies while addressing curriculum reform challenges and resources. 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.

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.

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.

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.

Making Sustainability Real
Dan Vaughn, Vincennes University
This webpage is an educational essay in a mini-collection from the InTeGrate project discussing pedagogical strategies for teaching sustainability, focusing on connecting students to environmental realities through interdisciplinary methods, quantitative reasoning, and ethical reflection to foster environmental responsibility. 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.

Teaching Sustainability in a Study Abroad Course
Lori Troxel, Vanderbilt University
An academic essay page detailing a structural engineering professor's interdisciplinary study abroad course on sustainable buildings in Northern Ireland, covering topics such as energy efficiency, retrofitting housing, tidal and wave energy, policy impacts from the Kyoto treaty, and challenges in teaching sustainability across disciplines. 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 in Geosciences in a Liberal Arts Curriculum
Jeff Walker, Vassar College
An academic essay page discussing the integration of sustainability into geoscience education within liberal arts colleges, emphasizing interdisciplinary teaching, systems thinking, waste management, and field-based learning to foster sustainability-conscious curricula. 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.

How do we teach the science of sustainability?
Noah Snyder, Boston College
This webpage is an essay within an educational collection exploring sustainability in geoscience education, specifically addressing how to integrate sustainability science into curricula while balancing interdisciplinary approaches and avoiding advocacy, authored by Noah Snyder for a 2012 InTeGrate workshop. 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.

Keeping it lively: Incorporating readings, research, films, speakers, and writing into sustainability courses
Katherine Straub, Susquehanna University
This essay collection page presents educator Katherine Straub's pedagogical strategies for teaching sustainability in interdisciplinary geoscience courses, emphasizing diverse readings, documentary films, guest speakers, experiential learning, and extensive writing assignments to enhance student engagement and critical thinking. 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
Derek Larson, Environmental Studies, The College of St. Benedict/St. John's University Our environmental studies department was created 20 years ago with the specific intention of interdisciplinarity in its ...

One economist's approach to interdisciplinary teaching and exploration of sustainability
Morris Coats, Nicholls State University
Morris Coats, Management, Marketing and Business Administration, Nicholls State University "The Theory of Economics does not furnish a body of settled conclusions immediately applicable to policy. It is a ...

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.