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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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.

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.

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.

Sustainability in an Oceanography Course
Katryn Wiese, City College of San Francisco
A pedagogical essay page detailing how sustainability is integrated into an oceanography course through interdisciplinary case studies, local environmental data labs, and active learning strategies to foster student engagement and real-world application. 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.

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.

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.

Eating for a Healthy You and a Sustainable Planet
Benjamin Cuker, Hampton University
This essay page details an interdisciplinary honors seminar on sustainable and healthy eating, covering course design, active learning strategies, student projects, and connections between nutrition, environmental science, and social justice within 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.

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.

Teaching Approaches for Sustainability Education
Bruno Borsari, Winona State University
This webpage is an academic essay discussing a sustainability education model centered on ecology, evolution, and ethics, advocating for systems thinking, hands-on learning, and interdisciplinary integration to foster ecological literacy and transformative, humility-based 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Crossing Disciplinary Borders for Sustainability Education
Ellen Metzger, San Jose State University
This essay page details an interdisciplinary approach to sustainability education, describing collaborations across geology, philosophy, and education to develop sustainability-themed courses and teacher workshops grounded in Earth system science and societal 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.

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.

One economist's approach to interdisciplinary teaching and exploration of sustainability
Morris Coats, Nicholls State University
An essay page from the InTeGrate project, authored by economist Morris Coats, discussing interdisciplinary teaching methods that integrate economic principles—such as scarcity, institutional incentives, and behavioral analysis—with sustainability education, emphasizing connections to geoscience, societal systems, and resource management. 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.