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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

How Should We Teach 'Sustainability Science'?
Tracey Holloway, University of Wisconsin-Madison
This webpage is an academic essay discussing interdisciplinary approaches to teaching sustainability science at the undergraduate level, emphasizing solutions-oriented thinking, systems dynamics, quantitative literacy, and course design strategies to engage students in sustainability 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 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.

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.

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.

Integrating sustainability in its social context
Pablo Toral, Beloit College
An academic essay page from the InTeGrate project discussing interdisciplinary integration of sustainability within social contexts, emphasizing peer learning across disciplines like political science, economics, and ethics in environmental studies 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.

Sustainability Education within an Earth Science Course at a Small Liberal Arts Institution
Becca Edwards, Southwestern University
This webpage is an academic essay detailing the integration of sustainability education into an Earth Science course at a small liberal arts college, emphasizing interdisciplinary teaching methods, student engagement with environmental policy, and the development of scientifically informed civic decision-making among non-science majors. 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.

Sustainability: Teaching for a Moving Target
Julie Maxson, Metropolitan State University
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the challenges and evolution of teaching sustainability in higher education, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches, climate change impacts, and the need for solution-oriented, systems-based curricula amid institutional resistance to environmental 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.

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.

Productive sustainability discourse through insisting on diverse perspectives
Hitesh Soneji, City College of San Francisco
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the importance of fostering interdisciplinary sustainability education by intentionally incorporating diverse student perspectives and multiple disciplinary viewpoints to avoid groupthink and enrich discourse. 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.