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.

Skip to search results Skip to text search form Skip to pagination

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Sustainability Challenge in the Classroom
Tim Lutz, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
This webpage is an academic essay discussing the pedagogical challenge of teaching sustainability by transcending disciplinary boundaries, emphasizing interconnectedness, experiential learning, and transformative education to address systemic unsustainability 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.