Interdisciplinary Teaching: Building Sustainability into your Non-Science Class

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

1:00 pm Pacific | 2:00 pm Mountain | 3:00 pm Central | 4:00 pm Eastern

Presenters: Jennifer Sliko (Penn State Harrisburg), Jennifer Hanselman, (Westfield State University), Ed Barbanell, (University of Utah)

This webinar is part of a series supporting teaching with InTeGrate principles, using InTeGrate-developed and curated materials as tools.

Summary

This webinar will provide an opportunity to hear from geoscience faculty who connect learning about the Earth to issues of sustainability in their courses (more information on teaching sustainability). Jennifer Hanselman and Jennifer Sliko are authors of the InTeGrate module: Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts that uses climate change literature to introduce climate change science to humanities students. Jennifer Sliko is also part of the Pennsylvania State Implementation Program that is using InTeGrate materials to introduce sustainability across the system. Ed Barbanell, a faculty member in philosophy, will discuss how he introduces water resources science in his course Hydrotopia: Toward a Hydraulic Society in the American West. Participants will experience how scientific data and principles can be introduced into humanities courses, and how science and engineering students can become more comfortable discussing philosophical issues. The webinar will include several interactive sessions focused on specific teaching strategies and will provide opportunities for discussion.

Goals:

At the end of this webinar, participants will have

• new strategies for teaching about sustainability across the curriculum
• strategies for communicating science to non-science students and concepts from the humanities to science students
• be familiar with InTeGrate teaching principles and resources
• new colleagues engaged in this work

Logistics

Time - 1:00 pm Pacific | 2:00 pm Mountain | 3:00 pm Central | 4:00 pm Eastern
Duration - 1 hour
Format - Online web presentation via Adobe Connect web conference software with questions and discussion. To join the webinar, please visit: http://serc.adobeconnect.com/integrate/ and follow the prompts.

Registration - Registration for this webinar is closed.
Preparation - There is no advance preparation required for this webinar.

Please email Alice Newman (anewman AT carleton.edu) if you have any questions about this event.

Presenters

Jennifer Sliko, Civil Engineering, Penn State Harrisburg.

Jennifer Hanselman, Biology, Westfield State University.

Ed Barbanell, Philosophy, University of Utah.

Program

To download the full slideshow of the webinar, please click here (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 8.3MB Mar9 16)

1) Welcome and introductory remarks - Alice Newman, SERC staff

• Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts module - Jennifer Hanselman

2) Systems thinking: Using mind maps/concept webs in class - Jennifer Hanselman

• Example of climate change mind map from Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts module - Jennifer Sliko

3) "Definition of sustainability" mind map activity - Ed Barbanell

• Using multiple lenses to teach sustainability
• Example of water mind map from Hydrotopia: Toward a Hydraulic Society in the American West course

Q & A

4) Teaching scientific concepts using literature (via the rhetorical analyses) - Jennifer Sliko

5) Reflections

• Teaching education graduate students with the Cli-Fi module- Jennifer Hanselman
• Co-teaching with a STEM colleague - Ed Barbanell
• Teaching a general education science class - Jennifer Sliko

Q & A

7) Synthetic remarks

The conveners will reflect on the chat and each provide a synthetic remark. The chat and final remarks will be discussed further in the Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts Interest Group. This online interest group is aimed at providing you with a platform for continuing discussion and exchanging ideas with your new colleagues, and/or asking questions about the course and module we discussed today.

8) Opportunities for further interaction – Alice Newman

9) Webinar Evaluation

Resources

• Teaching About Sustainability
• Hydrotopia: Toward a Hydraulic Society in the American West is part of a larger Collection of Sustainability Courses
• Mind map/Concept map resources:
• Mind map activity YouTube video
• SERC's Teaching Entry Level Geoscience: Developing concept maps resource page
• Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition Concept Maps page
• Novak, Joseph D., and Cañas, Alberto J. 2008. The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them. Technical Report IHMV CmapTools 2006-01 Rev 01-2008. Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition
• Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts module
• Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts Interest Group
• InTeGrate Strategies for Teaching about Science and Sustainability
• Why Link Together Learning about the Earth and Sustainability?