Rick Oches
Natural & Applied Sciences
Bentley University
Eric (Rick) Oches is Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Geology and Environmental Sciences at Bentley University. My teaching and research interests focus on environmental sustainability and public policy to foster a more sustainable future in the context of population growth, increasing natural resource consumption, environmental degradation, and global climate change. Over the last few years, my academic interests increasingly center on Earth and environmental science education for non-STEM students to foster improved science literacy. In collaboration with colleagues at Bentley University, Northern Illinois University and Wittenberg University, as well as partnerships with SERC and Oregon State Universtiy, we were recently awarded a 5-year NSF-IUSE ICT grant, Collaborative Research: Broadening the Fusion of STEM and Business Curricula in Undergraduate Sustainability Education, with the goal to enhance students’ abilities to address “wicked problems” in sustainability while developing faculty cultures of collaborative, transdisciplinary curriculum design. (https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1914906&HistoricalAwards=false)
Website Content Contributions
Course Modules (6)
Unit 2: Communicating Climate 1: The Science of Climate Change part of Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts
Using climate data, students develop a graph and present the results in a blog, emphasizing effective scientific communication. Students work individually or in teams to graph, describe, and explain the data sets ...
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Conference Presentations (4)
A Curricular Approach to Facilitating Transdisciplinary Thinking about Sustainability part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2023:Program:Poster Sessions:Friday Poster Session
Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development goals requires educating a citizenry who can undertake the wicked problems of sustainability from multiple disciplinary perspectives. It requires curricular ...
Other Contributions (2)
A New Model for Transdisciplinary Curriculum Development in Higher Education Using the Wicked Problems of Sustainability part of Transforming Institutions Conference 2023:Program:Presentations:Session H
A scientifically literate citizenry is essential to meet the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and ensure that the U.S. remains economically competitive in an increasingly resource-constrained society. Yet neither ...
Teaching Sustainability and the Environment Within and Across Disciplines part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2016:Program:Morning Workshops:Sustainability
Sustainability challenges are often "wicked problems" that require a transdisciplinary approach to adequately define and understand. As such, teaching sustainability requires faculty to teach outside of ...
Communities
July 2016 Earth Educators Rendezvous 2015
July 2015 Teach the Earth
Cli-Fi: Climate Science in Literary Texts Interest Group
NAGT All
Workshop Leader
July 2016InTeGrate Sustainability Courses Workshop July 2012
July 2012