Stefanie Kring

Stefanie Kring: Using Climate of Change in Introduction to Environmental Sustainability at Clarkson University part of Integrate:Teaching for Sustainability:How the Community is Using InTeGrate Materials:Instructor Stories
Introduction to Environmental Sustainability (BY 115) is a course that is intended for non-science majors which provides a foundation in environmental science and sustainability. One of my goals for this course is for students to leave the course with a greater understanding of climate change, both natural and anthropogenic in origin. Many students have a basic understanding of climate change, but do not truly grasp the complexities. In this course, we begin with an overview of climate change, which allows students to relate it to other concepts presented thereafter (i.e. biogeochemical cycles, renewable energy, etc.). We then conclude the semester with a more in depth examination of climate change, which includes how it is monitored, long and short term climate variability, and impacts. This is the point in the semester when the Climate of Change module was implemented.