Rebecca Boger: Using Food Security in Introduction to Urban Sustainability at CUNY Brooklyn College part of The Wicked Problem of Global Food Security
My course is an introduction to urban sustainability that integrates materials from environmental science, sociology and economics. As a relatively new course, I have been learning about what works or doesn't work each time I teach it. From the onset, the course was designed around two-week units pertaining to sustainability topics (e.g., water, transportation, housing). A few years ago, I took a Team Based Learning (TBL) workshop. While the course structure doesn't totally fit within the TBL design, I do apply many of the elements, such as having students work in teams throughout the semester, giving quizzes at the beginning of each unit so that students do the reading and come prepared to learn more deeply about a subject, and more application activities and fewer lectures. One of the course units is food and so the food security module was a perfect fit for the course, both in content and structure.

Game Assignment for Environmental Economics part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences:Activities
Game Assigment for Environmental Economics and Sustainability

Unit 2: Water Footprints part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
Unit 2 opens a window into water accounting and reveals intensive water use that few people think about. How much water goes into common commodities? Have you considered how much water it takes to support our ...

One day it is too hot and other days it is too cold. Do we need to replace the HVAC system? part of SISL:2012 Sustainability in Math Workshop:Activities
This project will allow students to create a mathematical model to help in making decision about replacing HVAC units on a large scale.

Sustainable Solutions for an Aging Population part of Curriculum for the Bioregion:Activities
This activity will help students develop an understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of the lifespan, and in particular of the aging process; and, to further develop their ability to think long-term and multi-dimensionally as they apply anthropological concepts and approaches to a current issue in American society.

Financial Incentives of Open Access Resource Overuse part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences:Activities
In this activiy when property rights are absent participants have financial incentive to take what they can get immediatly as opposed to waiting until the resource is more valuable. Adding strong property rights provides the proper finanacial incentives for students to wait to extract the resource when it is most valuable.

Regulating Carbon Emissions part of Regulating Carbon Emissions
In this 3+ week module, students will experience the integration of climate science, economics, and law in the formulation of federal policy to address climate change. The module is interdisciplinary and ...

Afghan Poppies, Climate Change and War: Thinking Systemically About Us and Them part of Curriculum for the Bioregion:Activities
This contemplative practice inquires into the complex web of interdependencies linking global climate change, the War on Terror, Afghan poppy production, opiate addiction, and food security through the lens of systems theory. The exercise challenges students to consider these linkages not only conceptually but also somatically and emotionally.

Problem-Solving: Where to Put the Poop part of Curriculum for the Bioregion:Activities

Unit 3: Crops and Irrigation Patterns in the United States part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
This unit is designed to allow students to quantitatively assess how much water is used for irrigating crops and how this varies across the United States. This unit also has students link water use to the economic ...