A Framework for Integrating Sustainability Education,

Research, Engagement, and Operations through Experiential

Learning

Barbara S. Minsker, Professor and Associate Provost Fellow for Sustainability

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaignminsker@illinois.edu

Acknowledgments

• Brian Anderson• Suhail Barot• Val Beasley• Hans Blaschek• Brian Deal• Gale Fulton• Praveen Kumar

• Robert McKim• Jesse Ribot• Bill Stewart• Madhu Viswanathan• Michelle Wander• Dick Warner• Carl Wegel

• Funding provided by U of Illinois (Office of Provost, Office of Sustainability, Institute for Advanced Computing Applications & Technologies) and Microsoft Research

• Hundreds of faculty, staff, and students from across Illinois contributed to this presentation.

• The ideas of the following individuals were particularly influential in shaping the Illinois vision & implementation:

Objective of the Illinois Sustainability Vision• Become a world leader in creating new

knowledge and innovative solutions to the following grand challenges:

1. Maintaining or restoring critical ecosystem function while providing essential human services; and

2. Sustainably raising quality of life for the poor to acceptable levels.

• To do so, we will infuse sustainability programs across campus to foster a level of cross-disciplinary engagement comparable to a unit or center.

2010-11 Illinois Sustainability Implementation Plan

• Sustainability Collaboratives

• Campus Engagement• Assess and Adapt

• Improved Marketing Efforts

• Identify Opportunities for Shared Investment

• Sustainability Education Outcomes

• Course Development• Teaching Academies• Scholarship of

Sustainability Series

• Climate Action Plan• Process Improvement• Policies & Incentives• Sustainability Week

Operations Curriculum

Build Capacity

Raise Visibility

Four-Step Approach to Education

1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development

2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs

3. Develop programs to support sustainability curriculum development and fill gaps

4. Create experiential learning sites (living laboratories)

Overall Goal: Create campus-level structures that enable grassroots infusion of sustainability across the curriculum so that every Illinois student meets the education outcomes.

http://sustainability.illinois.edu/SETF-LO.html

Sustainability Outcomes

Four-Step Approach to Education

1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development

2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs

3. Develop programs to support sustainability curriculum development and fill gaps

4. Create experiential learning sites (living laboratories)

Online Course Inventory

Mapped General Education Course Options to Sustainability Outcomes & Approaches

Inventoried Sustainability-Related Majors and Minors

• Impressive breadth of program offerings– 8 undergraduate majors– 5 undergraduate minors– 6 graduate majors– 1 graduate minor– 3 certificates

• Not all programs highlight “sustainability” yet connect directly to learning outcomes

Four-Step Approach to Education

1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development

2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs

3. Develop programs to support sustainability curriculum development and fill gaps• Social dimension• Full integration of social, economic,

environmental dimensions4. Create experiential learning sites (living

laboratories)

Scholarship of Sustainability Serieshttp://sustainability.illinois.edu/scholarship.html

• Reading & debating seminal sustainability literature

• Public discussions linked to disciplinary courses across campus

• Videotaped and archived for future courses• Engaged hundreds of students, faculty, staff,

& community members in Spring 2010 and 2011

Prairie Project: Infusing Sustainability Across the Curriculumhttp://sustainability.illinois.edu/prairieproject.html

• Modeled after AASHE national curriculum workshops, but added greater curriculum focus in 2nd offering

• May: 2-day hands-on curriculum retreat with faculty & resource experts (curriculum & experienced faculty from multiple disciplines)• Brainstorm ideas and define initial

plans• Follow up reviews and discussion

over summer• January: Follow-up debriefing &

brainstorming lunches

Prairie Project Improvements• More hands-on curriculum development

• Engaging sample teaching activities• Curriculum and topic advisors work hand-in-hand

with instructors• Plans for education goals, activities, and

assessment submitted by end of retreat• Invited participation in Illinois Climate Action Plan

activities: • Facilities & Services• Student Sustainability Committee

• Celebrated successes – reception with Provost Wheeler presenting certificates of completion

Participant Evaluations, 2010 vs 2011

1 2 3 4 502468

101214

The retreat aided me in shaping the course I proposed

20102011

Rating

# of Participants

Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 502468

101214

The retreat met my expectations

20102011

Rating

# of Participants

Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 502468

101214

I would recommend this program to colleagues next year

20102011

Rating

# of Participants

Strongly Disagree

Strongly Agree

Prairie Project: Next Steps

• First cohorts of 35 instructors in 2010-12 will reach 6,500 students/yr• Goal: Scale up to 60 faculty/year (reach 20% of

3,000 faculty in 10 yrs for institutional transformation)

• Need to engage more faculty and administrators through: • College- and department-level workshops and

presentations• Sustainability Education Summit for Department

Heads and Deans• Who should spearhead this work in the future?

• Office of Provost and Center for Teaching Excellence do not provide topic-specific education support, yet they have expertise and contacts needed for success

Four-Step Approach to Education

1. Create sustainability education outcomes as a guide for curriculum development

2. Inventory and disseminate existing courses & programs

3. Develop the Prairie Project, a sustainability curriculum development program

4. Create experiential learning sites (living laboratories)

Experiential Learning Sites (Living Laboratories)• Enable synergistic research, education, engagement, &

operations on campus & in regional & global communities:• Long-term partnerships & infrastructure that

support hands-on learning on real-world problems• Multiple classes interact, supported by advanced

information systems:• Synthesizing:

• Citizen & embedded sensing data• Models• Documents and other information

• Social networking• Digital observatories • Decision dashboards

Fluxes:CO2 H2O

S

Meteorology:wind

Air TemperatureNet radiation

HumidityCanopy Temp

PAR

Fluxes:N2OCH4

CO2

Soil:Heat flux

Temperature (to 1 m)Moisture (to 1 m)

Photos:phenology

Instrumented field drainsSource: Energy Biosciences Institute

Energy Farm Site

Digital Observatory for Upper Embarras Watershed

Marketing and Management in Subsistence Marketplaces

Consumption and Entrepreneurship Across Literacy and Resource Barriers

Literacy, Poverty, Cultureand Psychology

Consumer and Entrepreneurial Literacy Program

- India

Nutrition Education Materials - USA

Sustainable Prod. & Mkt. Dev. forSubsistence Marketplaces

Social Initiatives

Research

Sustainable Businesses for Subsistence Marketplaces

Teaching

Sustainable Marketing Enterprises

Partnerships With Communities & Industries

Source: Madhu Viswanathan

Experiential Learning Sites (Cont’d.)• Emerging examples:

• Building Green Economies in Underserved Communities Through Student-Community Entrepreneur Teams – Illinois and India

• Industrial Agriculture to Feed and Fuel a Growing World Sustainably – South Farms experimental farm and Embarras Watershed

• Net-zero Energy Building for Electrical and Computer Engineering – Champaign

• Biofuels Living Laboratory – C-U campus• Sustainable watersheds, with Tsinghua U. – Beijing,

China• International Sustainable Development Studies

Institute expedition field courses in Thailand

Experiential Learning in Civil and Environmental Engineering

Learning objectives: Identify and evaluate connections between real-world engineering

solutions and the environment, society, and economy Analyze and recommend solutions to real-world sustainability

problems through a systems analysis approach

• Watershed case studies (Spring 2011): – Embarras River Basin (Illinois)– Shiyang River Basin (China, partnership with Tsinghua U.)

• Urban case study in Champaign-Urbana, IL (Fall 2011)

11.1 Global Education

Sustainability Education

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world. 

Nelson MandelaYou can never have an impact on society

if you have not changed yourself.  Nelson Mandela

Tell me, I'll forget.  Show me, I may remember.  But involve me and I'll understand. 

Chinese Proverb