General Education Design

Sustainability Pathway

General Education Mission

The GE program at Chico State prepares students for continual learning and application of knowledge to career as well as personal life.

It provides the education necessary for success as a lifelong learner and civically engaged individual in the twenty-first century.

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Strategy of General Education

Chico State students acquire a strong foundation in critical thinking, written and oral communication and the arts and sciences through inquiry about and engagement with the social and natural worlds we inhabit. This is achieved through study, reflection, synthesis and

action related to knowledge from varied historical, cultural, scientific and political perspectives.

In combination with the major field of study, GE completes the breadth of university education

Re-Visioning General Education at CSU-Chico

Guiding Questions:

1) What should be the mission and purpose of General Education at CSU,Chico?

2) What on campus do we already do that is consistent with that mission and purpose?

3) What further steps do we need to take to achieve our goals for GE?

4) What skills and knowledge do students need in the 21st century?

Student Learning OutcomesAdditional Student Learning Outcomes arise

from the values that the program seeks to foster

• Active Inquiry• Personal and Social Responsibility • Sustainability• Creativity.• Global Engagement

1. Oral Communication: Demonstrates effective listening and speaking skills necessary to organize information and deliver it effectively to the intended audience.

2. Written Communication: Demonstrates the ability to question, investigate and draw well-reasoned conclusions and to formulate ideas through effective written communication appropriate to the intended audience.

3. Critical Thinking: Identifies issues and problems raised in written texts, visual media and other forms of discourse, and assesses the relevance, adequacy and credibility of arguments and evidence used in reaching conclusions.

4. Mathematical Reasoning: Demonstrates knowledge of and applies mathematical or

statistical methods to describe, analyze and solve problems in context.

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Curricular Organization General education curriculum will have a

total of 57 units of course work. These units will be distributed between:

Foundation courses…….. 18 units

American Institutions…….. 6 units

Lower Division Breath…….24 units

Upper Division Breath……... 9units

Core GE CoursesFoundation Courses

18 units Oral Communication Written Communication Critical Thinking Mathematics Physical Sciences Life Sciences

American Institutions6 units

US History US Constitution, California

State and Local Government

Breadth Pathways and Minors Pathways

Definition: A Pathway connects courses structurally in an intellectually cohesive course of study that explores an issue or area from a multidisciplinary perspective.

Pathways must be broad enough to include different disciplines and narrow enough to maintain thematic cohesion.

Lower Division Breath CoursesPathway will consist of 24 units or 8 courses 3 Arts and Humanities 3 Social Science 1 Science 1 Lifelong Learning

Upper Division Breath Courses9 Units at 300-level

One each from: Arts/Humanities Social Sciences Natural Sciences

Students must choose 1 Pathway for the completion of the upper division units

One course will be the designated writing intensive capstone course.

With the option of an integrated Capstone Course

Proposed Pathwayshttp://www.csuchico.edu/ge/ge_implent_team/pathway_proposals.shtml Conflict and Cooperation

Studies Ethics, Justice and Social

Policy Food Global Development

Studies Great Books and Ideas Health and Wellness Human Diversity and

Inclusion International Studies

Leadership Mind-Brain Studies Mindfulness, Self, and

Society Natural and Cultural

Diversity and Evolution Peace and Conflict Studies Science, Technologies and

Values Sexuality and Gender Sustainability Visual Media Pathway

Sustainability Pathway

University’s 6th Strategic Priority

Believing that each generation owes something to those which follow, we will create environmentally literate citizens, who embrace sustainability as a way of living. We will be wise stewards of scarce resources and, in seeking to develop the whole person, be aware that our individual and collective actions have economic, social, and environmental consequences locally, regionally, and globally.

We are faced with the need to solve a set of complex and interrelated problems all of which deal with the question of how to create sustainable ecosystems, sustainable economies, and healthy and viable communities.

It is now widely recognized by that human culture, social, economic, and political life cannot be separated from natural systems

All disciplines have something to contribute to the discussion of sustainability.

Educating for sustainability requires us to create a new curriculum

One that prepares our students to critically evaluate our cultural choices in light of the myriad interactions of art, science, politics and economies, not simply to study them in isolation.

To prepare citizens that carry the basic beliefs, value systems and experiences into the world inspired by during their years at Chico State.

Our goal is to develop a curriculum that emphasizes the need for a systems approach to help students understand and to solve a set of problems involving the biosphere, human institutions, and the economy.

Academic Departments

Agriculture Anthropology Biological Sciences Business Economics Education Engineering

English Geography and Planning Environmental Sciences History Philosophy Political Science Science Education Sociology Theater

Student Support

Student Interest Survey Spring 2008

Student Conversion Café October 2009

Student Focus Group on GE Pathways Spring 2010

Student Petition September 2010

Framework for Student Learning Outcomes

1. To appreciate the dynamics between environmental, economic, and social systems.

2.  Recognize the physical attributes, basic functioning, and potential limits of planetary ecosystems.

3. To understand that sustainable economic development and social systems stabilities are dependent on ecosystems goods and services.

4. To realize that humans are integral parts of the natural world and are not separate from it.

5. To be aware that for societies to be vital, they must maintain healthy ecosystems and create strong and just economic systems.

6. To comprehend that social justice cannot be achieved separately from economic prosperity and the health of the environment.

7. To know and value the basic principles of environmental ethics

8. To be able to articulate how our relationship to the natural world has been shaped historically by our political, economic, and social systems.

9. To synthesize an understanding of how the natural world has shaped our political, social, and economic systems.

Communications Course

  Students will understand their roles as decision

makers and ability to influence complex ecological systems.

Students will evaluate and articulate the impact of various printing technologies on the environment.

Students will interpret and project the evolution of printed communications.

Students will appreciate the value of sustainable design practices

Students will apply their knowledge of sustainable printing technologies through the implementation of self-initiated communication design projects.

Students will develop a critical attitude toward discovering effective solutions for complex multivariate problems.

Natural Sciences

Students will understand the personal, social, and economic importance of natural resources for all citizens, and be able to describe how individuals and groups establish and express their environmental values.

Students will understand the availability and scarcity of specific natural resources in the United States and globally.

Students will be able to investigate practices and critical issues in managing natural resources to meet current and future user demands.

Students will be able to explain the “missions” of natural resources agencies, the resources they manage, their historical evolution, current issues, and their importance in the environmental policy arena.

Students will understand and be able to utilize the channels through which enlightened citizens can provide effective public input in to natural resources management decisions.

Students will develop a perspective on historical and current principles and practices of natural resources management, identifying why certain practices cause controversy, and how these issues are approached in the citizen participatory political arena.

Students will understand basic principles of “multiple use” natural resource management, and “ecosystem management”, and the various social and environmental impacts of alternative management strategies.

 

Cross Cultural Environmental Ethics

Students can explain how religious world views help shape human understandings of and interactions with nature and the natural environment (relates to “interconnectivity” and “plurality of world views” from the broader theme goals)

Students can define and explain key concepts in the environmental ethics such as anthropocentrism, biocentrism, deep ecology, eco-feminism, etc (relates to “common vocabulary” from the theme goals).

Students can articulate the way religious perspectives can help contribute to the creation of a more sustainable society.

Students can write clear and well-constructed essays that demonstrate their knowledge of course content.

Philosophy

Students will understand, compare, and critically evaluate both the philosophical foundations of traditional and contemporary American Indian and contemporary Western environmental ethical thought.

Students will understand the role that ethnic, racial, and social relations and identities play in the formation of an informed environmental ethic.

Students will incorporate knowledge from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities into their better understanding of the environment and the world.

Students will become familiar with and able to use ethical concepts in thinking about moral environmental conflicts.

 

History

To provide students with an understanding of the many ways that human-beings have interacted with the natural world and the effects they have had upon it.

To allow students to explore different ideas about the natural world as they have been applied in social, political, and economic relationships over time.

To help students to define significant themes of environmental history and to fit these into a chronological, geographical, and cultural context in order to discern general patterns of change from 1492 C.E. to the 21st century.

To introduce students to the various research approaches and techniques that environmental historians use including narrative sources, social scientific writings, archeology, demography, environmental studies, and so on.

To introduce students to the historian’s craft. To teach them the different problems of evaluating primary and secondary evidence, to remain alive to cultural and temporal contexts, to become aware of the techniques and sources materials historians can utilize to create and verify interpretations of the past.

The envisioned curriculum will intentionally integrate the natural and social sciences, engineering, economics, and humanities into a central theme of sustainability.