Download Teranes - California Higher Education Sustainability Conference

UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative:
Faculty Curriculum Workshop and Networking
Event
Leveraging faculty expertise
to embed climate change across the curriculum
JANE TERANES
ASSOCIATE TEACHING FACULTY, SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY, UC SAN DIEGO
FACULTY DIRECTOR, ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS PROGRAM
SARA MCKINSTRY
SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR, UC SAN DIEGO
The Good News on Climate
Change
At COP-21, the international community made significant progress on binding
commitments to limit global greenhouse gas concentrations.
The scientific community continues to make remarkable progress in
understanding of the climate system and human-caused climate change.
◦ Higher Education Institutions in CA, including UC San Diego and Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, are leaders in understanding climate change and how it threatens our planet
California is a leading the nation in regulating greenhouse gas emissions.
◦ Reduce Emissions 40% Below 1990 Levels by 2030.
UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative:
◦ UC has committed to zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2025.
The Bad News – atmospheric
CO2 concentrations are still
increasing
CO2 concentrations in the
atmosphere continue to rise
because of high global CO2
emissions.
The Bad News –
global temperatures are still rising
Temperatures are at
least 1.0°C above the
pre-industrial average
What should higher education
institutions do about this?
 Continue to promote research on climate change sciences
and policies and support applied research to find solutions.
 Campuses should lead in sustainability and climate solutions
by making significant reductions in greenhouse emissions and
pledging to greater future reductions.
 Yet, it may be that where colleges and universities still have
the largest influence on combating climate change in the
near future is in the way that we educate students.
Approaches in interdisciplinary
environmental education
Interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability degree
programs.
Academic courses on sustainability and courses that include
topics of climate change and sustainability.
But is this enough?
There are still far too many students that graduate from our
campuses not understanding how to enact climate neutrality
in their future professions, within their communities, and
within their lifetimes.
Approaches in interdisciplinary
environmental education
Interdisciplinary environmental and sustainability degree
programs.
Academic courses on sustainability and courses that include
topics of climate change and sustainability.
Sustainability general education requirements (?)
Approaches that will infuse climate change and
sustainability education across the curriculum.
University of California - Faculty Curriculum Workshops
and Networking Events
Goal: Increase climate change and sustainability education especially targeting students
for whom sustainability may not be a focus.
Program: Funding across the UC system for workshops and networking to support faculty
across disciplines who want to infuse relevant climate change or sustainability concepts
into their courses.
Outcomes:
• Curriculum Workshops for 20 faculty/campus on all UC campuses, Spring 2016
• Networking Events, to be held in Fall 2016
• Online Climate and Sustainability Education Resource Library (CSERL) - An online portal
designed to share educational resources across campuses and disciplines
Workshop model:
20 faculty from a breadth of disciplines develop plans to infuse aspects
of climate change into existing undergraduate courses.
• Leverage faculty expertise to infuse climate change education across
disciplines
• Enhance UC San Diego students’ climate literacy, particularly for those
students whose major focus is not on sustainability topics.
• Provide support to non-specialist faculty in learning key climate
science concepts that underpin our understanding of climate change.
• Encourage modules of climate change content in courses in the
humanities, social sciences and arts that are best positioned to
address the important human and social dimensions of climate
change.
UC San Diego Workshop Results
Faculty Participants: 21 faculty participants from 19 different departments
Courses Represented:
 Faculty regularly teaching 27 different courses across campus.
 Most courses did not already contain sustainability/climate change content.
 Over two-thirds of the faculty participants regularly taught large
enrollment course (>200 students), and one-forth taught regularly taught
courses of over 300 students.
Future Outcomes:
 Each faculty participant prepares a lecture, assignment, module, lab etc. on
the topic of climate change that fits into their discipline and course.
 Content will be uploaded into a UC-wide online Climate and Sustainability
Education Resource Library (CSERL).
UC San Diego Workshop
Results
Number of Participants by Discipline
5
4
3
2
1
0
College Writing
Programs
Arts and
Humanities
Social Sciences
Physical
Sciences
Biological
Sciences
Engineering
Math
Resources –climate change
content geared for the
undergraduate level
http://www.camelclimatechange.org/
http://cleanet.org/index.html
Part of the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carlton College
Embedding climate change across
the curriculum: an example
The Course: A cross-listed, large enrollment, upper division course:
ESYS103/MAE124, Environmental Challenges
Student Enrollment: of the 270 students enrolled
 Approximately one-third Environmental Systems majors
 Approximately one-third Environmental Engineers
 Apprroximately one-third from other engineering majors
Course format:
 Lecture based technical course, with mid-term and final
 Weekly writing assignments that build critical thinking skills
 Research paper (3-4 pages)
Embedding climate change across
the curriculum: the research paper
Goal: Engage students with the UC Climate Neutrality Initiative.
Research Paper Prompt: “You have a $5 million budget to invest in helping
UC achieve its Carbon Neutrality Goals. Explain how you spend your
money, what is needed to implement your plan, and account for how your
plan reduced carbon emissions.”
Assignment requirements:
• A well-researched paper with citations in peer-reviewed literature
• An explanation of the strategy/project that you have chosen to meet the UC
CNI goals.
• A detailed budget that describes the financial costs of your plan, including
eventual cost savings.
• The climate benefits of your plan. Include an evaluation of how many people
it will serve and consider the extent to which the action will help the
university reach our carbon neutrality goal.
Embedding climate change across
the curriculum: outcomes
A huge variety of project ideas: many projects promoting solar panels,
LED lighting, electric buses, biking infrastructure, and also additional fuel
cells.
 Also generated a variety of creative ideas: roof top gardens, projects to
sequester carbon, prototypes for wave energy, centers for promoting
innovation and education, and proposals that targeted behavior.
Generated some (appropriate) cynicism about the CNI.
Finally, there was general positive student response to the course and to
the paper assignment. Representative student comments include, “The
paper was the most fun part of the class. I did feel some ownership over
it.”
“All education is environmental
education”
“All education is environmental education – by what is
included or excluded we teach the young that they are part
of, or apart from , the natural world.”
-David Orr, author and environmental studies
professor at Oberlin College.