Download Grand Challenge Application Criteria for Grand Challenge courses

Grand Challenge Application
Criteria for Grand Challenge courses
Inclusion of complex issues of contemporary significance.
Course addresses areas of contemporary significance including,
but not limited to: multiculturalism and diversity, economy,
climate change, peace and nonviolence, health, renewable energy,
social media, international policy, entrepreneurship,
sustainability, social justice, and emerging technologies.
Consistent with the objectives of general education, grand
challenge courses provide students the opportunity to explore,
question, and wrestle with the current and complex issues of our
world.
Interdisciplinary approach. Interdisciplinary study draws on
disciplinary perspectives and integrates their insights to produce a
comprehensive understanding. It is a process of answering questions,
solving problems, or addressing topics that are too broad or complex
to be dealt with adequately by a single discipline. There are two
possible ways for your grand challenge course to meet this expectation:
(1) providing evidence that throughout the course at least two disciplinary
perspectives are sustained; in assignments, activities, and/or experiences,
students should demonstrate that they can make interdisciplinary
connections as they engage with the complex issue; or (2) teaching with
one or more faculty from different disciplines.
Please explain how your course will meet each of the criteria
This course focuses on sustainability in agriculture and food
systems. Food system sustainability is an issue of high
significance in today’s society. Students will be asked to
examine their own role(s) in the food system – as eaters, as
shoppers, and as potential producers or policy setters – and the
sustainability of their decisions. At the same time, students will
gain an understanding of the larger realities that constrain food
systems, both historically and in the present, with the goal of
equipping them to not only think big, but implement their ideas.
Agriculture is itself interdisciplinary, and the instructional team for this
course includes faculty from the separate disciplines of plant science and
fisheries science. Guest lecturers from sociology, nutrition, and animal
science will further expand the disciplinary breadth of this course. In
addition, the readings and other course material present the perspectives
of historians, philosophers, and sociologists. These perspectives will
complement the instructors’ perspectives as agricultural producers.
Recognition and application of ethical principles. Course presents
the ethical challenges associated with the issue and provides
students with the skills to recognize such challenges as well as
apply ethical concepts/frameworks in considering the ramifications
of alternative actions.
Sustainability is largely a matter of ethics. Throughout the
course students will wrestle with the ethical challenges of
balancing environmental, economic, and social sustainability in
regards to food choices. Students will be encouraged to
consider the sustainability of their own decisions and actions,
and will gain sufficient understanding to meaningfully evaluate
sustainability claims made by others.