Transforming Education for Sustainability

This book investigates how educators and researchers in the sciences, social sciences, and the arts, connect concepts of sustainability to work in their fields of study and in the classrooms where they teach the next generation. Sustainability, with a focus on justice, authenticity and inclusivity, can be integrated into many different courses or disciplines even if it is beyond their historical focus. The narratives describe sustainability education in the classroom, the laboratory, and the field (broadly defined) and how the authors navigate the complexities of particular sustainability issues, such as climate change, water quality, soil health, biodiversity, resource use, and education in authentic ways that convey their complexity, the sociopolitical context, and their hopes for the future. The chapters explore how faculty engage students in learning about sustainability and the ways in which working at the edge of what we know about sustainability can be a significant source ofengagement, motivation, and challenge. The authors discuss how they create learning experiences that foster democratic practices in which students are not just following protocols, but have a stake in creative decision-making, collecting and analysing data, and posing authentic questions. They also describe what happens when students are not just passively receiving information, but actively analysing, debating, dialoguing, arguing from evidence, and constructing nuanced understandings of complex socioscientific sustainability issues. The narratives include undergraduate student perspectives on what it means to engage in sustainability research and learning, how students navigate the complexities and contradictions inherent in sustainability issues, what makes for authentic, empowering learning experiences, and how students are encouraged to persevere in the field.

This is an open access book.

Shares student voices that highlight students' perspectives on sustainability Provides a framework for integrating sustainability Presents examples from non-science fields, such as theater This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access

Auteur
María S. Rivera Maulucci joined the faculty at Barnard College in 2004 and is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Education. Prior to Barnard, she served as Director of the Science & Technology Professional Development Center for Region One in the Bronx and as the Director of Urban Forestry for the Environmental Action Coalition. Her expertise in STEM pedagogy and teacher education draws on 16 years of teaching mathematics, science, and technology at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels. She has worked with both school and community-based education programs. Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on how inservice and preservice teachers learn to teach for social justice, particularly in STEM fields, and the role of language, identity, and emotions in teacher development. Professor Rivera was the Principal Investigator for the Barnard Noyce Teacher Education Scholars Program (BNTSP) and Co-PI for the Summer STEM Teaching Experiences for Undergraduates Program, both funded by the National Science Foundation. She is currently the Co-PI for a Carnegie Foundation grant, Joint Barnard-American Museum of Natural History Summer STEM Teaching Experiences for Undergraduates, a project that provides STEM pedagogical training for undergraduates who teach math and science summer enrichment courses for high school youth. She has served on the Board of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) and on the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Cultural Studies of Science Education. She has been a strong supporter of diversity, inclusion, and sustainability initiatives at the college and in professional organizations, including NARST and the Association for Science Teacher Education.

Stephanie Pfirman is a Foundation Professor at the School of Sustainability and a Senior Sustainability Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation at Arizona State University. Before joining ASU in 2018, Pfirman was Hirschorn Professor of Environmental and Applied Sciences and co-Chair of the Department of Environmental Science at Barnard College. She held a joint appointment with Columbia University's Earth Institute and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences as an Adjunct Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Pfirman focuses on understanding and responding to the changing Arctic, developing innovative approaches to formal and informal education, and exploring the intersection between diversity and interdisciplinarity. Pfirman's Arctic research addresses implications of changes in sea ice origin, drift, and melt patterns, including defining the Last Ice Area, recently established as a protected area by Canada. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As a former co-PI of a National Science Foundation Advancing Women in the Sciences (ADVANCE) grant, past President of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, and Chair of the Columbia Earth Institute's Faculty Development Committee, Pfirman has helped to understand and foster the career trajectories of women and interdisciplinary scholars. Pfirman co-designed EcoChains: Arctic Life, a card-game that earned a Parent's Choice award. A longtime advocate for action on climate change, as a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, Pfirman co-developed one of the first climate change exhibitions, "Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast," produced jointly with the American Museum of Natural History.

Hilary S. Callahan, an Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Biology, joined the faculty at Barnard College in 1999 and today serves as department chair and directs the A

Contenu

Introduction.- Part I: Framing and reframing sustainability.- Chapter 1. Sustainability, research, and the undergraduate science curriculum (Maria S. Rivera Maulucci).- Chapter 2. Ecology's White nationalism problem (Ralph Ghoche, Unyimeabasi Udoh).- Part II: Environmental justice and the undergraduate science curriculum.- Chapter 3. Teaching chemistry in context: Environmental lead exposure quantification and interpretation (Rachel Narehood Austin).- Chapter 4. What does cell biology have to do with saving pollinators? (Jonathan Snow).- Chapter 5. Finding the most important places on Earth for birds (Terryanne Maenza-Gmelch).- Chapter 6. Brownfield action: A web-based active learning simulation (Peter Bower).- Part III: Undergraduate students, sustainability, and health in the urban environment.- Chapter 7. What We Make and What We Use: Environmental Impacts of Reuse in Design and Production (Sandra Goldmark).- Chapter 8. It turned into a BioBlitz: urban data collection for understanding and connection (Kelly O'Donnell).- Chapter 9. Going up: Incorporating the local ecology of New York City green infrastructure into biology laboratory courses (Matthew Rhodes).- Chapter 10. The everyday action project: Teaching hygiene through art (Emma Ruskin).- Part IV: Climate change, politics, students, and the undergraduate curriculum.- Chapter 11. Perspectives on teaching climate change: Two decades of evolving approaches (Stephanie Pfirman).- Chapter 12. Moved to teach beyond political and geographic polarization (Deborah Becher).- Chapter 13. Volcanoes, climate change, and society (Sedelia Rodriguez).- Chapter 14. Teaching about climate change from an astronomical perspective (Laura Kay).- Chapter 15. Barnard's fossil fuel divestment decision: Aligning endowments with institutional values (Robert Goldberg).- Part V. Ecojustice pedagogies and enhancing college access.- Chapter 16. The UNPAK project: fostering friendships in science (Hil…