Learner-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies

Front Matter....Pages i-xx
Learner-Centered Teaching for Environmental and Sustainability Studies....Pages 1-28
Front Matter....Pages 29-29
Which Is Most Sustainable? Using Everyday Objects to Examine Trade-Offs Among the “Three Pillars” of Sustainability....Pages 31-36
An Introduction to Systems Thinking Using Plastic Dinosaurs....Pages 37-42
An Introductory Examination of Worldviews and Why They Matter for Environmental and Sustainability Studies....Pages 43-50
Building Resilience: Modeling Resilience Concepts Using Legos....Pages 51-56
Eco-crimes and Eco-redemptions: Discussing the Challenges and Opportunities of Personal Sustainability....Pages 57-64
Engaging with Complexity: Exploring the Terrain of Leadership for Sustainability....Pages 65-71
Discovering Authentic Hope: Helping Students Reflect on Learning and Living with Purpose....Pages 73-78
Teaching How Scientific Consensus Is Developed Through Simplified Meta-analysis of Peer-Reviewed Literature....Pages 79-86
Front Matter....Pages 87-87
Understanding Ecosystems and Their Services Through Apollo 13 and Bottle Models....Pages 89-96
Using Soil Organisms to Explore Ecosystem Functioning, Services, and Sustainability....Pages 97-103
Fire, Pollution, and Grazing: Oh My! A Game in Which Native and Invasive Plants Compete Under Multiple Disturbance Regimes....Pages 105-110
Exploring Trophic Cascades in Lake Food Webs with a Spreadsheet Model....Pages 111-115
Ants, Elephants, and Experimental Design: Understanding Science and Examining Connections Between Species Interactions and Ecosystem Processes....Pages 117-122
Teaching Lyme Disease Ecology Through a Primary Literature Jigsaw Activity....Pages 123-127
A Fishery Activity to Examine the Tragedy of the Common Goldfish Cracker....Pages 129-135
Making Biodiversity Stewardship Tangible Using a Place-Based Approach....Pages 137-141
Conservation Triage: Debating Which Species to Save and Why....Pages 143-148
Everything Cannot Be Equal: Ranking Priorities and Revealing Worldviews to Guide Watershed Management....Pages 149-154
Location, Location, Location! Analyzing Residential Development in Environmentally-Fragile Areas....Pages 155-162
Front Matter....Pages 163-163
Tasting Sustainability: Using Multisensory Activities to Retune Food Preferences....Pages 165-171
Relationships Between Consumption and Sustainability: Assessing the Effect of Life Cycle Costs on Market Price....Pages 173-180
Business Sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line: Considering the Interrelationships of People, Profit, and Planet....Pages 181-186
A Triple-Bottom-Line Analysis of Energy-Efficient Lighting....Pages 187-193
Go with the Flow: Analyzing Energy Use and Efficiency in the USA....Pages 195-200
Exploring Complexities of Energy Options Through a Jigsaw Activity....Pages 201-206
Front Matter....Pages 207-207
Introducing the Conflicting Meanings of “Justice” Using a Candy-Distribution Exercise....Pages 209-214
Beyond Band-Aids: Using Systems Thinking to Assess Environmental Justice....Pages 215-219
Engaging the Empathic Imagination to Explore Environmental Justice....Pages 221-226
Helping Students Envision Justice in the Sustainable City....Pages 227-232
Social-Ecological Systems Mapping to Enhance Students’ Understanding of Community-Scale Conflicts Related to Industrial Pollution....Pages 233-238
The Skies, the Limits: Assessing the Benefits and Drawbacks of Tighter US Soot Emission Standards....Pages 239-244
Don’t Blame the Trees: Using Data to Examine How Trees Contribute to Air Pollution....Pages 245-250
Front Matter....Pages 251-251
Evaluating the Effectiveness of Green Roofs: A Case Study for Literature Research and Critical Thinking....Pages 253-259
The Story of Source Reliability: Practicing Research and Evaluation Skills Using “The Story of Stuff” Video....Pages 261-266
Critically Evaluating Non-Scholarly Sources Through Team-Based Learning....Pages 267-271
Using the Insight, Question, and Challenge (IQC) Framework to Improve Students’ Environmental Communication Skills....Pages 273-278
Building Students’ Communication Skills and Understanding of Environmental and Sustainability Issues Interactively and Cumulatively with Pecha Kucha Presentations....Pages 279-284
Engaging in Climate Change Conversations: A Role-Playing Exercise to Cultivate Effective Communication....Pages 285-292
Writing Letters to the Editor to Promote Environmental Citizenship and Improve Student Writing....Pages 293-299
Front Matter....Pages 251-251
Captioning Political Cartoons from Different Perspectives as a Tool for Student Reflection....Pages 301-306
Analyzing Nature as a Persuasive Tool in Advertisements....Pages 307-311
Making and Assessing Art in the Sustainability Classroom....Pages 313-318
Back Matter....Pages 319-322