Learner-Centered Teaching Activities for Environmental and Sustainability Studies (eBook)

Dr. Loren Byrne is an Associate Professor of Biology & Environmental Science and served as the first Coordinator of the Sustainability Studies Program at Roger Williams University.

Introduction.- Which is Most Sustainable?  Using Everyday Objects to Examine Trade-offs
among the “Three Pillars” of Sustainability.- An Introduction to Systems
Thinking using Plastic Dinosaurs.- An Introductory Examination of Worldviews
and Why They Matter For Environmental and Sustainability Studies.- Building
Resilience: Modeling Resilience Concepts Using Legos.- Eco-Crimes and
Eco-Redemptions: Discussing the Challenges and Opportunities of Personal Sustainability.-
Engaging with Complexity: Exploring the Terrain of Leadership for
Sustainability.- Discovering Authentic Hope: Helping Students Reflect on
Learning and Living with Purpose.- Teaching How Scientific Consensus is
Developed through Simplified Meta-analysis of Peer-reviewed Literature.- Understanding
Ecosystems and Their Services through Apollo 13 and Bottle Models.- Using Soil
Organisms to Explore Ecosystem Functioning, Services, and Sustainability.- Fire,
Pollution and Grazing, Oh My! A Game in which Native and Invasive Plants
Compete under Multiple Disturbance Regimes.- Exploring Trophic Cascades in Lake
Food Webs with a Spreadsheet Model.- Ants, Elephants, and Experimental Design:
Understanding Science and Examining Connections between Species Interactions
and Ecosystem Processes.- Teaching Lyme Disease Ecology Through a
Primary-Literature Jigsaw Activity.- A Fisheries Activity to Examine the
Tragedy of the Common Goldfish Cracker.- Making Biodiversity Stewardship
Tangible using a Place-based Approach.- Conservation Triage: Debating Which
Species to Save and Why.- Everything Cannot Be Equal: Ranking Priorities and
Revealing Worldviews to Guide Watershed Management.- Location, Location,
Location! Analyzing Residential Development in Environmentally-Fragile Areas.- Tasting
Sustainability: Using Multi-sensory Activities to Retune Food Preferences.- Relationships
between Consumption and Sustainability: Assessing the Effect of Life Cycle
Costs on Market Price.- Business Sustainability and the Triple Bottom Line:
Considering the Interrelationships of People, Profit, and Planet.- A
Triple-Bottom-Line Analysis of Energy Efficient Lighting.- Go with the Flow:
Analyzing Energy Use and Efficiency in the U.S.- Exploring Complexities of
Energy Options through a Jigsaw Activity.- Introducing the Conflicting Meanings
of “Justice” Using a Candy-distribution Exercise.- Beyond Band-Aids: Using
Systems Thinking to Assess Environmental Justice.- Engaging the Empathic
Imagination to Explore Environmental Justice.- Helping Students Envision
Justice in the Sustainable City.- Social-ecological Systems Mapping to Enhance
Students’ Understanding of Community-Scale Conflicts Related to Industrial
Pollution.- The Skies, the Limits: Assessing the Benefits and Drawbacks of
Tighter U.S. Soot Emission Standards.- Don’t Blame the Trees: Using Data to
Examine how Trees Contribute to Air Pollution.- Evaluating the Effectiveness of
Green Roofs: A Case Study for Literature Research and Critical Thinking.- The
Story of Source Reliability: Practicing Research and Evaluation Skills Using
“The Story of Stuff” Video.- Critically Evaluating Non-scholarly Sources
through Team-Based Learning.- Using the Insights, Questions and Challenges
(IQC) Framework to Improve Students’ Environmental Communication Skills.- Building
Students’ Communication Skills and Understanding of Environmental and
Sustainability Issues Interactively and Cumulatively with Pecha Kucha
Presentations.- Engaging in Climate Change Conversations: A Role-Playing
Exercise to Cultivate Effective Communication.- Writing Letters to the Editor
to Promote Environmental Citizenship and Improve Student Writing.- Captioning
Political Cartoons from Different Perspectives as a Tool for Student Reflection.-
Analyzing Nature as a Persuasive Tool in Advertisements.- Making and Assessing
Art in the Sustainability Classroom.