The coordinating committee of the NSF Applying Science to Sustainability grant has awarded summer curriculum development grants of $1,000 to four members of the Ithaca College faculty.
Stewart Auyash, health policy studies, will have his students critique the effectiveness of sustainability projects within the context of public health goals in a course he teaches on policy and epidemiology.
Peter Melcher, biology, will incorporate ecological footprinting into his course, "Plants, People, and Food Production," linking student consumption patterns and lifestyles to the state of global health.
David Saiia, business administration, will develop a case study for his "Strategic Management" business policy class. It will examine the Fundacion Maquipucuna, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the Andean cloud-forest and establishment of sustainable community development in Ecuador.
Zenon Wasyliw, history and social studies teacher education, plans to infuse sustainability themes into his "History of the Future" course.
Several residents at EcoVillage at Ithaca, the college's NSF partner, have also been awarded summer grants to develop "sustainability modules" that can be presented as units or guest lectures for Ithaca College courses.
The Applying Science to Sustainability coordinating committee will be awarding curriculum development grants again next summer, during the last year of the NSF grant. Faculty members, who are interested in "teaching sustainability across the curriculum" and who are considering applying for faculty development grants in 2005, are encouraged to attend a curriculum development workshop scheduled for the morning of May 21. Many of the 2003 recipients of summer grants, as well as the Ithaca College and EcoVillage grant 2004 awardees, will be on hand to present ideas on the pedagogy of sustainability.
A formal announcement of details of the May 21 sustainability curriculum workshop will be made in Intercom and the sustainability list-serve shortly.
Related links
https://www.ithaca.edu/intercom/article.php/20040503225056592