Chapter 11 - Teaching sustainability in metro Orlando: the evolution of the pragmatic liberal arts at Rollins college

Abstract

Sustainability is the definitive ethic of our time. Its measure of humanity forces a moral response to the specter of climate change. With transportation emissions exceeding power plants as the United States' largest source of greenhouse gases, it is impossible to secure sustainability without addressing automobile dependence. For half a century, Orlando has been one of fastest growing and most car-dependent metropolitan areas in the United States. Since the early 1990s, Rollins College Environmental Studies students have prepared scores of projects for community partners to advance the tenets of sustainability. Active transportation has been a particular emphasis, along with the preservation of natural lands, green infrastructure, ecological restoration, and walkable urbanism. This initiative is inspired by the legacy of the college's iconoclastic president, Hamilton Holt. In the late 1920s, Holt broke the staid academic formula by marrying pragmatism and the liberal arts. In 1931, he named John Dewey to chair the Rollins College Colloquy on the Liberal Arts. Dedicated to analyzing the workings of nature and society from “outside the school,” Dewey's “learning by doing” approach imbues the Rollins commitment to project-based learning. Shifting professor-centered instruction to student-centered projects creates a dynamic classroom focused on problem-solving and producing a quality product for a community partner. Faculty assumes the role of coach, facilitator, and colearner, and to make this dynamic work, they spend more upfront time:1.Assessing the scope of potential projects.2.Plotting the logistics of meshing theory and analysis.3.Determining the makeup of the deliverable product.4.Securing a community partner.5.Developing a strategy to procure quality presentations.