Abstract
Interdisciplinary sustainability science teamwork skills are essential for addressing the world’s most pressing and complex sustainability problems, which inherently have social, natural, and engineering science dimensions. Further, because sustainability science problems exist at global scales, interdisciplinary science teams will need to consist of international members who communicate and work together effectively. Students trained in international interdisciplinary science skills will be able to hit the ground running when they obtain jobs requiring them to tackle sustainability problems. While many universities now have sustainability science programs, few offer courses that are interdisciplinary and international in scope. In the fall semester of 2013, we piloted a course for graduate students entitled “Principles of Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research” at Michigan Technological University. This course was part of our United States National Science Foundation Partnerships in International Research and Education project on bioenergy development impacts across the Americas. In this case study, we describe the course development and implementation, share critical insights from our experience teaching the course and student learning outcomes, and give recommendations for future similar courses.
Highlights
There is widespread acknowledgement that human and natural systems are inextricably linked and feed back into one another
In the fall semester of 2013, we piloted a course for graduate students entitled “Principles of Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research” at Michigan Technological University (MTU)
International, interdisciplinary research in sustainability science cannot be pursued without funding, so a key step in pursuing this type of research is writing a successful proposal
Summary
There is widespread acknowledgement that human and natural systems are inextricably linked and feed back into one another. Just as theoreticians and decision makers have called for increased interdisciplinary approaches to answering sustainability questions, experts in learning and educational science have started to assess the degree to which university classes are effectively teaching this material [4,6,12,13,14]. These authors agree on the importance and interdisciplinary nature of strong sustainability science. Our objectives in this paper are to describe the course development and implementation, share critical insights from our experience teaching the course and student learning outcomes, and give recommendations for future similar courses
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