The Food-Energy-Water Nexus: Assessing undergraduate students’ decision making about complex socio-hydrologic issues supported by Hydroviz

Abstract

The Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Nexus envisions interactions between water, energy, and food systems, in which water allocation decisions constitute complex socio-hydrologic issues. Undergraduate students need to develop skills to understand and make effective decisions about the FEW Nexus. We implemented a comprehensive curriculum where undergraduate students engaged in a systematic decision-making process around a FEW Nexus challenge after collecting and processing information from an online data visualization tool—Hydroviz. We ask (a) what components of the decision-making process were students able to engage in most effectively, and (b) what factors (e.g., students’ demographics, prior knowledge, use of Hydroviz, and curricular resources, among others) support students’ overall decision-making outcomes? The study is based on a mixed-methods approach in which we analyzed n = 94 students’ responses to a decision-making scenario, and n = 13 semistructured interviews from the second iteration of the module in 2021. Results suggest that students may need additional support to better frame the decision-making problem to provide a more in-depth and localized description, including their use of collected evidence to support their description. Factors that supported students’ decision-making outcomes include (a) their personal values and experiences and (b) scaffolding elements of the module, in which they were able to decompose the elements of the problem, prioritize different values in their analysis, and question their initial approaches to further analyze their choices. More information about the energy sources, and the impacts on the community and environment, would be beneficial. No differences between demographic groups were observed. The study can provide insights to enhance instructors’ use of the curricular resources and curricular design, thereby supporting undergraduate instruction to foster students’ engagement in decision making about socio-hydrologic issues.