Abstract
This paper addresses how to prepare the next generation of leaders to address the complex problem of climate change by integrating the social sciences, natural sciences, and humanities. It demonstrates how to teach college students to integrate the disciplines and to initiate change through publicly engaged projects with real community stakeholders. The authors of this paper have designed a 200-level college course titled “Florida’s Future: Addressing Climate Change at Home” that integrates the fields of economics, biology, and the environmental humanities while acting as an impetus to respond to global issues by instituting local change. Here we present an example lesson on sustainability that asks students to apply economic concepts such as negative externalities and Tragedy of the Commons to a case study identifying fishery decline as a result of climate change on Florida’s marine ecosystem. Students are tasked with synthesizing this knowledge by identifying the underlying assumptions of economic solutions and comparing these with strategies of place-making from the environmental humanities. The final class project requires students to apply what they have learned by creating a project and presenting it to the local community. We argue that integrating habits of mind from these three fields better prepares students to carry out public-facing projects that contextualize, convey, and mitigate the negative effects of climate change. Our course empowers students to develop their own reasoned intellectual commitments to address this complex issue, preparing students to become the leaders and activists of tomorrow.
Presenters
Suzanne DieringerLecturer, Economics, University of Tampa, Florida, United States Timothy Ridlen
Assistant Teaching Professor, Film, Animation, New Media, University of Tampa, Florida, United States Kristian Taylor
Assistant Teaching Professor, Biology, University of Tampa, Florida, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Technical, Political, and Social Responses
KEYWORDS
INTERDISCIPLINARY, EDUCATION, PLACE, COMMUNITY, SUSTAINABILITY, ECONOMICS, BIOLOGY, HUMANITIES
Digital Media
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