Fifteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

High-impact educational practices improve student learning, retention, and engagement. These practices include learning communities, undergraduate research, community-based learning, writing intensive courses, and first-year experiences, among others. The Association of American Colleges and Universities notes that effective first-year experiences emphasize critical inquiry, frequent writing, information literacy, and collaborative learning. In this paper, we describe a new and developing yearlong interdisciplinary first-year experience for Honors students that focuses on sustainability and incorporates high impact teaching and learning practices. Students in the course investigate environmental, social, economic, and political facets of sustainability using both a historical and contemporary lens. As individuals and in groups, students research sustainable communities in local and global contexts and explore resilience and systems thinking as strategies for addressing complex problems. Sustainability topics intersect with the paths of all undergraduates, regardless of major. Therefore, focusing on these topics during an interdisciplinary first-year experience provides the opportunity to bring together, engage, and inspire members of a diverse learning community. The course is unique in that it is the only sustainability-focused lower-division general education experience at our institution. In addition, it is the only yearlong interdisciplinary experience available for first-year students. The course is taught by an interdisciplinary team of instructors and learning assistants, and it incorporates a number of high-impact educational practices, including collaborative projects, community-based learning, diversity learning, and e-portfolios. In the paper, we describe the course and the high impact practices we employed. In addition, we summarize and comment on preliminary assessments of student learning.