Thirteenth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Environmental education in the U.S. has historically been taught within the realm of K-12 education, and not typically taught as part of undergraduate studies, despite the United Nations defining environmental education as a tool for understanding “the natural and built environment, socioecological and economic aspects of environmental issues, and political dimension of environmental protection. In this context, environmental education includes aspects related to a wide variety of environment and development issues that affect and are affected by human activities and natural phenomena” (UNEP, 2021). This U.S. higher education curricular gap creates opportunities to introduce environmental education, through the lens of environmental design/planning bachelor’s programs, as a tool for future urban planners when working on a community’s sustainable development goals, and provides an introduction to the topic for other students as a general education/core curriculum course. By examining a State University of New York-approved and University at Buffalo-approved undergraduate general education course created to address this knowledge shortcoming – Environmental Education and Urbanism – we can examine how the course addresses the U.N.’s stated learning outcomes for environmental education and how it can be utilized in the context of planning, design, and development in our urban communities.