NABT

3/21/13

Creating Resources for Educators

Biology for a Sustainable Future

NABT & Education for a Sustainable Future

• The NABT Board of Directors adopted a formal position statement for Teaching Environmental Issues in 2004.http://www.nabt.org/websites/institution/index.php?p=96

• The NABT Board of Directors adopted a formal position specifically to address Sustainability in Life Science Teaching in 2008.http://www.nabt.org/websites/institution/index.php?p=520

…. as an organization of educators devoted to the study of life and that which supports it, the National Association of Biology Teachers promotes the teaching of sustainable themes to thoughtfully address the world’s most pressing problems.

NABT & SISL in STEM

• As directed by the position statement, NABT affirms that curriculum focused on sustainability themes should feature interdisciplinary principles, promoting meaningful dialog and problem solving across disciplines.

• By joining the Sustainability Improves Student Learning in STEM (SISL in STEM), NABT is working with educators in all STEM fields on an initiative that is truly interdisciplinary.

• NABT is in the process of identifying champions within our association that can take our current commitment to education for a sustainable future to the next level.

Triple Bottom Line of Sustainability

VibrantEconomy

SocialWell-being

Healthy Ecosystems

SustainableSociety

Society based in the reality that people and the planet matter.

Education for a Sustainable Society:

“enables people to develop the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions …, that will improve the quality of life now without damaging the planet and making it uninhabitable...”

Sustainability Topics Civil Society & Governance Climate Change Cultures & Religions Cycles & Systems Design & Planning Ecosystem Health Energy Ethics & Values Food Systems & Agriculture Future Studies & Visioning Human Impact & Footprint

Human Heath & Well-being

Lifestyles & Consumption Natural Resources Pollution & Waste Sense of Place Social & Environmental

Justice Sustainability Concepts &

Practices Water & Watersheds

Urgent Issues to Address:The Big 4

Climate Change (reduce fossil fuel combustion, move to energy waste reduction and renewable energies, and preserve forests that are carbon sinks)

Droughts, floods, glaciers, access to clean water

Food chain disruption, access to food

Biodiversity

The Pervasiveness of Biology in Sustainability

Understanding the biology of our urgent societal issues is crucial for a sustainable future.

Doing nothing is no longer acceptable, it’s part of the problem. Doing nothing = energy waste, toxins, food chain disruption and ecosystem destruction. Costly in dollars and in human suffering of billions

Biology educators have a unique and important opportunity to contribute to a sustainable future.

Biology and Sustainability is Necessary and Urgent

Preparing Students to Help Solve our Shared

Urgent Societal Problemsin What They Do as Worker, Consumer,

Investor and Community Member

Everybody needs to know this!

You are helping to create these Benefits of Teaching Sustainability:

Why is it such a high priority?

1. Much of the public doesn’t know that we are disrupting the thermal stability, the health of the ecosystems and food chains of the planet.

2. Public doesn’t know that there are solutions. We can reduce human suffering and environmental disruption now while building stronger economies

3. Education to action is the key. Biology is crucial.

Honor your good work!!

Continue the trends to change the norms for pre-college, undergraduate and graduate education to include creating a sustainable future

Reducing cynicism and passivity, and building skills and self efficacy to create systemic, positive change using STEM knowledge

National Trends

Growing and robust – sustainability courses, minors, foci, majors, certificates

All these trends need the biology!!

National Reform RecommendationsVision and Change

New Biology for the 21st Century

New Biologists need…

• depth of knowledge in a discipline, fluency in several others

• quantitative , computation, and interdisciplinary communication and collaboration skills

New Biology curricula need to emphasize…

• interconnections among biology system levels and across disciplines

• science as a collaborative exercise that solves real-world problems

Labov, J. B., A.H. Reid, and K. R. Yamamoto, CBE – Life Sciences Education, 9, 2010.

Topics Lending Themselves to Sustainability Examples from an Intro Textbook

Plant Responses to External Stresses

Biotechnology Evolution and Biodiversity Animal Nutrition, Form and

Function Ecology and the Biosphere Behavioral Biology Population Biology Ecosystems Communication Biology Conservation Biology

Plant Viruses as Pests Mutations and Cancer Chemical Use and Human

Health Plant Growth, climate

change and other human Impacts

Endocrine system impacts Order is important –

Ecology First instead of last and use as a theme

Personal Behavior Change

Changing Systems

Action on Two Levels

Education

Private Choices and Behaviors-Habits

Public Choices and Behaviors-Laws

Sustainable Communities

Sustainable Economies

Ecosystem

Ecosystem

EcosystemEcosystem

life supporting

resources

declining

consumption of life supporting

resources

rising

BEYOND doom and gloom

Essential Instructional Approach –

3 parts

1) Beyond Doom and Gloom

2) Focus on Solutions

3) Practice creating positive change in organizational and community systems

Real world problem solving

Types of Activities – Making it Easy for Biology Educators

1. Problems related to sustainability topics and biology

2. Problem sets with sustainability fact sheets/links

3. Community level problems with real world data, e.g.

a. calculating greenhouse gas emissions/reductions,

b. analyzing environmental health impacts from pollution

c. protecting ecosystems

d. watershed protection in their community

Types of Activities – Making it Easy for Biology Educators

4. Make civic engagement part of the assignment, do something with the answer, e.g. writing letters to:

a. elected officials and government agencies,

b. newspapers,

c. websites, blogs etc.

d. Remember the start of Transition Towns!

5. Include real world action wherever possible!!

Types of Activities – Making it Easy for Biology Educators

6. Maximize student participation

a) “How could you use this biology knowledge, combined with other academic knowledge, to help create a more sustainable future?”

b) “Who should you share this information with to create a more sustainable future?”

Tips on How to Start Integrating Sustainability in Existing Classes

1. Realize that sustainability is not an "add-on" content area; rather, sustainability is easy to integrate into already existing lessons as in-class examples of concepts and as a context for activities and problem sets.

2. When teaching a core course concept, use sustainability-related examples.

3. Add in every course, "How can you use what we are learning to make the world a better place?"

Tips on How to Start Integrating Sustainability in Existing Classes

(continued)

4. Create a real world problem/solving project so students can help their communities become more environmentally sound and sustainable.

5. Integrate these sustainability-related understandings into all learning objectives and assessments.

6. Add sustainability-related learning outcomes into your course objectives.

7. Utilize legacy projects (complex projects spanning several semesters)

8. Create Positive Future Fairs

Engagement in Local ChallengesThanks to David Koetje and Amy Wilstermann, Biology Educators, Calvin College

Our “Laboratory”Plaster Creek Watershed

Pedagogical ProgressionService-learning ProjectsPlace-based ResearchCivic Engagement

Community PartnershipsWest Michigan Environmental Action CouncilWest Michigan Land ConservancyGrand Rapids Parks

PRACTICE!

Your goal: Share learning activity idea in the chat box that teaches biology

and sustainability.

You can also share links/resources in the chat box.

Try to: use systems thinking, collaborate, engage with local challenges, empower students as change agents, use diverse assessment strategies

SEND TO ALL PARTICIPANTS

ResourcesUpload ideas to share with others after the webinar:

http://serc.carleton.edu/sisl “Contribute an activity”

Beginner’s toolkit on teaching sustainability: http://serc.carleton.edu/sisl/begin_toolkit.html

Sustainability Site Guide with LOTS of activities: http://serc.carleton.edu//serc/site_guides/sustainability.html

Change agent skills: empowerment of students at http://serc.carleton.edu/sisl/empowering_stud.html

More resources for youBiointeractive lectures - http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/

Plant growth, food, and sustainable agriculture at https://attra.ncat.org/

Global Threats re: Climate Change

http://www.globalchange.gov

www.camelclimatechange.org

www.skepticalscience.com

U.S. Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development – www.uspartnership.org

Thank you for all your efforts to educate for a sustainable future.

For more information:

educatingforasustainablefuture@gmail.com