EDUCATING FOR SUSTAINABILITY: TEACHING AT THE INTERFACE OF SCIENCE, POLICY, & POLITICS

Scientists think linearly, constructing a world of answerable questions. We like being expert and find few rewards out-of-field or at the borders between science, the humanistic disciplines, and the social sciences -- the world of policy. But, to educate about sustainability, we must push our comfort zone and, with our students, work out-of-field.

Science policy is made by a shifting alliance of scientists, policy wonks, advocates, bureaucrats, politicians and their twenty-something staffers, the media, and the public. Our students will be all of these things. We must give them a deep appreciation of how difficult it is to translate scientific findings and predictions into public policy.

This is 1) a complex endeavor, done right, and 2) expensive: 1) Complex: At the College of William and Mary, we have launched an undergraduate environmental science and policy curriculum that requires a year-long, 8-credit hour, laboratory core course, a co-major/minor tied a primary major, a senior seminar, independent research, and conversations with policy-makers in D.C. The topical core course ranges in scale from local watershed management to global climate change using a case format where the scientific, policy, regulatory, political, social, aesthetic, and philosophical implications are addressed. A core faculty co-teaches the course, acts as the curriculum committee, devotes a week each May to a planning meeting, and co-supervises research. They include an environmental sociologist, a surface-process geologist, a GIS specialist, a wetlands ecologist, an ethicist, a behavioral ecologist, a philosopher interested in environmental justice, a resource economist, an international development specialist, an energy researcher, and an oceanographer doing ocean policy. Student and faculty interdisciplinary teams work at our new, wooded lakeshore environmental laboratory.

2) Expensive: This program has been seeded by in excess of $1.5M in private funds (Keck and Mellon Foundations and other donors), an NSF/REU and other federal, state, and local grants, and portions of 4 committed faculty positions with up to 2-3 more projected. Early indications are that students gain a sophisticated understanding of the realities of making science policy. We are considering expanding a version of the program to the graduate level.