A MULTIDISCIPLINARY APPROACH TO TEACHING SUSTAINABILITY: CORN ETHANOL ACROSS THE CURRICULUM
More recently, we have sought to expand this type of “across the curriculum” collaboration by engaging faculty from multiple departments. In summer 2011, faculty in accountancy, geography, political science, and economics joined with those in the natural sciences to design a common exercise: “Will Corn Ethanol Fuel U.S. Energy Needs?” The module introduces students to corn ethanol and the ethanol industry from various perspectives. Students are then given a large USDA data set (500+ data points) and asked to plot multiple variables, displaying production and use of U.S. corn since 1960. Students make interpretations about the variations through time and hypothesize how those trends are connected to agricultural, scientific, social, economic, and political processes.
In AY 2011-12, we employed the module in courses in Environmental Chemistry, Principles of Geology, Science of Sustainability, Microeconomics, and American Government. Instructors placed the exercise in context of their own course objectives so students could learn core concepts applied to a complex interdisciplinary problem. Students were assessed at the beginning and end of the semester to evaluate their ability to integrate knowledge across the natural and social sciences. A preliminary analysis of responses shows that while student content knowledge improved, most still have a difficult time describing the interdependence of disciplines in approaching issues of sustainability.