SUSTAINABILITY: THRIVING COMMUNITIES, THRIVING PLANET – AN UNDERGRADUATE FRESHMAN THEMED LEARNING COMMUNITY

A Themed Learning Community (TLC) combines two discipline-based courses and a first-year seminar that a group of 25 freshman students enroll in together as a cohort of learners. The TLC faculty work as a team to explore a TLC theme in each course, helping students make connections between courses that might otherwise seem disconnected. TLCs also assist incoming students form connections with their campus community by sharing co-curricular experiences that take learning beyond the classroom.

The IUPUI Department of Earth Sciences developed the “Sustainability: Thriving Communities, Thriving Planet” TLC for the Fall 2017 semester joining courses in Environmental Geology, Principles of Sustainability, and a Windows on Science first-year seminar. The goal was to introduce students to the concept of sustainability as a solution to social, economic, and environmental problems. Student outcomes for this TLC include an understanding of the causes and effects of some of our planet’s biggest problems and ideas of how to solve those problems through the hands-on application of sustainability principles.

The Environmental Geology course emphasized sustainability in water, soil, mineral resources and energy resources and how volcanoes, earthquakes, mass wasting and climate change affect populations. The Windows on Science seminar focused on scientific literacy, identifying and applying academic success strategies, research methods, and personal development and reflection. The Principles of Sustainability course covered how sustainable practices are implemented across sectors including energy, food, environment, economics, and policy. Evidence from student reflections indicates their hands-on experiences through service learning and developing Greening IUPUI grants to advance campus sustainability created a more robust learning experience, and all students expressed the value of the TLC in shaping their opinions and behavior to create a more sustainable community. Of forty-three TLCs offered in Fall 2017, this one was chosen to be represented in a TLC Experience video to be shown to prospective students and during freshman orientation.