Green Threads:
Sustainability Across the Curriculum
Green Threads is an on-going series of workshops for tenured and
tenure-track faculty sponsored by the UofL Sustainability Council's Education & Research Committee. The program is designed to expose faculty to sustainability issues and help them weave sustainability themes into existing courses or to create new courses focused on sustainability.
Participants receive inspiration, resources, and mutual support. Incentives also include an honorarium of $500, a series of workshops and tours with local food meals, and resource materials on sustainability.
Green Threads 2012: Invitation
to Participate
Are you interested in environmental issues and sustainability?
Are you thinking of adapting a course or creating a new course to focus on
issues of sustainability? If so, please
consider this invitation to participate in Green Threads: Sustainability Across the Curriculum. This faculty development workshop, sponsored
by UofL’s Sustainability Council, began in 2009 and a new Green Threads cohort forms each April.
We are currently recruiting a new group of participants for 2012-2013! Green Threads IV will take place Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 from 9am to 3pm. Download the brief application here and submit by Monday March 26th, 2012 to Barbara Burns <bburns@louisville.edu>.
The process of bringing faculty together to
discuss sustainability across the curriculum was pioneered at Northern Arizona
University (Ponderosa Project)
and Emory University (Piedmont Project),
and their approach has garnered national attention for engaging faculty in
collegial experiences leading to curricular change.
In the Green Threads workshop, we explore a variety of ways to embed
issues of sustainability into the curriculum and into our classrooms. Participants receive an honorarium of
$500, information on local and regional sustainability issues, and resource
materials as well as have opportunities to network with other faculty.
Green Threads participants must agree to:
(1) Participate
in a day-long workshop and kickoff dinner
(2) Read
materials prior to the workshop
(3) Submit
a syllabus for the revised or new course and a paragraph on the intellectual
process involved
(4) Report
back to the group in an August field trip and at a Spring follow-up meal.
We look forward to hearing from you. Green is really
happening here.
Best,
Barbara Burns, Co-Chair, Education and Research Committee. (502) 852-5947
Joy L. Hart, Chair, Sustainability Council
Resources for Teaching about Sustainability
- Climate, Adaptation,
Mitigation, E-Learning (CAMEL) - A free, comprehensive, interdisciplinary,
multi-media online resource of credible
content and curricular tools to help educators more effectively teach about climate change.
- Check out our Links
page for more great online resources to engage your students and to
make teaching about sustainability issues easy and fun. Topics include:
1. Tools & Footprint Calculators which can be used for assignments and demonstrations;
2. Local Organizations engaged in sustainability which may provide guest speakers or service learning opportunities;
3. News, Articles & Stories covering the pressing sustainability issues of our time in all forms of media;
4. Energy & Climate Change resources;
5. Food related sites that make connections between food, health, economy, justice, and environment;
6. Products & Services guides to local, green businesses;
7. Social Justice issues and organizations working on the social side of sustainability;
8. Sustainability at Other Kentucky Schools to find out what other schools are doing to address this issue;
9. Transportation resources;
10. Understanding Sustainability links to help provide the bigger picture; and
11. Waste & Recycling resources for improved handling of solid waste.
New Sustainability Course Books Available
The Education & Research committee has acquired the full set of excellent course books produced by the Northwest Earth Institute
and is eager to loan them out to anyone at UofL interested in weaving
sustainability into their courses or educational events. Contact Barbara
Burns at 502-852-5947 or bburns (at) louisville.edu. Course books
available include:
VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
This
course explores the personal and environmental benefits of simplicity.
Topics covered include: The Meaning of Simplicity ♦ Living With
Less ♦ Making a Living ♦ Do You Have the Time? ♦ Living Simply on Earth ♦
Celebration & Call to Action
DISCOVERING A SENSE OF PLACE
This
course considers the potential benefits of knowing and protecting our
place. Will a commitment to the local
bioregion affect our willingness to accept responsibility to care for the
Earth? Topics covered include: A Sense of Place ♦ Responsibility to Place ♦ Knowing Your Bioregion ♦ Living in Place ♦
Mapping Your Place ♦ Building Local Community ♦ Empowerment ♦ Celebration &
Call to Action
CHOICES FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING
Each
of us makes choices that have an impact on the Earth. In this course, learn about which options are
more sustainable than others. Topics
covered include: A Call to
Sustainability ♦ Ecological Principles ♦ Food ♦ Buying ♦ Communities ♦ Business
and Economy ♦ Visions of Sustainability ♦ Celebration & Call to Action
MENU FOR THE FUTURE
This
course explores food systems and their impacts on culture, society and
ecological systems. Participants will
gain insight into agricultural and individual practices that promote personal
and ecological well-being. Topics
covered include: What’s Eating
America ♦ Anonymous Food ♦ Farming for the
Future ♦ You Are What You
Eat ♦ Towards a Just
Food System ♦ Choices for Change
♦ Celebration &
Call to Action
HEALTHY CHILDREN—HEALTHY PLANET
This
course explores the influence our fast-paced, consumer-oriented society has on
children, and how families can deal with these influences. Topics covered include: Cultural Pressures ♦ Family Rituals and
Celebrations ♦ Advertising ♦ Food and Health ♦ Time and
Creativity ♦ Technology and the
Media ♦ Exploring Nature ♦ Celebration &
Call to Action
GLOBAL WARMING: CHANGING CO2URSE
Learn
more about the history and science of global warming. Explore personal
values and habits as they
relate to climate change and consider actions to curb global warming.
Topics covered include: Off Course ♦ Collision Course ♦ Changing Course ♦
Setting a New
Course ♦ Celebration &
Call to Action
SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS AT WORK
This
five session course for the workplace is designed to further organizational
sustainability initiatives. Session
topics include: Seeing the Big
Picture ♦ Taking a Closer Look ♦ Framing Sustainability ♦ Seeing It Through
♦ Focusing on Action
A WORLD OF HEALTH: CONNECTING PEOPLE, PLACE, AND PLANET
A six-session discussion guide that explores "good health," the
connections between human health and the environment, and how we can
sustain both. Session
topics include: Redefining Health ♦ Eating Well ♦ Building Healthy Communities ♦ Curing Consumption
♦ Healthy Planet-Healthy People
RECONNECTING WITH EARTH
A six-session course addressing core values and how they
affect the way we view and treat the Earth. This discussion course is designed
to: clarify values through discussions about our relationship to Earth;
discover how personal beliefs and values affect the way we view and treat the
earth; and explore what it means to take personal responsibility for Earth. Session
topics include: Wild Nature ♦ Shifting Paradigms ♦ Nature and Spirit ♦ The Universe Story
♦ Ecopsychology
♦ Bringing it Down to Earth
JUST BELOW THE SURFACE: PERSPECTIVES ON THE GULF COAST OIL SPILL
A one session discussion guide that explores the connections between
Deepwater Horizon, energy policies and our lifestyles. The course offers
an opportunity to reflect further on this historical event and the
lessons it holds for us moving forward—individually and collectively.
The intent is not to assign blame, but rather to take responsibility—as
conscious consumers and concerned, active citizens.
Education & Research
