The UMD Sustainability Committee on Education is hosting a one-hour mini conference “Teaching Sustainability” on Tuesday, April 24 from 2-3 p.m. in the Kirby Garden Room, 1120 Kirby Drive. The inaugural event is free and open to the public.
Three UMD professors are planning short presentations about how they teach sustainability. Topics vary from introducing the subject into courses to initial integration of content and examples of full melding into the curriculum.
The following faculty from the Swenson College of Science and Engineering and the College of Liberal Arts will speak:
Guy Sander, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Integrated Bioscience Graduate Program will discuss Chemistry 4603 - Biorenewable Resources
Katie Van Wert, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Linguistics, & Writing Studies will explore Interdisciplinary Studies 2001: Sustainability Across Disciplines, a course new to UMD, which is required of all Interdisciplinary Studies students.
Randy Hanson, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Urban, Environment & Sustainability Studies will give an overview of Environment and Sustainability 3100: Sustainable Food Systems, which explores history and social analysis of food, the complex nature of individual and system food changes, and levarges the UMD Land Lab as a field site.
The professors are allowing time for questions and discussion after their presentations.
Sustainability is one of UMD’s core values and also one of the six goals that drive its strategic plan. The charge of the Sustainability Committee on Education is to encourage and to guide sustainability education campus-wide and inclusive of all campus units.
“Because we received many outstanding proposals for this April mini-conference, the UMD Sustainability Committee on Education will host an additional mini-conference in fall 2018,” says Director of Sustainability Mindy Granley.