Interdisciplinary Responses to Climate Change in the University Classroom

Introduction

As the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report on global warming has shown, the issue of climate change defines this century; it is, without hyperbole, the single‐most essential question facing human civilization. ¹ How we are to respond to the challenge must be both complex and simple, global and individual. Our transition must be interconnected and singular, tentative and bold, as well as personal and systemic. Every discipline and field, from the sciences to the humanities, bridging both critical and creative responses, is necessary to prepare for what promises to be a very different future. ² The traditional siloing of academic disciplines and departments must be challenged in order to better respond to changes which, though once imagined in the future, are now present. The intersectional nature of the crisis—what Timothy Morton calls the “wicked” problem of the climate emergency—affects everyone. ³

The weight of the climate emergency (we chose this phrasing cognizant of the fact that while the climate has always “changed,” it now “emerges” for us, both as a crisis and as a phenomena that calls us to think), can seem overwhelming and leave one feeling powerless, among a number of other psychological responses.^4,5 An all‐too‐common response—seen in our students and in our colleagues—is to simply turn away. Recognizing that this is understandable—yet wholly unacceptable—we recently introduced a course entitled, What If They're Right? Individual Responses to Climate Change. Designated a co‐taught “bridge” course in order to emphasize the marriage of two different disciplines (in our case that of philosophy and physics), the course addresses, through both the humanities and the sciences, various responses to climate change.^6–8 Over the duration of a single semester, we ask the students to undertake two responses to the climate emergency—one individual and one systemic.

The first project of the semester focuses on individual, personal responses to the crisis. The second project is focused on systematic responses on the institutional level, either through the university or within the local community. Besides weaving a number of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) throughout the course, we believe that the structure of this course, in particular the highly interdisciplinary and experiential nature of it, provides the learning foundations necessary for our students to contribute to achieving the SDGs. ⁹ These first, experimental responses are meant to empower our students so that they can better respond to the challenges this changed (and changing) world will require, as well as make greater contributions at the community level and beyond.

Institutional Background and Commitment to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals

Husson University, located in Bangor, Maine, and enrolling approximately 3,800 undergraduate and graduate students, is focused on pre‐professional career preparation within a robust general education program. ¹⁰ Though Husson University's mission statement champions a “commitment to ethical behavior and social responsibility through involvement in the world by faculty and students,” no formal commitment to the SDGs currently exists at the institution‐ or college‐wide level. ¹⁰ Despite not addressing the SDGs directly, the university has made a number of advances in developing a culture of sustainability and environmental stewardship. In particular, beginning in the fall 2019 semester, all students will be required to take a sustainability‐tagged course as a part of fulfilling their general education requirements. ¹¹

Currently, no formal general education requirement exists to incorporate the SDGs, but it is likely that all sustainability‐tagged courses will address them at some level. We hope that grassroots efforts, such as courses like this and other, student‐led efforts, will lead to formally addressing the SDGs and climate change at the university level.

Course Description

The authors of this article have two very distinct knowledge backgrounds: Jenkins has a background in art, ethics, literature, and philosophy, while Stone's background is rooted in engineering, mathematics, and physics. In designing this course, we chose to be guided by three foundational ideas: 1.) complex problems require complex and interdisciplinary solutions; 2.) we would place quantitative and qualitative learning on equal footing; ¹² and 3.) our role—beside providing students exposure to new ideas, modes of thinking, and analysis tools—would be to guide (and challenge) our students as they experimented with their own responses to climate change. We decided that the science of climate change (SDG 13), food and agriculture (SDG 2), renewable energy (SDG 7), transportation (SDG 11), and consumerism (SDGs 8 and 12), are essential quantifiable topics; qualitative topics include environmental philosophy, activism, climate justice (SDGs 1, 5, and 10), and an introduction to the concepts of ecosophy ¹³ and the Anthropocene. ¹⁴

Each week, in order to provide our students with the requisite background to craft a thoughtful analysis of both their individual and group responses, we chose one of these subjects as our focus, though, clearly, they are all deeply interconnected. In addition to our own classroom presentations and teaching, each three‐hour class meeting could entail field trips to the Husson garden (where we discuss food insecurity while harvesting potatoes for a local food bank); a showing of films (in order to jump start conversation); or a trip to downtown Bangor using non‐automobile transportation, which included interviewing business owners on the issue of public transportation. This fluid classroom approach necessitated both instructors being present and truly co‐teaching each class. Though one of us may contribute more on a particular day, we do not alternate days as is common in many co‐teaching models.

Our most important activity was a field trip to the Common Ground Fair—a “celebration of rural living” that brings together those interested in sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, social issues, and activism. ¹⁵ This trip brought together for the students a number of critical SDGs and underscored the social dimension of sustainability. We worked beside our students, volunteering for a four‐hour shift, either sorting compost or face painting with children. In the afternoon, our students were required to attend a workshop or lecture, and to write about their experience. Throughout the day, our students gained direct experience working within strong, resilient social networks that themselves are an authentic response to climate change.

What If They're Right? is unique in that it revolves around responding to climate change, as opposed to addressing the science of climate change. However, when designing the course, it was important to both of us that a climatologist address the class in order to answer directly any questions the students had concerning climate science. Since neither of us are climatologists, we invited a working climate scientist to summarize the current understanding of the field. Following their presentation, we engaged in a general discussion of the scientific method, appropriate sources of information, and peer review.

While the SDGs as a whole provided a framework for our weekly class meetings, SDG #13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts, was prioritized above the others by design. Indeed, what this “urgent action” might look like is the entire premise for our course and therefore formed the foundation of two major culminating projects, each lasting eight weeks and incorporating both quantitative and qualitative analyses by the students.

In the first project, each student prepares an individual response to climate change. These somewhat predictable responses were appropriate to our students, and included such projects as “going vegan,” monitoring one's plastic consumption before and after making a concerted effort to use less, or choosing to commute via bicycle instead of by car. In both semesters that the course has been offered, a few ambitious students have chosen to disconnect from technology and spend a day (or days) on a mountaintop, or on a trek through the woods.

For the second project, small groups of students craft larger‐scale responses at the university or community level. Thus far, responses have included proposing the creation of a formal campus sustainability director position to the university administration, planning a student‐focused food bank in response to campus food insecurity, and hosting a film night with a panel discussion to engage the university community on issues of environmental stewardship. Students responded to these challenges in a variety of ways, with a number of successes and, of equal value, failures, which were presented to the class for discussion.

Our educational philosophy reflects the climate emergency: It is only through direct engagement and confrontation with the crisis of climate change that students can become empowered, both in their own lives as well as in the lives of their respective communities. Attending the fair and engaging actively with diverse communities and populations help to extend students' ethical spheres and to empower them as individuals. We understand that this pushes the boundaries of traditional pedagogy, yet we feel strongly that this is what the crisis calls us to do.

Outcomes

Our main goal in creating this course was to foster the development of more engaged students—philosophically, scientifically, politically, and socially—and to foster confidence in them in order to overcome an alienating, and ultimately crippling, fear. We encouraged students to learn about both climate change and environmental stewardship from a number of sometimes contradictory points of view, while also encouraging thoughtful, action‐based responses on the individual and community scale.

The students, by engaging with the SDGs through their experimental responses to the climate emergency, began building an educational foundation that will allow them to contribute to achieving the goals. Having both professors jointly guiding the course, with qualitative and quantitative considerations being given equal weight, was crucial. It is through this type of truly interdisciplinary collaboration—where multiple viewpoints from many different traditions are presented, critiqued, and considered—that the course was most effective, a necessary element for progress to occur with respect to the SDGs. Practically speaking, our diverse backgrounds allowed us to pursue many threads in a given day that would be inaccessible with only one of us in the classroom. Furthermore, because we were relatively unfamiliar with each other's fields, we were able to model the learning process for our students by respectfully challenging each other, asking probing questions, and admitting when one of us needed the other to further explain a “simple” concept. The dialogue our students witness between us gives them a model for their own learning.

As professional development, this course has challenged both of us to grow in new directions as professors, and we both have found ourselves using ideas from this class in our other courses. Two interesting follow‐up courses have also grown out of this collaboration. Nico Jenkins, recognizing that the number of weeks in a semester (16) approximately matches the number of SDGs, is redesigning an Environmental Philosophy course based on a different SDG each week; it will have the same outcomes as his current Environmental Philosophy course with a focus on the SDGs. Thomas Stone has already begun shifting his college algebra course to include work in the campus garden, food insecurity, and examining gardening as a response to climate change, all while meeting the same mathematical outcomes.

Future Planning and Conclusion

We first offered the course, What If They're Right? Individual Responses to Climate Change, in the fall 2017 semester, and it has recently concluded its second session. Because we feel strongly that the best educational experiences have taken place outside of the traditional classroom setting, in future iterations of the course we would like to make even more of the class experiential. Possibilities include meeting with local, state, or national political figures to discuss action on climate change at their respective levels, or working with a local business for a day to learn about sustainable local economies.

With a new general education model taking effect next fall at Husson University, we anticipate increased enrollment in the course, which will provide some logistical and classroom pedagogical challenges. As the course naturally evolves, we intend to keep the core bridge course model intact—bringing together faculty from two different academic traditions, physics and philosophy, in order to learn about, experiment with, and evaluate different responses to the climate emergency in a truly interdisciplinary fashion.