Architect Sarah Mohd. Salleh designed arcologies for Kuala Lumpur that integrates housing and gardening in a naturally ventilated, small-footprint tower.
On Friday, May 1, I attended a workshop on “Sustainability and Curriculum” lead by Dr. Geoff Chase. The workshop opened my mind and eyes to a new reality. As a teacher, I know I am teaching students material to further their future goals. Most of my students take my class as a requirement, not as a major. The workshop brought out an important idea: I am teaching students to exist in a world that I will know nothing about.
I am teaching material and skills that might not be valid or be as applicable 10 years from now because life is changing so fast. I have no expertise and the more I read the less I truly know. I am teaching to a future generation whose goals have challenges that I can’t imagine or understand.
Well that is my challenge and frustration: how to work social, economic and environmental instruction into an already jam-packed curriculum and teach to a future I don’t know. So, how can I turn my challenge into an opportunity to learn and adapt? Baby steps! Ask questions! Look inward and outward.
Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed and think, ”Who am I to tell students what to do or how to think, even though I am supposed to be an expert?” The workshop led me to a different mindset. Although I will not be walking the same path as my students, I have some experience in walking a path. Also, I don’t have to be an expert, but I do have to be a guide. Before I can guide them, I need to guide myself, by first defining what sustainability means to me and how I think I can help students reach their goals.
Sustainability is more than green curriculum; it is creating habits that will help students be critical and creative thinkers. I want to encourage students to learn how to learn and develop a joy of life long learning. I want to excite curiosity and inquiry-hmm that might be the big picture that I will be painting in for a long long time. So instead, I want to present ideas that I will be implementing this semester.
I can incorporate exercises that support good study habits. I am having my students use Mastering Chemistry as part of their study set for homework. Mastering Chemistry has tutorials and quizzes for students to use to study chemistry. Also, in order to learn new information, students need to be aware of how they learn and have a base idea of their mental and physical health. Indra Thadani uses a health assessment tool that she created to help students self assess their health. She believes, as do I, a healthy student is an aware student, and an aware student is one that is ready to learn. So instead of advising my students to get sleep, eat properly, and find a stress outlet, I will have students use the assessment to help them help themselves.
I am instituting an assignment using service learning. Students have to volunteer to clean a pond, creek, or beach, visit a hospital, food bank, or work in the Laney garden-these are just a few ideas. Then they write a short essay (500+ words) on what they learned making a social, economic, and environmental connection to chemistry.
I also realized that I want to be more literate in sustainability. I wrote down the title of the books mentioned in the workshop. I hope that this will help me make better decisions about sustainability.
I learned so much at the workshop; I wish we could have Dr. Chase as our mentor to guide us always. But since we really can’t do that, monthly meetings in the vein of this workshop would go a long way to encourage us to keep on track and talk to each other. Every semester, we could have a district wide meeting to discuss what we have done or changed. To do this, instructors need time. Maybe we could have one of the flex days a year devoted only to sustainability. We could discuss what sustainability means to us as a group. It could be working in the garden or having a group walk to promote faculty health, or workshops that help us design and implement cohesive, exciting curriculum that still articulates to higher colleges.
