TEACHING AND LEARNING PORTFOLIO

Maria Dahmus

December 2008

This portfolio submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Delta Certificate in Research, Teaching, and Learning.

Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning University of Wisconsin-Madison

The Delta Program in Research, Teaching, and Learning is a project of the Center of the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL—Grant No. 0227592). CIRTL is a National Science Foundation sponsored initiative committed to developing and supporting a learning community of STEM faculty, post-docs, graduate students, and staff who are dedicated to implementing and advancing effective teaching practices for diverse student audiences. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. For more information, please call us at 608-261-1180 or visit http://www.delta.wisc.edu.

2008

To all the teachers in my life who have fostered my love for learning

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 TEACHING PHILOSOPHY..........................................................................................2 SECTION ONE

REFLECTION: DESIGNING A COURSE.......................................................................3

ARTIFACTS: Course Syllabus, Social Dynamics and the Environment................................. A1 Mid-Semester Quality Evaluation ................................................................. A5 Final Evaluation Results................................................................................. A7 Midterm Review of Objectives ...................................................................... A8 SECTION TWO

REFLECTION: OUTDOOR AND INFORMAL EDUCATION ........................................ 10

ARTIFACTS: Environmental Studies Colloquium Materials.............................................. B1 SECTION THREE

REFLECTION: RETHINKING COURSE STRUCTURE ................................................. 15

ARTIFACTS: Revised Course Syllabus, Social Dynamics and the Environment ...................C1 Sample Inquiry Learning Unit........................................................................C7 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................ 18 APPENDICES

APPENDIX A: Course Syllabus, Evaluations, and Midterm Review of Objectives APPENDIX B: Environmental Studies Colloquium Materials APPENDIX C: Revised Syllabus and Sample Inquiry Learning Unit APPENDIX D: Delta Internship Summary APPENDIX E: Curriculum Vitae

INTRODUCTION This portfolio is an expression of my vision for and practice of teaching and learning. Through this portfolio, I seek to illustrate how learning through diversity, learning communities, and teaching-as-research shape and foster my teaching and learning ideals and practice.

Teaching Philosophy I begin this portfolio with my teaching philosophy. Implementing and refining my teaching philosophy is a continual process. My portfolio presents teaching experiences that have shaped my teaching philosophy and explains how I am working towards implementing it more fully.

Section One: Designing a Course In section one, I present a college-level course that I have designed and taught independently, Social Dynamics and the Environment. I explain how and why I structured the course as I did and how learning through diversity, learning communities, and teaching-as-research informed this structure. I also present and reflect on student evaluations of the course and outline necessary improvements.

Section Two: Outdoor and Informal Education In section two, I describe my engagement with outdoor and informal education. I reflect on qualities of learning communities that I have gleaned from these experiences, and I discuss how these qualities of learning communities apply to teaching and learning in college courses. Section Three: Rethinking Course Structure In section three, I apply reflections about my course design in section one, lessons learned about learning communities in outdoor and informal settings in section two, and my teaching philosophy to revise my course, Social Dynamics and the Environment. In particular, I explain how I would reorient the course into an inquiry format. Drawing these ideas together, I present a revised syllabus for Social Dynamics and the Environment with a sample inquiry learning unit. Conclusion: In conclusion, I summarize how these experiences have shaped my teaching and learning, and I reflect on my future as a teacher in both formal and informal settings.

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TEACHING PHILOSOPHY As a teacher, I seek to engage students in the process of learning and to enable students to apply this process to critically examine questions that interest them. I envision this ideal as encompassing three interdependent parts. They include inquiry learning, transparency, and reciprocal learning.

Inquiry learning. I am convinced that students learn best by doing and thrive on practical application of material. Therefore, my vision for teaching is to engage students in inquiry learning. This vision is based upon the model of project-based instruction. In this model, students engage material and explore concepts as they seek to answer research questions. The teacher serves as a facilitator of student-led inquiry. Inquiry learning fosters critical thinking and discussion among students. Students decide together how to investigate ideas, apply concepts, and evaluate different perspectives in order to answer the research questions. As a facilitator of student-led inquiry, the teacher must assess students at various points during the learning process and guide students’ self-assessment. This assessment helps ensure that students are engaging in inquiry learning and are piecing together a conceptual understanding of the content.

Transparency. Transparency in teaching is necessary for students to thrive. Transparency includes clear teaching and learning objectives, clear expectations, and clear methods of evaluation and feedback. Clear objectives create a coherent picture of the lesson so that students can better understand how the concepts relate to each other and assess their own understanding of the material. Clear expectations relieve students from the burden of guessing what they should be doing. Clear methods of evaluation and feedback enable students to understand how they will be evaluated, to understand their grade (which, for good or bad, is very important to students), and to understand how they can improve. Reciprocal learning. As I teacher, I am also learning. In this role, I strive to serve as a model of the learning process for students. This includes taking feedback from students seriously, being comfortable with not knowing all of the answers, and being willing to listen and change. Feedback from students throughout the course is imperative. Each class is unique; what works wonderfully for one class may fall flat in another. Student evaluations throughout the course and continuous reflection about how each class is responding are essential. Adapting teaching accordingly is necessary to create an atmosphere for learning. Also, explaining to students how I am incorporating their feedback fosters trust with students and models the learning process. Being comfortable with not knowing all the answers and being willing to listen and change is also part of reciprocal learning. Students need to be free to be intellectually vulnerable. Students also need to see that changing their positions in response to a compelling argument from a fellow student is a strength, not a weakness. If I am willing to engage in this, students will feel more comfortable as well. Reciprocal learning also provides the opportunity to model enthusiasm for learning; not knowing something or learning from a different perspective is part of the experience of learning.

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SECTION ONE: DESIGNING A COURSE This reflection presents my course, Social Dynamics and the Environment. This course is the second required course for environmental studies majors at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. My vision for this course was to explore the historic roots of different understandings of environment/society relationships in order to provide context for current debates. With this historical context painted, I sought to explore a variety of ways that people approach solutions to environmental degradation and how our understandings of environment/society relationships shape these approaches. I have included the course syllabus in Appendix A. This section examines my course content through the three pillars of Delta, learning through diversity, the learning community, and teaching-as-research. I discuss how these ideas are incorporated into the design of the course and how they inform revisions for the course. I also present and reflect on student evaluations of the course and outline necessary improvements. LEARNING THROUGH DIVERSITY Learning through diversity encompasses several aspects of the course. These include the following: i) the content, ii) student perspectives and backgrounds, and iii) learning styles. i) The Content. Learning through diversity is a foundation of the course content. The purpose of this course is to understand the diverse ways of understanding environment/society relationships, the historical and social contexts of these understandings, and the diversity of approaches to environmental degradation that they inform. For example, we discussed the conservation, preservation, environmental justice, workplace, public health, and wise use movements and the historical context from which they emerged. We discussed who participated in these different movements and why this was the case. We also looked at different forms of participation (e.g. grass-roots actions, lobbying, and litigation) and why different groups of people may engage in different strategies. I sought to engage this diversity of perspectives about environment/society relationships and approaches to addressing environmental degradation in a variety of ways. These included the use of multimedia and presentations by guest speakers.

a) Multimedia. The use of multimedia was an invaluable tool to illustrate the diversity of the environmental movement and solutions to environmental degradation. For example, I presented ways in which our understandings of harm have changed

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over time through a case study of asbestos and the workplace. I showed A Matter of Time produced by the US Bureau of Mines in the 1950s. This film extolled the benefits of asbestos. We contrasted this to its regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act and to workplace safety movements that addressed its use in industry. I also showed a documentary produced by OSHA entitled Can’t Take No More (1979) to illustrate the history of the workplace health and safety movement. Also, to discuss different ideas of progress and environmental change, we contrasted The Lorax (1971), an animated film based on a book by Dr. Seuss that questions the consequences of and reactions to ‘progress’ and human ‘needs’ with Destination Earth (1956), an animated film sponsored by the American Petroleum Institute that presents oil and free enterprise as the foundations of progress and freedom in the United States. Documentaries that told the stories of different movements from the perspectives and voices of the participants enabled students to see the diversity in the environmental movement and the diversity of approaches to environmental degradation. I also incorporated short clips (e.g. a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide, commonly known as water) to spur discussion about course topics. Finally, during lectures, I incorporated slides of images of the different phenomena we discussed. All of this provided concrete context for the diversity of perspectives and social interactions involving the environment/society relationship. b) Experiences of researchers and practitioners. I invited guest speakers to share their experiences with topics we discussed in class. These guest speakers provided real-life context for the diversity of perspectives on solutions to environmental degradation. The guest speakers included the following people: Alycia Ashburn from Congregations Caring for Creation, a faith-based group that addresses climate change, April Sansom, a Ph.D. student at the University of Wisconsin researching community based conservation in Ecuador, and Ed Begley, Jr., an actor who promotes sustainability and has his own environmental show, Living with Ed.

ii) Student Perspectives and Backgrounds. My classes are almost entirely students from Minnesota with fairly similar backgrounds. However, they certainly have a diversity of experience and thoughts about the correct relationship between humans and the environment. For example, in my class some students were avid hunters, others strongly identified as environmentalists, and others strongly identified with property rights and individual stewardship of resources. In addition, two senior citizens audited the course. They provided their perspectives of change over time in environmental quality and responses to environmental degradation. They also provided experiences with some of the programs we discussed. For example, the grandfather of one of the senior citizens had participated in the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s.

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This diversity of perspectives fostered interesting discussions about the topics we covered. I sought to draw on the diversity of students’ experiences and thoughts about the environment/society relationship through small and large group discussion, often preceded by individual reflection time to help students gather their thoughts. iii) Learning Styles. I attempted to incorporate a variety of class formats and assignments to appeal to different learning styles. For example, the class format ranged from lectures through outlines and images on PowerPoint, to video clips and documentaries, to small group and large group discussions, to individual reflection in class. I also wanted the assignments to support but not reiterate the content of the course and engage different learning styles. These assignments included a critique of ideas about wilderness, an analysis of environmental solutions, an assignment to monitor individual consumption, research papers on an environmental organization in Minnesota of the students’ choice, and a midterm exam. I also included journal writings periodically during class so that students could reflect individually. THE LEARNING COMMUNITY In my class, I strove to foster a learning community among students. This required creating a classroom environment in which students felt free to express their opinions and were willing to be intellectually vulnerable. I provided a variety of situations in which to reflect and share ideas. These included small and large groups discussions and individual reflection time. In addition to discussions in small and large groups in class, I provided class time for students to talk with each other about their final projects during different stages of their project. My midterm evaluation provided insight into how I could better foster a learning community among students. I discuss this in the next section about teaching-as-research. I sought to expand their learning community beyond the class by inviting guest speakers to share their experiences and by requiring that students interview a leader and attend one activity of the environmental organization they selected for their final project. For my development as an instructor, I asked another professor to sit in on my class to provide feedback, I sat in on another environmental studies class, and I talked with professors from different departments about their teaching strategies. My particular interest was how others spurred student discussion.

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TEACHING-AS-RESEARCH I incorporated teaching-as-research both formally and informally in my course. This included both formative teaching-as-research to provide information to revise my course during the semester and summative teaching-as-research to inform revisions to the course in the future. i) Formative Teaching-as-Research. My formal use of teaching-as-research was my Midterm Semester Quality Evaluation. This was an evaluation I wrote for my own course improvement. I have included this in Appendix A. The three almost unanimous student responses included the following:

1) an appreciation of the diversity of perspectives presented through a combination of multimedia and lecture,

2) suggestions to improve discussion and engage students in discussion, and 3) an appreciation for the clarity of lecture outlines and PowerPoints for each

class. Based on this feedback, the primary weakness that the students expressed was the need for more discussion in different forms in order to engage students throughout the one hour and forty minute class period. Therefore, I sought to foster student discussion using teaching-as-research informally. I experimented with how I structured the class format to facilitate and spur discussion. For example, I asked the following questions:

1) Did the class participate more if I asked questions first and then lectured or vice versa? In other words, should I engage students in a discussion first and then lecture about the content, should I lecture and then engage students in the topic, or should I mix these together?

2) How could I incorporate multimedia more effectively to spur discussion? 3) Did small group discussions engage more students than large group

discussions? 4) Did journal writing before discussion facilitate discussion among students?

I found that the choice of lecture or discussion first to foster more participation depended on the topic. Topics that were more familiar to students (e.g. environmental campaigns or environmental values) worked better with discussion first and then lecture. However, with unfamiliar topics, I needed to either lecture first or show a documentary or video clip that illustrated the topic. I found that small group discussions did help students who were more reluctant to speak in class discussions participate in the learning community. Also, I found that journal writing before discussion increased the variety of responses to questions. Journal writing provided a more personal means through which I could understand students’ perspectives and thought processes, especially students who were more reluctant to engage in discussion. I had students turn in their journals at the midterm and at the end of the course. In the future, I would have them turn them in more frequently so I could have feedback on a regular basis. Reading them at the midterm helped me see what they felt was most interesting and to understand some of their

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misconceptions. Knowing this after each or at least some of the class periods would greatly benefit my teaching. ii) Summative Teaching-as-Research. The midterm evaluations, informal teaching-as-research practice, and final evaluations provided me with valuable insight into what went well in the course as well as necessary improvements. Evaluations and informal observations of students’ engagement indicate that the following aspects of the course engaged students in the course and helped them participate in the learning process:

• Presenting and engaging material from a diversity of perspectives – “I really enjoyed this class – it was very helpful to learn the history to present day

and apply the knowledge.” – “Look at many different sides.”

• Engaging different learning styles – “I like the multiple ways you engage the class.” – “We would watch something or discuss things with journal questions – it was

really good to reflect and think about issues.”

• Use of multimedia as a teaching tool – “The little three minute videos are very helpful to see things as they currently are

– like the wise-use movement video – it helps see viewpoints on a better scale.”

• Reciprocal Learning – (from an email sent by a student after the course was finished):

“I thought I would tell you (in case you didn't already know) that your class was amazingly insightful, the best part I think is when you would say you didn't know the answer to a question and come back the next class period with the answer, showing us that you did listen to us and weren't just expecting us to spit back everything that you said. Thank you for taking all the time you did with our class!”

• Clear lecture outlines and PowerPoints

– “I like the mixture between discussion, lecture, and videos. I like the organization and the outline at the beginning – it is helpful in knowing what the key focus is. –love the powerpoint.”

• Providing feedback

– “Great notes on papers – REALLY HELPFUL”

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Student comments and observations of the class also indicate that the following are necessary improvements:

• Inquiry learning Inquiry learning is a fundamental element of my teaching philosophy. I attempted to include inquiry learning with the use of documentaries and video clips to foster discussion. However, this fell short of inquiry learning in which students engage in a process of inquiry about a research question or subject matter. The classes were a combination of lecture and discussion of ideas presented, but not student-led inquiry. I was focused on preparing material and did not have the broader perspective required to design inquiry learning at that point. I plan to experiment with different forms of inquiry learning through teaching-as-research in the future. The following comments indicate that active and inquiry learning would benefit student engagement and learning in the class.

– “The class was very long and drawn out for a TTh class. Have it on MWF!”

– “The material got a little dry at times but it got better as the year went on.”

• Learning goals with assessments

I had a clear idea of the topics to cover throughout the course and the reasons I wanted to cover these topics. (I have included the midterm review of course objectives to illustrate this.) I also posted questions on the course website as an ongoing review after each lecture. However, I did not communicate a clear formulation of learning goals during class time, and I did not help students assess what they had learned during class. The following comments demonstrate this lack of on-going in-class assessment of learning objectives.

– “Get the class involved some more. Ask questions. With all the info one’s mind tends to wander. Keep us focused on task.”

– “Ask questions at the end of class about the lecture.”

• Learning communities to support achievement of learning goals Learning communities were primarily in the form of small and large group discussion of ideas. (This also included guest speakers from the broader learning community as noted above.) I also provided informal time for students to give feedback to each other about their project ideas. However, I did not consider how learning communities could support student learning of learning goals (again, in large part because I did not clearly articulate learning goals).

• More formative evaluation and formal teaching-as-research

I practiced teaching-as-research informally throughout the course. This teaching-as-research focused primarily on student engagement in the course. In the future, I plan to include teaching-as-research to establish how well students are achieving learning goals and to determine which teaching and learning formats foster this achievement, in addition to efforts to increase student engagement.

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CONCLUSION The design and implementation of my course, Social Dynamics and the Environment, illustrates my developing understanding of learning through diversity, learning communities, teaching as research, and my teaching philosophy. It also demonstrates how I have sought to integrate and apply these ideals to my teaching practice. The process of teaching-as-research throughout this course has provided valuable guidance for necessary improvements to the course. I discuss the revisions to this course in Section Three, informed by both teaching-as-research outlined in this section and by lessons learned from outdoor and informal education experiences, outlined in Section Two.

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SECTION TWO: OUTDOOR AND INFORMAL EDUCATION This reflection presents my experiences with outdoor and informal education and how they have shaped my teaching philosophy and teaching practice. Specifically, these experiences have shown me the power of inquiry and experiential learning in the context of a learning community. I outline the qualities of learning communities that I have gleaned from these experiences. I also discuss how they may apply more generally to formal classroom teaching. OUTDOOR EDUCATION My fifth grade teacher first introduced me to learning through outdoor education. Our fifth grade class embarked on many field trips; I remember them well. For example, we toured a recycling plant in a neighboring town, and we visited our city landfill. Most of our science lessons took place outside. Through experiential and outdoor education, we learned how to look at the world with a critical and appreciative eye. The images, sounds, and smells from the field trips are still vivid in my mind. My fifth grade teacher deepened these experiences through classroom discussions and activities, challenging us to trace interconnections among the scientific and social concepts we studied in class and the ones we observed on the trips and in the field. These and other outdoor education experiences as a student firmly planted the power of experiential and inquiry learning in my teaching and learning ideals. I began to engage in teaching outdoor education in college as a volunteer teacher for a ‘nature’ class at the Boys and Girls Club in Austin, Texas. A group of about ten kids, ranging from ages six to twelve, regularly attended. I drew many of the lessons from Project WILD and Project Aquatic, science lesson plans structured through outdoor and experiential learning. This experience helped me see the power of inquiry and experiential learning from a teacher’s perspective. During the summers in college, I worked at a scuba diving camp in the British Virgin Islands. I helped teach scuba diving and some marine biology lessons scattered among the scuba lessons. I also worked at an adventure camp in Colorado that focused on team building through challenge course activities and backpacking. From these experiences, I learned how outdoor learning experiences can build trust and understanding among people and foster learning communities. After college, I worked at The Outdoor Education Center in Trinity, Texas. During the school year, groups of fifth graders from the Houston Independent School District spent a week at our camp. Several schools attended each week, so students were mixed together with other students from very different backgrounds. We taught forest and pond ecology, conservation, adventure, and farm. Again, I was able to experience the power of experiential teaching and learning from a teacher’s perspective but this time in the context of very diverse learning communities. These experiences have fostered my love of outdoor education and have helped me grow as an educator. Again, these experiences demonstrated the following to me: i) the power of inquiry and experiential learning from a student’s and teacher’s perspective,

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ii) the power of outdoor learning experiences to foster learning communities, and iii) the influence of diversity on learning communities. I expand on these ideas in the following sections. i) Inquiry and experiential learning.

Outdoor education at its heart is inquiry and experiential learning. Students are outside engaging with the subject matter, observing and discovering aspects of forest ecology, marine biology, or other fields of study. The challenge for the teacher is to help students structure their own inquiry to learn about the forest, marine life, or other field of study. In inquiry learning, the inquiry experience is only one part of the process. The teacher must also serve as a facilitator of learning. Becoming absorbed in the process of experience and engagement without equal attention to the learning process is easy, but it decreases the value of inquiry and experiential learning. In other words, having students explore the outdoors is valuable in itself, but inquiry and experiential learning thrives when students are engaged in the process of inquiry to answer research questions and achieve learning goals.

Inquiry and experiential learning from both a student’s and teacher’s perspective have shown me that while student engagement is important, student engagement should not be an end in itself. In my teaching, I often find myself focusing primarily on student engagement and losing sight of the learning goals towards which the engagement is directed. Clear teaching and learning goals need to accompany the inquiry and experiences in order to critically reflect on and integrate the experience with prior understanding. My goal as a teacher is to engage students fully in inquiry learning, developing both student engagement and student learning.

In addition, inquiry learning naturally draws students together into a learning community. Students engaged in outdoor education generally want to show each other their discoveries and be the first ones to discover something new. From my experiences, students cannot engage in outdoor education alone; they feel compelled to show others what they see and tell others what they learn. ii) Fostering learning communities.

One foundation of learning communities is trust and understanding among people. This involves understanding each other’s perspectives, backgrounds, and interests – what we can teach and want to learn.

In a challenge course or team building context, learning communities form as the group attempts to solve a problem together or achieve a common goal. Through this process, trust, understanding, communication, and recognition of each other’s strengths and weaknesses develop. The group then engages in more difficult challenges that would have been almost impossible before the development of the learning community. In other words, the learning community enables problem solving that could not occur in a group of individuals. Learning communities require a process of development and a real learning community enables students to solve problems and explore and apply concepts in ways that they

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would not have been able to do as a group of individual students.

A challenge in classroom teaching is how to develop this kind of learning community – one that does enable problem solving and enhances each person’s learning. The development of a learning community is a process, with awkward growing stages. Classes meet only a few times a week, and students are distracted by a myriad of things during class. How can these obstacles to fostering learning communities be overcome in a classroom setting?

I think that inquiry learning and the development of learning communities are interconnected. For example, if students are involved in some kind of collaborative project together, the possibility exists to develop a learning community. The teacher must facilitate this collaboration to help students become willing to ask questions and be intellectually vulnerable, to trust each other, and to be willing to ask for and offer help and ideas.

iii) Influence of diversity on learning communities. Diversity enables learning communities to thrive. A diversity of prior knowledge, experiences, strengths, and weaknesses creates the opportunities for learning communities to integrate and produce different kinds of knowledge and understanding.

Throughout the range of outdoor education activities I have experienced, the most diverse groups tended to need the most care and attention in building a learning community. However, once begun, the learning community thrived because of its diversity. Within these diverse learning communities, particularly at The Outdoor Education Center, I saw the power that comes from shared learning through the integration of each student’s very different ways of knowing and seeing the world. I also saw friendships develop in a span of a few days. Finally, these week-long experiences were imprinted in some students’ minds for years to come. The director of The Outdoor Education Center reports receiving letters from former students thanking him for their experiences there, long after the fifth grade.

The diversity within learning communities at The Outdoor Education Center was clear and easily drawn out during outdoor education activities. In contrast, diversity in learning communities at the adventure camp in Colorado and the scuba camp in the British Virgin Islands was less clear, at least upon first glance. However, during challenge course activities or scuba and sailing lessons (and simply living together in cabins or on the sailboat), the diversity within the communities emerged as learning communities formed. This diversity then further strengthened and enhanced learning and problem solving within the group. These are compelling memories for me as I teach classes of students mostly from Minnesota, who on the surface may seem very similar. These memories challenge me to design my course to foster the development of learning communities that draw out the diversity among students. Inquiry learning activities and collaboration have the potential to do this.

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INFORMAL EDUCATION This section presents examples of both my engagement in informal learning communities and my role in fostering learning communities. The two examples I present are the Nelson Institute Forums I co-organized at the University of Wisconsin and an Environmental Studies Colloquium I designed for undergraduate students at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. In conclusion, I discuss the lessons about learning communities I have gleaned from these experiences. i) Nelson Institute Forums.

As a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, I was a co-organizer of Nelson Institute Forums from Fall 2003 to Spring 2005. The purpose of these forums was to provide a forum for discussion about different environmental topics among graduate students, faculty, and the public and to build community among graduate students and the larger environmental community. The forums included presentations from graduate students, environmental groups in the community, and professors. The following are examples of forums: professors shared their experiences in academia and answered questions from graduate students about research, jobs, and a variety of other subjects; students from Middlebury College in Vermont presented their Biobus project and information about biodiesel (they drove a bus across the country powered by biodiesel); and local environmental groups presented their efforts to improve water quality in Madison, Wisconsin. The process of organizing these forums also connected us with the broader environmental community as we thought about topics for the forums and contacted people to come speak with us. ii) Undergraduate Environmental Studies Colloquium.

The director of the Environmental Studies program at the University of St. Thomas asked me if I would talk with undergraduates about jobs and graduate schools in environmental fields for their spring Environmental Studies Colloquium. I was excited to be able to share my experiences of the transition from undergraduate school to either graduate school or jobs with students. Fostering Learning Communities This colloquium served to develop a learning community among undergraduates and professors. Undergraduates were able to talk with each other about their possible future plans as well as their concerns about them. In addition, professors involved with the environmental studies majors from other disciplines also attended. Listening to perspectives from a variety of fields and from a variety of graduate schools was very helpful to the students. Learning Communities as Resources In order to prepare for the colloquium, I tapped into several learning communities. I emailed ESSA, a list serve that connects the environmental studies community in

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Madison and beyond for advice. I posed the following question:

I'm seeking your advice and wisdom about grad school and environmental jobs for a group of environmental studies undergrads at the University of St. Thomas in MN. I'm talking with them next week about grad school and jobs in environmental fields...and thought who better to ask for multiple perspectives about this than all of you!! What advice or words of wisdom would you give environmental studies undergrads (the majority of whom are double majors) about grad school or jobs in environmental fields? What would you have liked to know? Any advice and wisdom would be greatly appreciated!

I have included the compilation of the advice I received from the various people on ESSA for the undergraduates in Appendix B. I also compiled a list of job search engines and resources for graduate school searches. Again, I tapped into a boarder learning community to compile this list. The Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies website as well as the environmental studies website at the University of California, Santa Barbara were extremely helpful resources for this. I have included the compilation of websites and search engines in Appendix B. Through these experiences, I was able to tap into a broader learning community to facilitate discussion in learning about graduate schools and environmental jobs for a group of undergraduate students. The following are lessons and reflections about learning communities that I have gleaned from these informal education experiences:

• Benefits of expanding the scope of the learning community and drawing on other learning communities

• Benefits of relationships with other students and professors (learning communities) to facilitate thinking about future applications of learning

• The need for a place for learning communities to develop and intersect, e.g. forums for asking questions and discussing ideas

• Difficulties in sustaining informal learning communities over time CONCLUSION These experiences with outdoor and informal education have strongly influenced my ideas about education and my vision of teaching and learning. These experiences spanned large age ranges and topics, yet they revealed and reinforced similar ideas about teaching and learning. They happened in a different environment than a college classroom, but I think their lessons can be applied to improve my college-level teaching.

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SECTION THREE: RETHINKING COURSE STRUCTURE In this section, I apply my reflections about my course design, lessons learned about learning communities in informal and outdoor settings, and my teaching philosophy to revise my course, Social Dynamics and the Environment. Based on an integration of course design, informal and outdoor education experiences, and my teaching philosophy, the following are current teaching practices that I will continue and work to strengthen:

• Fostering learning through diversity through course content, student backgrounds, and learning styles

• Presenting and engaging material from a diversity of perspectives (e.g. use of multimedia as a teaching tool and guest speakers who are practitioners and researchers)

• Expanding the scope of the learning community with practitioners and researchers (and I will eventually add service-learning)

• Practicing reciprocal learning • Practicing transparency (e.g. clear lecture outlines and PowerPoints and

providing feedback to students) Based on an integration of conclusions about course design, informal and outdoor education experiences, and my teaching philosophy, the following are improvements I would like to make to the course:

• Structuring the course around inquiry learning • Defining learning goals • Designing assessments to evaluate achievement of learning goals • Fostering learning communities to support achievement of learning goals

through inquiry learning • Integrating learning through diversity within learning communities • Increasing quality of discussion • Including more formative evaluation and formal teaching-as-research

In this section, I focus on inquiry learning as the backbone upon which my other goals for improvement hang. Practice with inquiry learning. I have practiced with inquiry methods and learner-centered teaching in science courses, particularly with my participation in the UTEACH program, a teaching certification program for math and science majors at the University of Texas. Project-based instruction is a model of inquiry learning. In project-based instruction, curriculum is structured around one or a few driving research questions that address real concerns. The students investigate these research questions during the class. Students must integrate and critically reflect upon a wide range of concepts and real-world phenomena in order to answer the questions. In the process of examining these questions, students explore, critically evaluate, and apply content knowledge. Students also develop a learning community as they explore, discuss, and debate the questions.

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Current practice of inquiry learning. My practice of inquiry learning has not easily extended to my teaching of social science courses. One of my most pressing questions that has emerged through my teaching experiences as an instructor at the University of St. Thomas is how to develop inquiry learning in social science courses. Documentaries, video clips, and other multimedia facilitated learning in my course. By seeing the phenomena of interest, I could engage students in it. Student evaluations indicated that multimedia successfully engaged students in this way. However, the exploration of the concepts was based in discussion rather than research or action. Therefore, this fell short of inquiry learning. Revisions to course structure. Based on reflections from midterm and final evaluations, my own experience teaching the course and observations of student learning and engagement, my experiences with outdoor and informal education, and my teaching philosophy, I have decided to restructure the course into an inquiry learning format. I envision the revised course structure in the following way:

• I will divide the course into several inquiry learning units that address topics that illustrate a particular concept or group of concepts.

• Based on the related topics and concepts in each inquiry learning section, I

will write a driving research question(s) for student inquiry and investigation.

• Before beginning each section, I will present this question to the students and

ask them to respond to it in writing during class. (This will serve as an assessment of prior understanding and preconceptions about the concepts and will help me facilitate the inquiry learning process.)

• Students will then read the assigned readings and take a reading completion

quiz on Blackboard outside of class so that they will be prepared for inquiry activities and discussion. (The purpose of this is to increase the percentage of students that have read assigned readings; my colleagues recommended this as a way of improving student preparation and discussion.)

• I will present some form of multimedia (video clips, documentary excerpts,

news excerpts) or newspaper headlines to engage students in how this group of concepts and research question(s) manifest themselves in the real world context.

• Students will then engage in student-led inquiry to investigate the question(s)

and draw hypotheses and conclusions about them. This may include the following:

o reaction papers and discussions about readings, o active learning exercises such as interviewing students on campus or

other observations of interactions of people and the environment, o role-playing,

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o identifying phenomena of interest in the real world (e.g. newspaper articles, policy debates) and critically evaluating them,

o small group discussions to flesh out ideas and possible conclusions to the driving research question, and

o comparison and debate among groups about their hypotheses and conclusions.

Another goal of student-led inquiry is that students will develop learning communities in the process, and as the course progresses, these learning communities will facilitate problem solving that could not occur in a class of individual students. Ideally, this process will also motivate students to want to share ideas and observations with each other (just as students in outdoor education environments want to point out to others the interesting things they observe).

• I will present a formal lecture to outline and clarify major points and to

connect these with prior assessments and the knowledge, understanding, and outcomes that come together during the process of inquiry learning.

• In conclusion, students will complete an assessment that addresses the

research question(s) for the inquiry learning section and related concepts. (See the revised course syllabus and the sample inquiry learning unit in Appendix C for examples of these assessments.)

• At the end of each section, I will collect student feedback about the process, focusing on the following teaching goals informed by my course reflection and teaching philosophy: 1) student engagement in inquiry and discussion, 2) achievement of learning goals through inquiry learning, 3) transparency of the process, 4) development and value of learning communities, 5) learning through diversity within learning communities, and 5) reciprocal learning.

• Finally, I will use this feedback to inform the structure of the subsequent

inquiry learning sections.

• A final exam will challenge students to integrate material across units.

CONCLUSION The revisions to Social Dynamics and the Environment are informed by teaching-as-research as well as my reflections on learning through diversity, learning communities, and my teaching philosophy in outdoor and informal education environments and the college classroom. These revisions, along with the continual practice of teaching-as-research, help me more fully implement my teaching philosophy, facilitate learning through diversity, and help students develop learning communities in this course.

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CONCLUSION This portfolio is an expression of my vision for and practice of teaching and learning. It illustrates my understanding of learning through diversity, learning communities, and teaching-as-research, and it demonstrates how I seek to foster these through my teaching. It also presents my teaching philosophy and my efforts to more fully implement it. The process of continually improving and refining my teaching through teaching-as-research brings to life the process of teaching and learning for me. Reflections on learning through diversity, learning communities, and the fundamental components of my teaching philosophy (inquiry learning, transparency, and reciprocal learning), provide an analytic framework through which I can assess both my teaching and student learning. This assessment then provides the needed direction to guide my course revisions and future teaching practice. This continual interplay between teaching ideals and practice is the heart of teaching-as-research for me. I can apply this process to all forms of teaching and learning, including outdoor and informal education and formal classroom teaching. These different forms of teaching offer insights for the others; reflecting on these insights provides more fodder for the refinement of teaching ideals and the implementation of these ideals in practice. I look forward to implementing my revised course syllabus and beginning this process of teaching, reflection, and revision again. I also look forward to the continual interplay between teaching ideals and practice.

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APPENDICES

APPENDIX A Course Syllabus, Social Dynamics and the Environment (Spring 2008)...................A1 Mid-Semester Quality Evaluation Form..................................................................A5 Final Evaluation Results ...........................................................................................A7 Midterm Review of Objectives.................................................................................A8 APPENDIX B Environmental Studies Colloquium Materials ........................................................B1 APPENDIX C Revised Syllabus, Social Dynamics and the Environment (Spring 2009) .................. C1 Sample Inquiry Learning Unit ................................................................................. C7 APPENDIX D Introduction to Delta Internship ..............................................................................D1 Reflection: Internship Summary .............................................................................D2 APPENDIX E Curriculum Vitae........................................................................................................E1

APPENDIX A Course Syllabus, Social Dynamics and the Environment (Spring 2008) .................. A1 Mid-Semester Quality Evaluation Form ................................................................. A5 Final Evaluation Results ........................................................................................... A7 Midterm Review of Objectives................................................................................. A8

Environmental Studies 212 Social Dynamics and the Environment

Spring 2008, TR: 9:55am-11:35am

Aquinas Hall, Room 301

Instructor: Maria D. Kim Office Hours: Tuesday 2:30-4:30pm, JRC LL06, or by appointment Email: envstudies212@gmail.com Course Website: available on Blackboard Course Overview. This course is about our interactions with the environment and our interactions with each other about the environment. In the first part of the course, we will trace the history of the environmental movement in the United States. We will pay close attention to the influence of ecological context and understandings of nature and society on the different threads of the environmental movement. Beginning with the first stirrings of recognition of environmental degradation, we will investigate different types and definitions of environmental problems (including whether there are environmental problems at all) and a range of perspectives regarding the best solutions to them. We will also chart the participation and contributions of different groups of people in the environmental movement over time. In the second part of the course, we will examine a variety of responses to environmental change and solutions to environmental degradation from different scales (nations, cities, communities, families, and individuals) and from different value perspectives. We will discuss the environmental problems and social dynamics these responses seek to address. We will also evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed solutions in different social and ecological contexts. Required Texts. These texts are available for purchase at the St. Thomas bookstore. All additional readings are available on Blackboard E-Reserves. Cronon, William, ed. 1996. Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature.

New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Gottlieb, Robert. 2005. Forcing the Spring: The Transformation of the American

Environmental Movement. Washington D.C.: Island Press. Office Hours. Please come by my office hours if you have any questions about the course or about environmental studies in general. I am also available to meet by appointment; please email me or talk to me after class to set up a time to meet.

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Course Requirements. Participation. Participation is an essential part of the course. Participation involves discussing ideas together, listening well to your fellow students, and reflecting individually. Come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings and reflect on them. Participation and class attendance count for 10% of your final grade. Midterm Exam. The midterm exam will cover the first part of the course, the history of the environmental movement in the United States. Each week, I will provide a set of discussion questions and a list of concepts we covered to serve as an ongoing review for the midterm. The midterm exam counts for 30% of your final grade. Assignments. You will have a variety of assignments that serve as an opportunity for you to reflect on and apply the concepts we discuss in class. I will provide detailed instructions for each assignment as well as how they will be graded several weeks prior to their due date. Short Critique: This assignment asks that you critique Cronon’s article, “The Trouble with Wilderness.” Your critique (2-3 pages) should 1) restate Cronon’s argument, 2) critique it, with specific points to support your opinions and 3) discuss the influences on environmental understanding and behavior his article could have—both those that you hope it will have and those you fear it might have. This counts for 5% of your grade. Monitoring Consumption: This assignment asks you to monitor the resources you consume for one week. Document the resource, its place of origin, type of material, etc. (I will provide a chart that will facilitate this process.) Also, trace one product you used from “cradle to grave.” This counts for 10% of your grade. Analysis of Environmental Solutions: This assignment enables you to apply our discussion of different solutions to environmental degradation to a specific environmental issue. First, you will select an environmental issue of interest to you. Second, you will find three different types of solutions to your selected environmental issue (e.g. government management, market, property rights, ethical, or religious solutions). The solutions you select should be well developed and articulated; they may be from environmental organizations, activists, government agencies, nonprofits, or businesses. Third, compare, contrast, and critique these three solutions. Assess in which contexts you think each solution would be most effective. This counts for 15% of your grade. Final Project: Analysis of an Environmental Organization: The final project asks that you integrate and apply the concepts you have learned from both parts of the course to analyze an environmental organization and its activities. You will receive a separate handout regarding the final project after the midterm. The final project serves as your final exam. It is due on May 15. The final project counts for 30% of your grade. Summary of Grades and Due Dates: Short Critique: 5%, due Tuesday, February 26 Midterm Exam: 30%, Thursday, March 13 Monitoring Consumption: 10%, due Tuesday, April 15 Analysis of Environmental Solutions: 15%, due Tuesday, April 29 Final Project: 30%, due Thursday, May 15 Participation: 10%

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COURSE OUTLINE AND READINGS Tuesday, Jan 29: Introduction to Course

PART ONE: THE ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES Thursday, Jan 31: The Context

FTS, pp. 31-40

Tuesday, Feb 5: Abundance to Scarcity: Conservation and Preservation FTS, pp. 52-70

Thursday, Feb 7: Urban Environmental Change

FTS, Ch 2, pp. 83-110 Tuesday, Feb 12: Progress, Prosperity, and Pollution

FTS: Ch 2, pp. 110-120 and Ch 1, pp. 70-76 Films, in class: Destination Earth and The Lorax

Thursday, Feb 14: Ideas about Nature UG, pp. 69-90, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” Mills, “Metaphorical Vision: Changes in Western Attitudes to the Environment” FTS, pp. 47-52

Tuesday, Feb 19: Ecology, Social Rebellion, and Environmental Law

FTS: Ch 3, pp. 121-160, Ch 4, pp. 175-185 Marx, “American Institutions and Ecological Ideals”

Thursday, Feb 21: Backlash: The Wise Use Agenda

Brick, “Determined Opposition: The Wise Use Movement Challenges Environmentalism” Arnold, “Overcoming Ideology”

Film, in class: Behind the Green Curtain Tuesday, Feb 26: Beyond the Mainstream: Alternative and Grassroots Movements

FTS, Ch 5, pp. 218-269 *Cronon critique due in class* Thursday, Feb 28: Environmental Justice

UG, pp. 298-320, “Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice” Film, in class: Laid to Waste

Tuesday, March 4: Class, Environment, and the Workplace

FTS, Ch 8, pp. 347-388

Thursday, March 6: Finding Common Ground FTS, pp. 1-29, “The Next Environmentalism”

Tuesday, March 11: Midterm Review THURSDAY, MARCH 13: MIDTERM EXAM MARCH 17-24: MIDTERM AND EASTER BREAK

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PART TWO: RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION Tuesday, March 25: Government Management

Hardin, “Tragedy of the Commons” Leopold, “Wilderness as a Form of Land Use”

Thursday, March 27: Private Property Rights and the Market

Dryzek, “Leave it to the Market: Economic Rationalism” Tuesday, April 1: Conflict and Stewardship

UG, pp. 269-297, “Whose Nature? The Contested Moral Terrain of Ancient Forests” Houston Chronicle, “Blazing a Trail for Rare Toads” Birkett, Truax

Thursday, April 3: The Land Ethic

Leopold, “The Land Ethic” (excerpt) MacCleery, “Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic: Is it only half a loaf unless a consumption ethic accompanies it?”

Tuesday, April 8: Environmental Values

Schultz and Zelezny, “Reframing Environmental Messages to be Congruent with American Values” Thursday, April 10: Environmental Values and Sustainability Guest Speaker: Ed Begley, Jr. Tuesday, April 15: Religious Responses

Pope John Paul II, “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility” DeWitt, “A Biblical Response on Creation Care” and “A Theological Response on Creation Care”

*Monitoring Consumption due in class* Thursday, April 17: Interfaith Responses to Global Climate Change Guest Speaker: Alycia Ashburn Tuesday, April 22: Environmental Education

McKeown-Ice and Dendinger, “Socio-Political-Cultural Foundations of Environmental Education” Thursday, April 24: Environmental Information Campaigns

Kaplan, “Human Nature and Environmentally Responsible Behavior” McKenzie-Mohr, “Promoting Sustainable Behavior: An Introduction to Community-Based Social Marketing”

Tuesday, April 29: Citizen Participation in Environmental Decisions

Rydin and Pennington, “Public Participation and Local Environmental Planning: The Collective Action Problem and the Potential of Social Capital”

*Analysis of Environmental Solutions due in class* Thursday, May 1: Community Based Conservation

Guest Speaker: April Sansom Tuesday, May 6: Land Policy Alternatives

Film in class, Save Our Land, Save Our Towns

Thursday, May 8: Environmental Dispute Resolution Caton Campbell, “Intractability in Environmental Disputes”

FINAL PROJECTS DUE THURSDAY, MAY 15

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Instructor: Maria Kim

Mid-Semester Quality Evaluation Envr 212: Social Dynamics and the Environment

Please respond to this survey so that I can assess how well the course is going and make any necessary improvements. I will use your comments to improve the course! So please by thorough and honest. Please do not sign your name. 1. Lecture material is presented in an interesting, organized way (circle answer): (Strongly disagree) 1 2 3 4 5 (Strongly agree) 2. The lectures are useful in learning the subject matter: (Strongly disagree) 1 2 3 4 5 (Strongly agree) What do you like about lectures? How could I improve lectures? 3. The instructor does a good job of getting the class involved in the course: (Strongly disagree) 1 2 3 4 5 (Strongly agree) Please provide one example of something that helps you get involved in the course: What could I do to help you become more involved?

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4. How confident do you feel in your understanding of the material so far? (Not at all confident) 1 2 3 4 5 (Very confident) What currently helps you understand the material? What would improve your understanding of the material? 5. The instructor is interested and willing to help students learn the material: (Strongly disagree) 1 2 3 4 5 (Strongly agree) Suggestions for improvement: 6. Rate your overall satisfaction with the course: (Very dissatisfied) 1 2 3 4 5 (Very satisfied) What would you like to see done differently in the second half of the course? What would you hope to continue (if anything) in the second half of the course? Any additional comments, concerns, or suggestions?

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FINAL EVALUATION RESULTS, SOCIAL DYNAMICS AND THE ENVIRONMENT NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS: 10 1. The instructor was well prepared for class sessions.

Strongly agree: 9 Agree: 1

2. The instructor tried to interest me in course content.

Strongly agree: 8 Agree: 2

3. The instructor explained the course material clearly. Strongly agree: 6 Agree: 4

4. The instructor provided constructive feedback to me. Strongly agree: 7 Agree: 3

5. The instructor encouraged me to think analytically. Strongly agree: 6 Agree: 3 Neutral: 1

6. The instructor presented knowledge and ideas that challenged me intellectually. Strongly Agree: 6 Agree: 2 Neutral: 2 7. The instructor responded effectively to course-related concerns and difficulties.

Strongly agree: 6 Neutral: 4

8. The instructor created an environment in which the students could freely ask questions and express opinions consistent with the learning objectives of the course. Strongly agree: 7 Agree: 3 9. The instructor answered student questions clearly.

Strongly agree: 6 Agree: 4 10. The instructor treated students with respect. Strongly agree: 10 11. The instructor organized the course in a way that helped me learn. Strongly agree: 6 Agree: 2 Neutral: 2

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Midterm Review: Social Dynamics and the Environment The purpose of the first part of this course was to explore the history of the environmental movement and the dynamics that shaped this history. This historical background will provide a foundation to understand contemporary dynamics around environmental issues. We looked at the historical context from which major threads of the environmental movement emerged. These major threads of the environmental movement include the following:

1. conservation 2. preservation 3. urban environmental reform—sanitation and public health movements 4. ecology 5. political ecology (which includes environmental justice and other reform

movements) 6. deep ecology 7. wise use/private property rights (countermovement) 8. environmental justice 9. workplace movements—occupational health and safety

We focused on several major themes that have shaped the diverse threads of the environmental movement. These themes include the following:

1. ideas about ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’ 2. ideas about humans’ relationships with ‘nature’ and the ‘environment’ 3. understandings of the sources of ecological degradation 4. responses to ecological degradation (based on 1, 2, and 3) 5. participants in different threads of the movement (why they participated,

who didn’t participate) We also discussed how the meanings of these threads (e.g. conservation, preservation, wise use) have changed over time and are also a source of conflict. Lecture Outlines: I will post lecture outlines on Blackboard. **** These are not all inclusive outlines; they are guides to help you study and integrate the information from the first part of the course. **** If you have questions about concepts in these outlines, please email me, set up a time to meet with me, or bring any questions you have to class on Tuesday. The entire class time on Tuesday will be open to questions from you.

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Overview of Lectures Lecture One: Introduction to the course The purpose of this lecture was to introduce you to the content, format, and goals of the course. Lecture Two: The Context: 1600s-1890 The purpose of this lecture was to establish the historical context for social dynamics around the environment that continue to permeate environmental conflicts today (e.g. the historical background for ideas about ownership and the purpose of land). Lecture Three: Abundance to Scarcity The purpose of this lecture was to examine the beginnings of conservation as a national policy (e.g. the recognition of resource limits, the ills of private resource monopolies, the desirability of retaining land in federal ownership, and the need for management of public resources for the benefit of the public) as well as contemporary questions about environmental management and federal land ownership that arose from this history. Lecture Four: Urban Environmental Change The purpose of this lecture was to provide a general overview of changes in the urban environment during the 1800s and early 1900s as well as different responses to urban environmental change. Lecture Five: Progress, Prosperity, and Pollution The purpose of this lecture was to provide an overview of the dynamics of conservation policies, technology, and consumption from WWI through the Great Depression and post-WWII era. We discussed conservation policies under FDR (and how they were similar to and different from Theodore Roosevelt’s vision of conservation) as well as the dynamics within and drawbacks to the environmental administrative agency structure. We also discussed dynamics and conflicts of the post-WWII era that endure today (e.g. new technologies, consumerism, and demand for outdoor recreation). Lecture Six: Ideas about Nature The purpose of this lecture was to discuss the influence of ideas about nature on our interactions with the environment. We focused specifically on the idea of wilderness and the precursors and pressures that led to the development of wilderness as a policy, culminating in the Wilderness Act of 1964. Lecture 7: Ecology, Social Rebellion, and Environmental Law The purpose of this lecture was to give an overview of responses to postwar era dynamics (e.g. new technologies and mass consumption) as people became aware of

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their environmental effects. We discussed the emergence of a national consensus that environmental degradation was happening and something needed to be done. However, people disagreed about how to respond. We discussed different arguments about the source of the environmental crisis and different responses to it. We focused on technological and regulatory responses of the federal government, including a brief overview of the federal environmental regulatory structure and its effects on environmental organizations. (Note: This lecture covered 1 class days.) Lecture 8: Beyond the Mainstream: Alternative and Grassroots Movements The purpose of this lecture was to discuss alternative responses to the environmental crisis (alternatives to the federal regulatory structure and the national mainstream environmental organizations). Alternate and grassroots movements argued that technological and regulatory solutions do not go far enough; they do not get to the real source of the problem—social structures, institutions, values, and political power. Furthermore, they argue that the mainstream movement is less effective because of its position within this policy system. Lecture 9: Backlash: The Wise Use agenda The purpose of this lecture was to examine the arguments, goals, and strategies of a countermovement to the environmental movement, the Wise Use movement. The Wise Use movement argues that the federal environmental regulatory structure has gone too far and is threatening freedom, democracy, free enterprise, and property rights in the United States. This movement emphasizes the idea of nature as a limitless resource – that human ingenuity can break through all perceived limits. Lecture 10: Environmental Justice The purpose of this lecture was to examine the arguments, goals, and strategies of a movement that argues that both the environmental policy system and the mainstream environmental movement leave out people and environments most affected by pollution. The environmental justice movement originated as a response to the disproportionate placement of hazardous waste facilities in minority and low-income communities. They argue that the environment is where people live and work and should be protected; they challenge traditional distinctions between nature and city. Lecture 11: Class, Environment, and the Workplace The purpose of this lecture was to provide a general overview of the historical context and dynamics of occupational safety and health—the gradual recognition of and different responses to environmental hazards in the workplace as well as tensions in both the environmental and labor movements in addressing occupational safety and health.

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APPENDIX B Environmental Studies Colloquium Materials Advice from Graduate Students ..........................................................................B1 Resources for Jobs, Internships, and Graduate Schools .....................................B2

Advice from graduate students… “When applying to grad school, it is critical to go to campus and set up meetings with professors you want to work with in advance. Think of these meetings as job interviews and talk about your interests and skills.” “Think carefully about what the grad school program will prepare you to do. (And ask current students and faculty this question too!!) Grad school programs have different strengths and weaknesses – choose one whose strengths match your goals.” “For students going on to grad school, affiliating themselves with a traditional discipline often results in better access to grad school funding than an interdisciplinary program. It's often possible to do the same research within a traditional discipline, though course selections may be much more limited.” “If something seems wrong in grad school (i.e. you don't get along well with your advisor, or don't feel like your advisor is helping to advance your progress, or you hate a class...) ask for help. There's nothing shameful about getting the best guidance and education for yourself, even if that means transitioning to something new mid-stream.” “Diversify. Just being a passionate environmentalist is not going to get you good jobs. You need additional saleable skills.” “A degree isn't enough anymore! Get marketable skills like ArcGIS, modeling, lab skills, multimedia skills; whatever, but a BA in Environmental Studies is not enough to go on, and I speak from many years of experience working in the conservation world.” “The best advice I could give is to work in your field for at least a year (or several years) before going to grad school. It will give your grad school experience a lot more context and will give you time to settle into what you want to do, or don't want to do. In general, the grad students I know who have worked for a few years before returning to school have broader view of school and their field and have more of a concrete direction around which to design their graduate studies. Not everything is appropriate for everyone but that is my advice!” “Having internships under your belt helps. Even a part time internship can give you a foot in the door. Experience in the business world or some background in economics is helpful, especially in non-profits and private-sector jobs. A lot of places want fundraisers. Experience in GIS can be really helpful too as it is a component of many environmental jobs, and in high demand. I think data analysis skills are often useful also. If you're interested in activist work, I highly recommend Camp Wellstone -- a 2-day workshop in organizer training. It's very good for learning how to cultivate leadership in others and pull a movement together. It's also a chance to network a bit.” “It is worth getting life/ job experience before heading to grad school. This helps you weed through what sounds exciting in theory and what you think you are good at with reality.” “Volunteer with campus groups, get experience in leadership roles, and/ or volunteer for a local non-profit during college. You may start your volunteer work doing more menial task but the relationships you build could lead to important recommendations and job opportunities. As you build your volunteer experience, you may be able to become more involved in projects (or spin them off as campus projects) to build your resume. You just need to be able to relate what you have done to what you want to do...being geographically flexible will also help you find the job you want.”

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Resources for Environmental Jobs, Internships, and Graduate Schools Environmental Career Handbook: What can you do with a degree in environmental studies? (from the University of California – Santa Barbara; it includes a list of books that may also

be helpful): www.es.ucsb.edu/student_info/escareerbook.html ENVIRONMENTAL JOBS Environmental Career Opportunities: www.ecojobs.com Environmental Career Center: www.environmentalcareer.com Environmental Jobs and Careers: www.ejobs.org Cyber-Sierra’s Natural Resources Job Search: www.cyber-sierra.com/nrjobs/natres.html Outdoor Action Guide to Outdoor/Environmental Careers:

www.princeton.edu/~oa/jobs/careeroe.html International Careers Website (University of Wisconsin): go.global.wisc.edu/jobs/ GreenBiz: www.greenbiz.com/jobs Sustainable Business (“Green Dream Jobs”): www.sustainablebusiness.com Earth-works: www.earthworks-jobs.com/ Society of Wetland Scientists: www.sws.org/jobs/ Environmental Education: eelink.net/pages/EE+Jobs Association for Experiential Education: jobsclearinghouse.aee.org University of Wisconsin Water Resources Library (Water-related jobs):

wri.wisc.edu/library/finding_jobsall.html National Council for Science and Environment (Jobs and internships):

www.ncseonline.org/01about/cms.cfm?id=1144 Environmental Protection Agency: www.epa.gov/careers/ Minnesota Council of Nonprofits: www.mncn.org/jobs/ Minnesota Environmental Partnership: www.mepartnership.org/mep_jobs.asp Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: www.dnr.state.mn.us/jobs/jobs.html INTERNSHIPS Student Conservation Association: http://www.thesca.org/ Orion Grassroots Network Internship and Career Service:

www.orionsociety.org/pages/ogn/ics.cfm Americorps: http://www.americorps.org/ HECUA (Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs): www.hecua.org/intern_info.php GRADUATE SCHOOLS IN ENVIRONMENTAL FIELDS

www.ac.wwu.edu/~lrobbins/gradschools.html www.gradschools.com/programs/environmental_studies.html

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APPENDIX C Revised Syllabus, Social Dynamics and the Environment (Spring 2009).................. C1 Sample Inquiry Learning Unit ................................................................................. C7

Environmental Studies 212 Social Dynamics and the Environment

Spring 2009, TR: 9:55am-11:35am JRC, Room 222

Instructor: Maria Kim Office Hours: Tuesday 11:45am-1:45pm, JRC LL06, and by appointment Email: mdkim@stthomas.edu Course website: available on Blackboard

COURSE OVERVIEW. What is the environment? How do (and should) we interact with the environment as individuals and as a society? What is the correct relationship between humans and the environment? In this course, we will explore these questions from historical and contemporary perspectives. We will investigate different understandings of the environment and different understandings of the causes and consequences of environmental change and degradation. We will examine a range of responses and solutions to environmental change and degradation (including whether we should be concerned about environmental degradation at all). We will also analyze the social dynamics these solutions seek to address and the values that underlie them. In conclusion, we will compare the strengths and weaknesses of the goals and methods of the various solutions in different contexts. We will also consider how different solutions have been and could be integrated together. COURSE GOALS AND FORMAT. This course has two main goals. The first goal is to help you ‘see’ and research the social dynamics around the environment that we discuss in class. The second goal is to help you analyze the range of understandings of causes of environmental degradation and solutions to them. The course format involves inquiry activities, documentaries, and discussion, as well as formal lectures and assessments to accomplish these goals. REQUIRED TEXTS. There are no required books for this class. All required readings are listed on the Course Outline and Readings section of the syllabus and are posted under the ‘Readings’ section of Blackboard. OFFICE HOURS. Please come by my office hours (Tuesdays, 11:45-1:45, JRC LL06) if you have any questions about the course or about environmental studies in general. I am also available to meet by appointment if you have scheduling conflicts with my office hours.

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS. Participation. Participation is an essential part of the course. Participation in this class involves discussing ideas together, reflecting on them individually, and applying them to events around you. Therefore, the participation requirement has the following four parts:

1. Attendance. Being in class regularly is necessary for you to be a part of the learning community. However, I understand that situations may arise throughout the semester when you will need to miss class. Therefore, you are allotted two ‘free’ absences. After you have used your two free absences, missing class will result in a reduction of your grade.

2. ‘What do you think’ Questions. Thinking about concepts we’ll discuss in class in

advance of class and readings will help you clarify your own thoughts about the concepts and chart your own learning. Being aware of how your thoughts about concepts change (or why they stay the same) is an important part of participating in the learning process. Therefore, you will have ‘what do you think’ questions in class each week. Your effort in completing these questions will also be very helpful for you as you work on your final portfolio and presentation (see assignment sections below). You will include your responses to each question in your final course portfolio. Your responses will be part of your final course portfolio grade. They will be graded on effort and completion only.

3. Reading Quizzes. Coming to class prepared to discuss the readings and listen well to

your fellow students is necessary for us to examine the heart of the course material together. In order to increase the quality of your preparation for discussion, you will have a quiz over each required reading. Refer to the Course Outline and Readings section of the syllabus for required readings and dates. (There will be a total of twelve reading quizzes throughout the semester.)

All reading quizzes will be available on the ‘Reading Quizzes’ section of Blackboard. You must complete the reading quizzes the day before we will discuss the readings in class. (For example, by 11:59pm on Monday, Feb. 9, you need to submit the Blackboard quiz over Cronon’s article. You will no longer be able to access the Cronon quiz starting at 12:00am on Tuesday, Feb. 10.)

Each reading quiz covers the main arguments and ideas of the reading. All quizzes are open book. I will drop the lowest quiz grade. Reading quizzes are worth 10 percent of your grade.

4. Reflective Journal. Reflecting individually about your own reactions, thoughts, and

ideas about what we study and discuss as well as how it applies to the world around you will help you sort through, be critical of, and absorb the course material and experiences. I will provide time in class for you to write. You will include your reflective journal in your final course portfolio. Your reflective journal will be part of your final course portfolio grade (see below). It will be graded on effort and completion only.

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Assignments. I will provide detailed instructions for each assignment as well as an explanation of how they will be graded several weeks prior to the due date. Ideas about Nature: Interviews This assignment asks that you extend our discussion of ideas about nature with your own research. The research question you’ll consider is the following: do our ideas about nature affect our interactions with it? First, interview five friends or family members about how they understand nature and the environment and how their understandings may influence their interactions with the environment. (You will have time in class to prepare interview questions.) Second, listen to or read over their responses and identify themes in their responses. Link these themes to ideas and critiques from Cronon’s article and our discussion of Mills’ ideas about metaphorical visions. Third, write a 8-9 page, double-spaced report of your interview research. This should include the themes you identified in your interviews, your analysis of them, and your own conclusions about the research question. This is due on Thursday, March 5. This counts for 25 percent of your grade. Comparative Analysis of Participation: Environmental Organizations in Minnesota This assignment asks you to apply our discussion of participation in environmental decision-making to a specific environmental issue and specific organizations in Minnesota that interest you. First, select an environmental issue in Minnesota that interests you. Second, find two organizations or businesses in Minnesota that propose different solutions to this issue. Third, compare and contrast their definitions of the problem (and what social or individual dynamics are the cause of the problem) and their proposed solutions (what do they think will correct the problematic dynamics). Fourth, compare and contrast how the groups seek to participate in environmental decision-making to achieve their solution. Provide your own critique of the effectiveness of their form of participation to achieve their desired solution. Your analysis and critique of participation is the heart of this paper. This paper should be 10-12 pages, double-spaced. This is due on Thursday, April 21. This counts for 30 percent of your grade.

**You must interview leaders of both organizations. Include these data in your analysis. **For extra credit, you may participate in an event or meeting organized by the organizations you have selected. To receive extra credit, you must record your observations and experiences at the events or meetings and include these as data in your analysis. Monitoring Consumption This assignment asks you to monitor the resources you consume for two days. I will provide a chart that will facilitate this process. Write a brief, 1-2 page reflection (double-spaced) about how your own resource use relates to the ideas we’ve discussed in the unit about values and ethics. This is due on Thursday, April 30. This counts for 5 percent of your grade. Final Course Integration: Presentation and Portfolio This final assignment asks you to integrate and critically reflect on what you have learned and thought about social dynamics and the environment throughout the semester. The purpose of this portfolio and presentation is for you to articulate and illustrate your understanding of social dynamics and the environment as well as to reflect on your own learning process. You

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will do this by critically examining and piecing together what you have learned throughout the semester in class, through your assignments, and in other experiences outside of class. You will present your portfolio to the class. Although your presentations will be individual presentations, you will have two class periods to collaborate with other students as you develop your final portfolio and presentation. I will provide a separate handout with detailed instructions about your portfolio and presentation. The portfolios are due Tuesday, May 12. You will present your portfolios to the class either on Tuesday, May 12 or Thursday, May 14. The portfolio and presentation serve as the final exam. Your portfolio and presentation are worth 30 percent of your grade. SUMMARY OF GRADES AND DUE DATES. Reading Quizzes: 10 percent Assignments:

Ideas about Nature: Interviews 8-9 page, double-spaced report and analysis of interviews 25 percent, due Thursday, March 5

Comparative Analysis of Participation: Environmental Organizations in Minnesota 10-12 page, double-spaced analysis of organizations 30 percent, due Tuesday, April 21

Monitoring Consumption Tracking of your resource use for two days and 1-2 pages, double-spaced reflection 5 percent, due Thursday, April 30 Final Course Integration: Portfolio and Presentation

30 percent, Portfolios due Tuesday, May 12 Presentations on Tuesday, May 12 and Thursday, May 14

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COURSE OUTLINE AND READINGS Tuesday, Feb 3: Introduction to Course Thursday, Feb. 5: Theoretical Perspectives: Linking Environment and Society

Ideas about Nature Tuesday, Feb. 10: What is Nature?

Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness; or Getting Back to the Wrong Nature” Thursday, Feb. 12: Investigating Ideas about Nature

The Tragedy of the Commons and the Land Ethic: Setting up Solutions Tuesday, Feb 17: Debate: Hardin v. Leopold

Hardin, “Tragedy of the Commons” Leopold, “The Land Ethic”

Government Management of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality Thursday, Feb 19: Abundance to Scarcity: Conservation and Preservation

Marshall, “The Conservamentalists: Can the Sports and the Greens Find Common Ground?” Tuesday, Feb. 24: Agency Dynamics

Agency role play materials Thursday, Feb. 26: Progress, Prosperity, (and Pollution)

Films, in class: Destination Earth, The American Petroleum Institute The Lorax, Dr. Seuss

Tuesday, March 3: Ecology, Social Rebellion, and Environmental Law

Marx, “American Institutions and Ecological Ideals”

Participation in Environmental Decision Making Thursday, March 5: Justice, Health, and the Environment

Documentary, in class: In Our Own Backyard: The First Love Canal

*Ideas about Nature: Interview analysis due* Tuesday, March 10: Questioning Forms of Participation

Arnstein, “A Ladder of Citizen Participation” Thursday, March 12: What is the Environmental Movement?

excerpt from Brulle, “Environmental Discourse and Social Movement Organizations”

Bring examples of environmental organizations that illustrate two of the environmental discourses that Brulle identifies to class.

Tuesday, March 17: Environmental Justice

Di Chiro, “Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice”

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Thursday, March 19: Environmental Justice Documentary, in class: Laid to Waste

*****SPRING BREAK********

Tuesday, March 31: The Wise Use Agenda Brick, “Determined Opposition: The Wise Use Movement Challenges Environmentalism” Arnold, “Overcoming Ideology”

Film excerpt in class, Behind the Green Curtain Thursday, April 2: Property Rights Tuesday, April 7: Economic Rationalism and Ecological Modernization

Dryzek, “Leave it to the Market: Economic Rationalism” Film excerpt in class, Waste=Food

Thursday, April 9: Collaborative Natural Resource Management Tuesday, April 14: The Power of Place

Cheng et al., “’Place’ as an Integrating Concept in Natural Resource Politics” Thursday, April 16: Comparing Forms of Participation

Values, Ethics, and Education Tuesday, April 21: Values, Ethics, and the Environment

Take the Footprint quiz and bring your results to class MacCleery, “Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic: Is it only half a loaf unless a consumption ethic

accompanies it?”

*Comparative Analysis of Participation due* Thursday, April 23: Christian Responses to Environmental Degradation

Pope John Paul II, “The Ecological Crisis: A Common Responsibility” Tuesday, April 28: Environmental Education Thursday, April 30: Environmental Information Campaigns

*Monitoring Consumption due* Integration Tuesday, May 5: Presentation Preparation (in class) Thursday, May 7: Presentation Preparation (in class) Tuesday, May 12 and Thursday, May 14: Final Presentations

*Portfolios are due in class on Tuesday, May 12*

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SAMPLE INQUIRY LEARNING UNIT My revised course syllabus consists of the following inquiry learning units:

• Ideas about Nature • Setting up Solutions • Government Management of Natural Resources and Environmental Quality • Participation in Environmental Decisions and Action • Values, Ethics, and Education • Evaluation and Integration of Solutions

For each of these units, I will focus the material through several driving questions and inquiry activities to engage students in learning and applying the concepts. I will also experiment with how these driving questions and inquiry activities help foster learning communities and learning through diversity using teaching-as-research. The following is an example of the first inquiry learning unit, Ideas about Nature. After presenting this inquiry learning unit, I discuss how it supports the Delta pillars and my teaching philosophy. INQUIRY LEARNING UNIT: IDEAS ABOUT NATURE Driving questions: What is nature? What is the environment? Do our answers to these questions matter? If so, why? Learning objectives:

• To identify a variety of understandings of nature and the environment • To examine historical roots of these diverse understandings • To participate in investigating different understanding of nature • To consider how these understandings may affect our interactions with the

environment Outline of activities: Before the Learning Unit:

1. During the class period prior to the inquiry unit, students will reflect (in writing) on the driving questions. This will serve as a pre-assessment of students’ understanding and preconceptions about this topic.

2. Before class, students will complete reading quizzes about Mills’ and Cronon’s articles on Blackboard. This will help increase student participation in the discussion and the quality of their own analysis of the material.

Tuesday, February 10: What is Nature?

1. I will show video clips that illustrate different understandings of nature. 2. Students will identify the various understandings of nature and the environment

that they see in these clips.

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3. Students will discuss how the various understandings of nature and the environment they identify relate to arguments from Mills and Cronon.

4. Students will identify and critique Mills’ and Cronon’s main arguments. 5. Through lecture and multimedia, I will provide students with the historical

context of arguments about understandings of nature and how these understandings may influence our interactions with the environment.

6. Students will individually reflect on how they would investigate their own understanding of nature and how their understanding may influence their interactions with the environment.

Thursday, February 12: Investigating Ideas about Nature

1. Students will discuss how they would investigate their own understanding of nature and how their understanding may influence their interactions with the environment.

2. I will explain the interview assignment, including how to write interview questions, conduct interviews, and analyze interview responses.

3. In small groups, students will write interview questions that investigate others’ understanding of nature and how these understandings may affect their interactions with the environment.

4. Students will engage in a large group discussion to compile a list of questions. 5. Students will practice interviews on a member of a different group. 6. Students will engage in another large group discussion to revise interview

questions (if necessary). 7. Students will finalize interview questions. 8. I will post the list of interview questions on Blackboard.

Assessment: Students will interview five friends or family members using the interview questions students created during class. Students will analyze the responses by grouping responses into themes and linking them to Mills’ and Cronon’s arguments about ideas about nature and how these ideas may influence our interactions with the environment. Finally, students will write a report of their analyses and conclusions. In addition to assessment of student learning, I will ask students to assess the unit itself. I will ask the following questions:

• Which of the following helped or hindered your learning of the material? Please explain. (I will provide a list of the learning goals.)

o reflection on questions at the beginning of the unit o reading quizzes o video clips and discussion o discussion and critique of Mills and Cronon o lecture on historical roots of understandings of nature o writing interview questions o conducting interviews with friends and family o analysis and report of interviews

• Did you feel interested and engaged in this topic? Why or why not? Please provide specific examples.

• What activities would you recommend in the future?

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INQUIRY LEARNING UNIT AND DELTA PILLARS This inquiry learning unit seeks to foster learning through diversity, learning communities, and teaching-as-research. i) Learning through diversity.

This inquiry learning unit fosters learning through diversity in the following ways:

• Video clips that illustrate diverse understandings of nature and the environment • Discussions that draw out different perspectives on questions to ask to

understand people’s understandings of nature and the environment • Discussions that critique a variety of arguments about ideas about nature, their

historical roots, and their influence on our interactions with the environment • Interviews that draw out different understandings of nature and thoughts about

how these understandings may influence our interactions with the environment • A range of activities that engage different learning styles

ii) Learning communities.

This inquiry learning unit fosters learning communities by helping to build learning communities and by enhancing and facilitating individual learning through learning communities.

a) Building learning communities: This activity fosters students’ understanding of each other’s various perspectives and experiences. The conversational and descriptive quality of this project is a non-threatening step to begin building learning communities. Gradually, we will progress to more analytical and potentially controversial topics.

b) Enhancing and facilitating learning: Students engage in a shared process of inquiry and discovery about ideas about nature and the environment. Discussion, interview question writing, and interview practice within learning communities support learning goals. Students also learn from interview respondents about a variety of ideas about nature and a variety of ways these ideas may influence their interactions with the environment.

iii) Teaching-as-research.

This inquiry learning unit is informed by teaching-as-research outcomes and includes teaching-as-research through student assessment of activities. The design of the learning unit is based on teaching-as-research and reflection as discussed throughout the portfolio, particularly in Section Three. Also, at the end of each inquiry learning unit, students will assess the activities with respect to learning goals and engagement. I have included the student assessment questions in the assessment section (above). I will use these assessments in a process of formative evaluation to improve subsequent inquiry learning units.

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INQUIRY LEARNING UNIT AND TEACHING PHILOSOPHY The inquiry learning unit seeks to implement my teaching philosophy in the following ways: i) Inquiry learning.

The premise that students learn best by doing and thrive on practical application of material informs the design of the inquiry learning units. In this unit, students investigate ideas about nature and how these ideas may influence interactions with the environment through interviews, analysis, and discussion. This inquiry learning supports the learning goal of identifying various understandings of nature and the environment and considering how these may affect our interactions with the environment.

ii) Transparency

The premise that students thrive with clear teaching and learning objectives, clear expectations, and clear methods of evaluation and feedback also informs the design of the inquiry units. Inquiry units begin with driving questions, a list of learning goals, and the assessment (with a grading rubric) that will be given at the end of the unit. Students know the purpose of the unit, what they will be expected to know at the end of the unit, and how they will be evaluated.

iii) Reciprocal Learning

The idea that I can model the learning process for students also informs the design of inquiry units. At the end of each unit, students assess how the activities facilitate learning and engagement in the learning process. After I receive and consider the feedback, I will explain to the students how I incorporated their feedback into the next inquiry learning unit. Also, throughout the inquiry learning, I will emphasize the exploratory nature of ideas and classroom discussion, so that students may be more willing to ask questions and listen to and consider others’ ideas.

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APPENDIX D Introduction to Delta Internship.............................................................................. D1 Reflection: Internship Summary ............................................................................. D2

INTRODUCTION TO DELTA INTERNSHIP One of my interests in teaching and in education research is how to foster critical reflection about course content. My master’s thesis addressed this question by critiquing different models of environmental education and proposing a re-orientation of environmental education based in nature-study and an analysis of metaphorical visions. I argued that this re-orientation could increase critical reflection about ecological knowledge. My DELTA internship provided an opportunity to explore these ideas in the classroom using teaching- as-research. I participated in an internship with Jim Lorman at Edgewood college in Fall 2004. He teaches an introductory natural science class for non-science majors. He incorporates a substantial critical reflection component in his course. For example, he includes integration/reflection discussions and two integration/reflection papers along with weekly labs, field projects, and exams. The purposes of these activities include the following: to challenge students to critically examine and integrate the course content through different perspectives, to integrate content and ideas with experiences outside the class, to critically examine prior assumptions, both their own and society’s, and finally to communicate their thoughts with others. I was eager to participate in an internship experience with Jim’s class to learn more about teaching that fosters critical reflection and integration of course material into daily life. My role was to teach science concepts with material from an environmental studies video series I was helping to develop at the University of Wisconsin. I wanted to explore how the video and supplements to the series could challenge students to connect their understanding of scientific content with their daily lives and prior understanding through critical reflection. I developed three modules to evaluate in Jim’s class. The first module covered biomes, the second addressed climate, and the third explored the history of soil formation. I selected video excerpts and developed discussion materials for each of these modules, drawing on some of my ideas from my master’s thesis. The modules illustrated scientific concepts through video footage and sought to challenge students to integrate concepts with their experiences and evaluate their prior assumptions through discussion.

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REFLECTION: DELTA INTERNSHIP SUMMARY Science enables us to investigate how ecological processes work; critical thinking helps us determine how and why we should apply this knowledge. However, the ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions of application are often understood and evaluated through existing knowledge schemas, perspectives, and assumptions. My internship sought to investigate how teaching can foster critical reflection in the ecological sciences in order to help students evaluate their underlying perspectives and assumptions about ecological concepts and their relevance to their daily lives. Teaching-as-research Question. My internship explored the following research question: how can we encourage students to evaluate their underlying perspectives and assumptions, and how can this enable students to integrate their ecological knowledge into the context of their daily lives, into their decision making processes and actions, and into their understanding of themselves and society? My internship included the following learning goals for research and teaching: • To explore how to increase critical reflection of underlying prior assumptions and

perspectives about course material. • To develop video modules that increase students’ critical reflection about course

content. • To improve facilitation of discussions that engage students in critical reflection. Teaching-as-research Method. I developed three video modules to present in Jim Lorman’s natural science class. The topics for the modules included climate, biomes, and soil. The modules illustrated scientific concepts through video footage and sought to challenge students to integrate concepts with their prior understanding and experiences through discussion. For each module, I selected video excerpts from the environmental science video series I was helping to write to illustrate science concepts. I also developed discussion materials to encourage critical reflection about the concepts, drawing on some of my ideas from my master’s thesis. Students in Jim’s classes had a diversity of majors and learning goals. They were not science majors and had a wide variety of academic interests. Reflective discussions through tools like metaphors (to be discussed in the next section) helped draw out different understandings of the concepts among students and illuminate diverse ways of thinking about ecological concepts and their applications. Also, video materials and different discussion formats (small group and large group) provided a variety of formats for different learning styles. The video clips provided a shared knowledge/visual base for discussion. Following the video clips, students discussed their ideas in small groups and then shared their thoughts in a large groups discussion. This helped form learning communities in which students could express and learn about different understandings and applications of the concepts we talked about in class.

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Example: Biome Module The topic of the first module I presented was biomes. The video footage illustrated the ecological aspects of biomes. The discussion segment sought to bring out prior ideas about biomes and to connect information about biomes to students’ lives through critical reflection on how they think about the environment. Specifically, I wanted to test whether a discussion sparked by ways we conceptualize the earth could help students critically reflect how they think about the scientific concepts and how they piece these concepts together. To attempt this, I structured part of the discussion around two common metaphors for the earth: Nature as a book and Earth as a machine. We discussed how these metaphors expanded, limited, or in other ways influenced students’ understanding of biomes. The following pages include this excerpt from the Biome module and a compilation of students’ responses to it. EXCERPT FROM BIOME MODULE

Biomes. Part Two.

Metaphors do the following:

• Help us understand and integrate new information.

• Help us relate this new information to our experience.

• Help us understand the intangible or complex through tangible and simple physical

concepts.

• Help us communicate knowledge and ideas.

• And ?

Describe biomes in terms of the following two metaphors. How do they expand, change, or even

limit your understanding of biomes?

A. Nature is a book.

B. Earth is a machine.

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STUDENTS’ RESPONSES TO BIOME METAPHOR REFLECTION ACTIVITY

Earth as a machine:

• There are many different parts to a biome that all work together and affect each other.

• Misleads because you can’t actually take it apart.

• All the parts of the earth (biomes) fit together like gears in an engine or watch.

• The parts are not very interchangeable, may forget how to put them together.

• Biomes are predictable. They are a result of the climate, which is affected by temperature and

precipitation. Within the machine of Earth, energy is constantly flowing through biomes.

• This doesn’t take into account the diversity of communities in different biomes.

• Biomes are a machine of sorts with parts that interlock and interplay. It also seems like a

machine in that if a part is not working correctly, or broken, the whole systems is affected and

disabled. The limiting factor in this metaphor is that we may think we can tinker with the

machine, and maybe even keep it running or modify it, but I think we are unable to know the

long-term impacts of helping a system run with modified parts.

• What if the parts cannot be put back together?

• Nature has many things that happen, but only works one way.

• All parts work together.

• May miss interconnectedness, gives false idea of being able to fix earth’s problems.

Nature as a book:

• Different biomes are like chapters. but nature isn’t always in order, like a book.

• Has chapters, but obscures the idea that things aren’t always in order.

• All systems have the same story, they have the same energy process and all Nature has this same

story.

• I think the interconnectedness and interdependence of biomes can play out like a story in a book.

It has a beginning, several characters, action, and conclusion.

• Obscures because there are many interpretations.

• You cannot judge nature by one day, just like you cannot judge a book by its cover.

• Nature cannot be condensed into a book.

• Hidden meanings and everyone makes there own generalizations and remarks, we do the same in

observing and understanding biomes.

• Author is God; reveals His purpose through nature.

• It reveals itself over time.

• Nature has an author. This means that nature has a beginning, middle, and end.

• Communication of different things through nature.

• Author tells the story…things have reasons for why they occur.

• Nature is always changing, so it’s not like a book.

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Evaluation of Biome Discussion I have included the results of students’ evaluation for the metaphor discussion portion of the Biome module. My evaluation of critical reflection during the Biome module was not very helpful for me. I discuss limitations to my evaluation method offer improvements it.

STUDENT EVALUATIONS OF BIOME DISCUSSION

Scale: 1-5; 1=insignificant to 5= they helped a lot

Did they help increase your understanding of content?

5: 9

4: 12

3: 7

2: 2

1: 0

Specific comments: Metaphors were discussed thoroughly and were helpful.

Did they help you think about the subject differently?

5: 6

4: 12

3: 8

2: 3

1: 1

Specific comments: They helped me think about things from different perspectives.

Did they make the ecological concepts relevant to your life?

5: 7

4: 15

3: 5

2: 3

1: 0

Specific comments: Students did not provide specific comments on this question. However later

in the evaluation, I asked students what could help make the concepts relevant to their lives.

Several students mentioned metaphors as a helpful tool. First, I was expecting that students would provide specific comments about each question. I realize now that I needed to ask more specific questions to prompt student comments. (I originally chose not to do this because I did not want to influence student response.) However, in the future I would ask students to provide one example of how the discussion of metaphors helped them increase their understanding of biomes, think about biomes differently, and make the ecological concept of biomes relevant to their lives. This provides a specific prompt without leading the students towards certain types of responses.

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Second, this feedback did not help me identify what aspects of the discussion helped increase understanding or what that increased understanding of the content actually looked like. In other words, I did not pre-assess their understanding, how they thought about the subject, or how they felt it was relevant to their lives. To correct this in the future, I would include a pre-assessment of their understanding of biomes by asking students to explain biomes to a friend. (This was a large oversight, considering my the fact that my research questions addressed prior understanding and assumptions.) After the video clips and discussion, I would ask them to revise their explanation and to explain why they revised it as they did. I would also ask students to draw images or concept maps of their understanding of biomes in addition to written descriptions to help illustrate their understanding and thoughts about them. Conclusion I practiced teaching-as-research in order to test how different ways of presenting material and engaging students in discussion affected their critical reflection on ecological concepts. However, my research question was beyond the scope of my research design. The internship provided pieces of information about how to facilitate critical reflection, but the overriding value of this experience was to enable me to practice teaching-as-research. It helped me develop a better understanding of the kinds of questions teaching-as-research can answer well and to think more critically about designing evaluation methods that fit the question. The internship also enabled me to better understand how the ideas of learning through diversity and learning communities are part of the teaching and learning process and how I can design courses to incorporate them.

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APPENDIX E Curriculum Vitae........................................................................................................E1

Maria Dahmus Kim 4829 35th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55417 608-335-0461, medahmus@wisc.edu

EDUCATION

University of Wisconsin. Madison, Wisconsin.

Ph.D. Candidate. Land Resources, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. 2005-present. Areas of research: sociology of the environmental movement, collaborative land and natural resource management, environmental education Advisor: Professor Gary Green, Rural Sociology. M.S. Land Resources, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. 2005. Master’s Thesis: Nature-Study and the Analysis of Metaphorical Visions: A Proposed Reorientation of Problems-

Focused Environmental Education. Advisor: Professor Calvin B. DeWitt, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies.

University of Texas. Austin, Texas.

B.A. Plan II Honors. Highest Honors. 2000. Honors Thesis: Finding Common Ground: An Exploration of the Environmental Movements in Austin, Texas in 1991-1992.

Advisor: Professor Gunther Peck, History. B.S. Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology. High Honors. 2000. UTEACH. Secondary Teaching Certificate: Biology, grades 6-12. 2001.

RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Research Assistant. University of Wisconsin. Fall 2002-Fall 2005. Assisted with research and writing for Our Global Heritage, an interdisciplinary environmental studies video series for high school and college students.

Supervising Professor: Professor King-Jau Samuel Kung, Soil Science.

Undergraduate Research Fellow. University of Texas. Fall 1999. The search for the frog biting flies, Corethrella, and a future analysis of their preferential attraction to calls of tree frogs.

Advisor: Professor C. Riley Nelson, Natural Sciences.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Adjunct Faculty. Envr 359/Pols 309: Environmental Policy. University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Spring 2008.

Adjunct Faculty. Envr 212: Social Dynamics and the Environment. University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN. Fall 2007.

Teaching Assistant. Envir St/Urpl/Poli Sci/Econ 449: Government and Natural Resources. University of Wisconsin. Summer 2007.

Honorary Associate/Fellow. Environmental Studies 600: Private Property and the Environment: Friends or Foes? University of Wisconsin. Spring 2007.

Teaching Assistant. Biocore 301: Evolution, Ecology, and Genetics. University of Wisconsin. Fall 2006.

Teaching Assistant. Zoology 151: Introductory Biology. University of Wisconsin. Spring 2006.

Delta Internship. Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning. University of Wisconsin. Natural Science 104F: Introduction to Natural Science. Edgewood College, Madison, WI. Fall 2004.

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ACTIVITIES

Delta Program. University of Wisconsin. 2004-present.

Student Representative. Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies. Spring 2003-Spring 2004.

Co-Coordinator. Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies Forums. Fall 2003-Spring 2005.

Fellow. Au Sable Graduate Student Fellowship. Fall 2002-present.

SCHOLARSHIPS

Terry Foundation Scholarship, University of Texas. Fall 1996-Spring 2000.

Robert C. Byrd Scholarship, University of Texas. Fall 1996-Spring 1997.

CERTIFICATIONS

Biology Teaching Certificate, grades 6-12. Texas.

Scuba Diving Instructor (PADI).

REFERENCES Gary Green Ph.D. Advisor Professor of Rural Sociology

346d Agricultural Hall

1450 Linden Dr Madison, WI 53706 gpgreen@wisc.edu.; (608) 262-2710 Calvin B. DeWitt Master’s Advisor Professor of Environmental Studies Ph.D. Committee Member

Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies 0122 Science Hall, 550 N Park St. Madison, WI 53706

cbdewitt@wisc.edu ; (608) 265-2564 Evelyn A. Howell Biocore 301 Course Chair Professor and Department Chair of Landscape Architecture

25e Agricultural Hall, 1450 Linden Dr. Madison, WI 53706

eahowell@wisc.edu ; (608) 263-6964 King-Jau Samuel Kung Research Assistantship Supervisor Professor of Soil Science Master’s Committee Member

263 Soils, 1525 Observatory Dr. Madison, WI 53706

kskung@wisc.edu ; (608) 262-6530

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