Sustainability Education Handbook

The Approach:

"Before you eat breakfast this morning, you’ve depended on more than half the world. This is the way our universe is structured. . .We aren’t going to have peace on earth until we recognize this basic fact of the interrelated structure of all reality." -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Teaching Sustainability: A Multi-Strand and Cross Disciplinary Approach

The Goal: Teaching in topic clusters rather than disparate subjects

Increasing Global Interdependence

Today’s students inhabit a rapidly changing world of increasing global interdependence. This is evident in everything from the clothes they wear to the toys and games students avidly discuss. World population is increasing, in many areas the cost of living is skyrocketing, and land and waterways are becoming increasingly polluted. In order to ensure the future viability and health for all of us on earth, we have a responsibility to question our everyday actions and their impacts. We have a responsibility to embrace living in a way that ensures a high quality of life for our children and our children’s children (and the children of people who we do not, and may never know.) Essentially, our everyday choices and the scale of our activities are redirecting the shape of the planet. Our personal vigilance and understanding of the far reaching impacts of our actions are vital to effecting positive changes for the 21st century.

Educators Play an Important Role

As educators, we play a very special role. We influence not only students by how and what we teach; but also parents and community members. By embracing sustainability as a vital topic within the classroom, we can help students internalize the importance of a high quality of life for all. Teaching sustainability cannot happen by teaching single module lessons, but can happen by integrating sustainability themes throughout all courses of study.

Multiple Intelligences

It is widely accepted that every student learns through their own unique manner and that student initiated discovery usually leads to the deepest understanding of information. Therefore, why is it that we, as educators, often find ourselves teaching discreet, single subjects? Embracing a multi-strand, inter-disciplinary teaching approach grounded in real-world examples is key to developing deep problem solving techniques and critical thinking skills in students. Using one theme as a hub to guide your examples within lessons provides both continuity and real world reflection that each of our everyday actions affect all aspects of life.

Multi-strand Approach

Changing your teaching structure from: teaching discreet individual topics to: choosing a theme and teaching all subjects from within this theme is key. ‘Mining a topic from all angles’ is a standard style of teaching for K-5 enclosed classrooms, but can be adopted for all grade levels. If this seems too overwhelming a task: begin slowly. Customize your current curricula. Use examples from the list of Sample Activities as discussion points within your classroom. Also, consult the Criteria Evaluation to quickly interject varied concerns not included directly within your curriculum.

Click here to continue to the next section: "Customize Your Curriculum"

Sustainable Education Handbook Table of Contents:

List of Contributors, Acknowledgments, Terms of Use
Introduction
Sample Activities
Teaching Tools
The Benefits
The Approach
Customize Your Curriculum
Evaluation Criteria Chart
Sustainability Topics
Web Sites
Curriculum
Sustainability / State Standards
Standards Quick Guide
Renewable Energy and Efficiency Success Stories