Teaching interdisciplinary sustainability science teamwork skills to graduate students using in-person and web-based interactions

Authors

Jessie Knowlton, Michigan Technological University
Kathleen E. Halvorsen, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Robert Handler, Michigan Technological UniversityFollow
Michael O'Rourke, Michigan State University

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

12-17-2014

Department

Department of Social Sciences; College of Forest Resources and Environmental Science

Abstract

Interdisciplinary sustainability science teamwork skills are essential for addressing the world’s most pressing and complex sustainability problems, which inherently have social, natural, and engineering science dimensions. Further, because sustainability science problems exist at global scales, interdisciplinary science teams will need to consist of international members who communicate and work together effectively. Students trained in international interdisciplinary science skills will be able to hit the ground running when they obtain jobs requiring them to tackle sustainability problems. While many universities now have sustainability science programs, few offer courses that are interdisciplinary and international in scope. In the fall semester of 2013, we piloted a course for graduate students entitled “Principles of Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research” at Michigan Technological University. This course was part of our United States National Science Foundation Partnerships in International Research and Education project on bioenergy development impacts across the Americas. In this case study, we describe the course development and implementation, share critical insights from our experience teaching the course and student learning outcomes, and give recommendations for future similar courses

Publisher's Statement

© 2014 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.3390/su6129428

Publication Title

Sustainability

Recommended Citation

Knowlton, J., Halvorsen, K. E., Handler, R., & O'Rourke, M. (2014). Teaching interdisciplinary sustainability science teamwork skills to graduate students using in-person and web-based interactions. Sustainability, 6(12), 9428-9440. http://doi.org/10.3390/su6129428
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/1961

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Version

Publisher's PDF