The Global Change Curriculum And Minor At The University Of Michigan
The Global Change Curriculum and Minor at the University ofMichiganBen A van der PluijmDepartment of Geological Sciences, Program in the Environment, University ofMichigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1005, vdpluijm@umich.eduABSTRACTA team of faculty from the natural and social sciencessupports an interdisciplinary curriculum and degreeprogram in Global Change and Global Sustainability atthe University of Michigan. We offer a series of lecturecourses and laboratory sessions on Earth SystemsScience and Sustainability entitled "Introduction toGlobal Change" (http://globalchange.umich.edu). Wefind that interdisciplinarity, inquiry-based learning andearly capture of a student's interest create an attractivealternative to today's disciplinary undergraduateeducation, and has the potential to break new ground instructure, content and pedagogical methodology. Withthree lower-level courses at its core, we designed a'front-loaded' interdisciplinary minor in Global Change.This minor reinterprets undergraduate education atMichigan, by providing an alternative model of generalundergraduate education. First, the minor is"front-loaded," meaning that students are able andencouraged to complete most of their credit-hourrequirements in their second (sophomore) year at theuniversity. We find that an early interdisciplinaryexperience aids students in planning their subsequentuniversity careers and their choice of a major. Second, theminor is grounded in the interdisciplinary study ofcritically important global problems that engage studentinterest, that are thematically integrated, and that aretaught from a multi-disciplinary, inquiry-basedperspective. Third, the courses are taught by a team offaculty from various schools and colleges who areexperts in their respective disciplines, while sharingoverlapping interests in education.HISTORY AND OBJECTIVES OF THEGLOBAL CHANGE PROGRAMcross-disciplinary interactions among faculty andstudents. NASA grant support and particularlypartnering with its Earth System Science Education(ESSE) program provided the key ingredients for theseeducational activities, which led to the programdescribed hereIn the early 1990's, faculty members from several UMSchools and Colleges involved in the GCP developedIntroduction to Global Change, a two-semesterinterdisciplinary course sequence investigating causesand impacts of the changing global environment forscience majors. Later in the 1990's the focus moved tonon-science majors who are seeking to develop awell-rounded understanding of the changing globalenvironment, and an ability to integrate this knowledgeinto future career and research activities (see alsoCommittee on Undergraduate Science Education, 1999).The development of a capstone course, Global Change 3,and the offering of a Global Change Minor degree led tothe formal organization of a small degree program, titledthe Global Change Program (conveniently retaining theGCP acronym).The overall goal of the Global Change Program is tooffer an introductory, science-based course sequencethat provides all students, regardless of background ormathematical proclivities, an opportunity to gain thebenefits and insights from a modern and continuouslyupdated scientific description of the changing globalenvironment and the human relationship with thatenvironment. The issues discussed in the coursesequence can be made directly relevant to the future livesof students, thereby making the content of significantappeal and interest. A key objective from the beginningwas to make the courses truly interdisciplinary, througha team-teaching approach, involving expert faculty fromkey, intersecting disciplines. The goal was to make thecourse both rigorous and quantitative in terms of itsscientific content while still being engaging andappealing to non-science majors, through the extensiveuse of multi-media techniques and modern instructionaltechnologies.The development of today's Global Change Programat the University of Michigan was guided by thefollowing set of objectives:Every day, millions of human and natural activities arealtering the planet on which we live. Over the pastcentury, through our ever-increasing population andmastery of technology, we have been changing the globalenvironment at a pace unknown to natural history. Thegoal of the Global Change Curriculum at the Universityof Michigan is to convey modern scientific principles thatunderlie our rapidly changing world in an integrated 1.and engaging manner to incoming undergraduatestudents. This is captured by the curriculum's mission2.statement:To become better equipped to contribute to the important 3.debates concerning global environmental change, resourcemanagement and societal adaptation strategies.4.The University of Michigan initiated its Project forthe Interdisciplinary Study of Global Change, otherwise 5.known as the Global Change Project (GCP), in 1991, withinternal funding and support from the university. At its 6.inception, the GCP was mostly a research initiative in theCollege of Engineering, with an educational componentthat focused primarily on graduate education. Themission of the GCP rapidly broadened to include a focuson undergraduate education, as it continued to fostervan der Pluijm - Global Change CurriculumImprove understanding of the natural and socialscience underpinnings of Global Change and GlobalSustainability.Study the evolution of the natural world andappreciate temporal and spatial scales of essly crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries in the natural and social sciences.Understand how human actions are contributing toglobal environmental change.Learn how to utilize the vast resources of the Internetto find and draw upon scientific information.Become better equipped to contribute to the debateon global environmental change and societaladaptation strategies; to become an informed citizenand decision maker.249
Figure 1. Example of a STELLA Activity: Earth Energy Balance Model. In this Global Change 1 laboratory,students use basic radiation laws such as the Stefan-Boltzmann equation and physical properties that governenergy flow to model the energy balance of early Earth and early Venus. This laboratory exercise facilitates anexploration of the radiative equilibrium temperature of each planet and allows student to understand theimportance of radiation laws and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.7.8.Learn how to develop and use dynamical models ofEarth processes and spatial data analysis to analyzeEarths systems behavior.Develop the capacity to integrate information andtechnology to explore solutions to interdisciplinaryproblems.The instructional team includes faculty from severalschools and programs, including the School of NaturalResources and Environment, the Department of Biology,the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic, and SpaceSciences, the Department of Geological Sciences, theBusiness School, the Department of Anthropology, theDepartment of Sociology, the School of Public Health,and the Space Physics Research Laboratory. Anindependent evaluation team from the School ofEducation was part of the program during its inception,guiding development that led to the current rendition ofthe curriculum, which is outlined below.Since starting the Global Change Program in theearly 1990's, other schools across the country havesuccessfully developed similar interdisciplinaryprograms. Rather than attempting to offer an overviewof national activities in this area, this contribution isspecifically intended to illustrate one example of abest-practices approach. Several publications (e.g., Avila,2003) describe broader efforts. While occasionalreference to our evaluation efforts is made in thiscontribution, this aspect of curriculum development ispart of a graduate thesis project in the School ofEducation, with results published at a later time.the natural world and sustainability in a changingenvironment. Whereas these lower-level courses meetnatural science and social science distributionrequirements by emphasizing the respective disciplines,they attempt to seamlessly integrate scientific andsocietal dimensions where possible. Just recently theCollege of Literature, Science and the Arts at theUniversity of Michigan added an interdisciplinarycourse requirement to the undergraduate degree, as partof a broader interdisciplinarity initiative at the university(University of Michigan, 2005). Brief descriptions of theindividual courses are below, followed by a sketch of thedegree program.Global Change 1 - In Global Change1: Physical Processes,students investigate the physical aspects of change fromthe Big Bang to current events, related to naturalphysical, chemical, and biological cycles contributing toGlobal Change. Topics of study include: origin andevolution of the universe, solar system and early Earth;origin of the elements; geological processes and hazards;the Earth's atmosphere and oceans; chemical andbiological evolution; origin and evolution of life; lifeprocesses; biogeochemical cycles; ecosystems ons; past and future climate patterns; pollution;sea level change; global warming. Students applylearned knowledge by using a graphically based,dynamic modeling software program (STELLA) in acomputer laboratory setting, to investigate the dynamicsand effects of altering natural systems using globalchange issues such as Earth's energy balance,paleoclimate, ozone, predator-prey relationships,THE GLOBAL CHANGE CURRICULUMelemental cycles and greenhouse warming. TheThe Global Change Curriculum consists of three courses dynamical modeling package allows students to workthat focus on principles of, and human interactions with,250Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, n. 3, May, 2006, p. 249-254
Figure 2. Example of ArcGIS spatial data analysis activity: Global Energy Consumption. These two maps areexamples of images students can create using ArcGIS in the Global Change 2 laboratory section. In thisenergy activity, students explore patterns of global energy consumption through fossil fuel use andtraditional fuel resource use such as firewood. Students examine the costs and benefits associated withdifferent fuel types and can explore global trends such as the difference between total and per capita globalenergy consumption, or students can focus on a particular country or region of interest and examine it inmore detail.directly with non-linear complex systems to develop animproved understanding of change and causality, yetnot requiring a high mastery of mathematics. Forexample, students develop models of the Earth energybalance that are used to study planetary temperaturesand global warming scenarios, based on a description ofatmospheric processes and projections of the build up ofcarbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere due to fossil fueluse (Figure 1).In addition to laboratory sections where studentsexamine and model systems, discussion sessions areused to explore personal and geopolitical aspects ofglobal environmental change. Lecture material ispresented as webpages through the public Globalvan der Pluijm - Global Change CurriculumChange website and as PowerPoint files through aprivate course environment (the University ofMichigan's Ctools; https://ctools.umich.edu/ ).Learning is complemented by a yearly evolving set ofself-tests that guide students' preparation for exams.Details of the Global Change 1 lecture sequence alchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/.Global Change 2 - In Global Change 2: Human Impacts,students study the effects of economic and social systemson the natural physical, chemical and biologicaldynamics of our planet. Topics of study include: humanevolution; populations and communities; value of251
Figure 3. Example of a GC3 sustainability project,called “Great Lakes, Great Parks: A CarbonSequestration Policy Initiative to Address GlobalClimate Change in Michigan”, by undergraduatestudents Meaghan Schroud, Michele Demers andHannah Arkin. “Great Lakes, Great Parks” is a policyprogram designed to mitigate the impacts of globalclimate change via the creation of carbonsequestration sinks. Tailored to the State ofMichigan, the program entails the purchase ofmarginal cropland for the purpose of reforestation.The project offers an assessment of its political,economic, and social feasibility and reviewsinternational attempts to forge global environmentalpolicy in the face of climate change and the potentialfor another Great Lakes state to adopt a similarprogram.biodiversity; biogeography; human role in shaping theplanet; transformations in the environment; coastalmargins, rivers, forests, fisheries, soil erosion, pollution,agriculture and industry; patterns in energy use; climatechange policy and impact on communities; sustainabledevelopment; environmental justice and conservationmethodologies. Students use hands-on simulations ofglobal patterns using ESRI's Geographic InformationSystem (ArcGIS) to investigate spatial impacts. Theyexplore questions such as, what natural processes are ofimportance, what are key forcing functions that governchange, what are human impacts, what national andinternational initiatives mitigate effects of global change,what are some solutions. The GIS package enablesstudents to study aspects of the global and regionalutilization of resources, employing the same tool used bygovernmental and non-governmental decision makers,such as the World Bank. An example activity on globalenergy use is shown in Figure 2.The course places activities in the context of humanexperiences and the role of humans in managing Earth.For non-science concentrators, this course places roleand activities of science in context of what we knowabout our world and how we can develop plans formanaging our future. Similar to Global Change 1, lecturematerial is presented as webpages through the publicGlobal Change website and as PowerPoint files througha private course environment. Class material iscomplemented by self-tests that guide students'preparation. Details of the Global Change 2 lecturesequence and laboratory activities can be found .252Global Change 3 - Global Change 3: Sustainability Studies,examines global environmental sustainability from theperspective of human cultures and communities. Wedraw heavily on case studies to discuss issues such astropical rain forests, watersheds, dam building,deforestation, acid rain, climate change, and theeconomics of development. International as well asnational cases are included, providing a rich array ofscenarios for others to adopt.This capstone course in Global Sustainabilityprovides undergraduate students with an opportunity tofocus their global change knowledge on more specificthemes and areas. Students work in small teams todevelop an in-depth understanding of a specific global orregional environmental problem. Themes have includedpolitics and governance of climatic change;environmental ethics; population, culture and religion;the biodiversity crisis; sustainable agriculture; andtechnology and development. Students investigateassessment methodologies, potential remediationstrategies and methodologies, economic and societalimpacts, and long-term management options. Figure 3shows an example of a term-long project that describes aproposal on carbon sequestration in the Great Lakesregion.Team Projects - Anchoring these educational activitiesare "web poster" projects that are required of all studentsin the global change courses. The students form teams(2-3 students) early in the term and work subsequently todevelop and ultimately present their projects in writtenand oral form. Students are asked to formulate theirproject plan in writing and their proposals are reviewedby the Graduate Student Instructors (GSI's). The projectsare also presented in their lab session at the end of theterm, showing a powerful dynamic between topiccoverage, presentation approaches and classroominteractions. Past experiences have shown how theseefforts can serve to create nested learning communitieswithin the student body, while also providing forextensive GSI-led mentoring opportunities.Can non-science majors master the use of dynamicmodels and spatial data analysis? - One of thehypotheses for curriculum development was that thecombination of web-based learning tools, use of dynamicmodels and spatial data analysis, and exposure tovarious disciplinary experts in an active learningenvironment would provide students with the tools tobuild and analyze first-order models of complexsystems, across many different topics in global change.Based on responses from standard university surveysand anecdotal information from exit surveys, theselaboratory activities were initially consideredintimidating by many students, but were readilysurmountable with proper instructional support. We seeevidence for gains in student confidence in their ability tobuild their own models and scenarios of Earth systemprocesses (one of the most challenging aspects of thecourse) at the final web project stage, where the majorityof presentations apply these analytical approaches to thetopic at hand.Do interdisciplinary courses capture studentinterest? - Another of our hypotheses was that studentswould be intrinsically interested in the material and thatthis interest would challenge them to think moreprofoundly about global change issues, using science atthe core. Results from laboratory discussion sessions andJournal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, n. 3, May, 2006, p. 249-254
project presentations indicate that students do, indeed,feel empowered to act on what they have learned.Whereas students are usually prepared to express theiropinions on geo-political topics, the course activities andprojects demand that they use supporting data andanalysis, which strengthens (and sometimes modifies)their arguments, leading to more informed positions.Our experiences point to increased student engagement,learning and satisfaction, as the Global Change courseshave been refined over time. These results haveconvinced us of the value of an interdisciplinary,problem-based approach for general education, whichlead us to the design of a “front-loaded” minor degree inGlobal Change that we describe next.THE GLOBAL CHANGE MINORThe Global Change minor is intended for all undergraduates who are interested in understanding the changesthat are occurring in the physical and socio-political systems of our planet through human impacts on the environment. The purpose of the Global Change minor is toteach students about the problems and challenges thathumanity faces as it wrestles with the urgent need to develop a more sustainable relationship with the Earth andits resources. The goal is to provide a broad understanding of the complex issues involved in global change andglobal sustainability, as well as exposure to some of theapproaches and strategies for effective economic development and resource management. The course series ishighly interdisciplinary and seamlessly crosses traditional academic fields, reflected in our degree philosophy of "Interdisciplinarity before disciplinarity". In thismanner, it is hoped that participating students will bebetter prepared to face the serious environmental andeconomic problems of the 21st Century, irrespective oftheir planned career paths and personal goals.The Global Change Minor offers several specialfeatures. Foremost, the minor is "front-loaded," meaningthat students are enabled and encouraged to completemost of the degree requirements in their second(sophomore) year at the university. This featureempowers students to use their "early" interdisciplinaryexperience in a formative sense - to aid them in planningtheir subsequent university careers and to inform theirchoice of a major as well as their understanding ofdisciplinary courses. Second, the program is grounded inthe interdisciplinary study of critically importantenvironmental problems that engage student interest,that are thematically integrated, and that are taught froma multi-disciplinary, inquiry-based perspective. Third,the minor is taught by a diverse team of faculty fromseveral schools and colleges who are experts in theirrespective fields, enabling an inquiry-based curriculum.Toward the minor, (1) we developed a capstonecourse in the Global Change sequence that complementsthe two-semester large classroom courses as part of thecore curriculum. The capstone course can only be takenafter completion of the Global Change 1 and 2 courses,although we allow some students to take Global Change2 and 3 concurrently when scheduling conflicts occur; (2)we developed and refined a set of documented,web-based curriculum modules for use in the minor andin other educational settings; (3) we documentedmethodologies and instruments for use in evaluatingand assessing interdisciplinary, science-based curricula,derived from our own experiences in building the minor.This effort was headed by faculty and students in theSchool of Education and its outcome is in preparation; (5)we created sets of hands-on, interactive laboratoryvan der Pluijm - Global Change Curriculummodules for use with research-caliber software andequipment in UM's Global Change Laboratory; (6) wetrack the student perspectives for use as a model forgeneral (lower division) education. In addition to takingthe core curriculum (GC 1, 2 and 3), students are requiredto complete two elective classes from the generalgroupings of Biosphere, Geosphere and Sociosphere,which draw from campus-wide (and field) offerings inthese disciplinary areas. An annually changing list ofsuitable classes is available allowing students broadlatitude in their choices.A note on demographics - Today's Global Changecourses serve 250 students each year, although many donot take the courses in sequence or necessarily completeall three courses of the curriculum. We specificallymaintain the large classroom courses as stand-aloneofferings for this reason, so that students can decide onthe number and order, if any, of these classes. Anunexpected, but very interesting outcome is the genderdemographic of the Global Change minor, which isstrongly skewed toward female students. In the largelecture classes (GC1 and GC2), the percentage of womenis on average 55%, with the majority self-identified asnon-science majors. However, more than 80% ofstudents in the minor, both currently enrolled andgraduates (totaling 70), are female. In exit interviews itwas repeatedly mentioned that a newly found sense ofrelevance of science was key to their decision to completethis science-oriented minor. The emphasis on linkagesamong natural and social science fields, and theconnections to today's societal needs were commonlyadded as a motivation to positively reexamine the valueof science in these debates and the decision-makingprocess.CONCLUSIONThe development of the Global Change Program at theUniversity of Michigan benefited from the foresight andsupport of many organizations and individuals, whoencouraged us to seek novel approaches toundergraduate education. Particularly the observationsthat interdisciplinary courses energize non-sciencestudents and rekindle an interest in the scientific method,combined with a need for students' early engagement inglobalization issues, demonstrate the value and themerits of our approach. Today, the Global Change coursecurriculum and minor degree are fully institutionalizedat the University of Michigan and the philosophicalunderpinnings are being implemented more broadly inother undergraduate curricula.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSThe Global Change Program reflects the efforts of manydedicated colleagues; they include, in alphabetical order,Vincent Abreu, David Allan, Mary Anne Carroll, LisaCurran, Paul Edwards, Richard Ford, Thomas Gladwin,Tim Killeen, George Kling, Maria Carmen Lemos, GaylNess, Perry Samson, James Teeri and Mark Wilson.Annual teams of graduate student instructors are centralto the success of the courses' required laboratoryactivities and their integration with the lecture material.Several organizations have funded our developmentactivities, including NASA, ESSE and NSF in the 1990sand the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation through2004. Additionally, the Provost's office at the Universityof Michigan supported faculty and graduate students,253
and schools and colleges that were academic hosts of the REFERENCESfaculty provided matching grant support, as well as theU-M's Office of the Vice-President for Research and the Avila, B.K.B., 2003, Integrating research and education:Biocomplexity investigators explore the possibilities;Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. Today,summary of a workshop, National Academies Press,the GCP is part of the interdisciplinary Program in the89p.Environment, which is a joint undergraduate degree ofthe School of Natural Resources and the Environment, Committee on Undergraduate Science Education,National Research Council, 1999, Transformingand the College of Literature, Sciences and the Arts. TheUndergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics,preparation of this contribution was aided by LesleyEngineering, and Technology, National AcademySefcik and the presentation benefited from carefulPress, 126p.reviews and constructive comments by the sse21.usra.edu/ESSE21/index.htmlUniversity of Michigan, 2005. Task Force onMultidisciplinary Education and Team teach.html254Journal of Geoscience Education, v. 54, n. 3, May, 2006, p. 249-254
Global Change 1 - In Global Change1: Physical Processes, students investigate the physical aspects of change from the Big Bang to current events, related to natural physical, chemical, and biological cycles contributing to Global Change. Topics of study include: origin and evolution of the universe, solar system and early Earth;
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