Data Driven Case Studies for Teaching Sustainability Analysis

There has been considerable effort at UBC to enrich student learning of sustainability through the use of case studies (e.g, ENVR 440, CONS 452 and pending courses GEOG 314 and GPP 540). But the development, implementation, and evaluation of such case studies takes considerable time. Our project team of six instructors from three Faculties will develop modular, data-driven, interdisciplinary, real world, case studies for teaching sustainability analysis across multiple 200-500 level courses. The new repository of case studies will allow other instructors to swap them in as required or adapt for their particular courses. Our team will also discuss and design effective teaching approaches for case-study based courses such as concatenated blended learning. The long-term objective of our project is to create an open-source resource (OER) of such case studies to be shared widely across campus, for example through UBC’s Open Case Studies site or Canvas Commons Repository.

Navin Ramankutty, Professor, Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, Faculty of Science
Milind Kandlikar, Professor, Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability, Faculty of Science and UBC Policy School, Faculty of Arts
Tara Ivanochko, Director, Environmental Science, Faculty of Science
Sally Hermansen, Professor of Teaching, Geography, Faculty of Arts
Simon Donner, Associate Professor, Geography, Faculty of Arts
Jeanine Rhemtulla, Assistant Professor, Forest Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry
Phil Austin, Associate Professor, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, Faculty of Science