SPEAKERS: UMaine Environmental Stewardship Service-Learning Group (Claire Sullivan, Dan Dixon, Cindy Isenhour, Sandra DeUrioste-Stone, Bridie McGreavy, Sharon Klein)
* See below for a list of suggested readings to accompany this seminar.
The University of Maine’s comprehensive sustainability efforts improve lives and communities throughout the state of Maine and beyond. One of UMaine’s educational goals is to inspire core sustainability values in all its graduates while at the same time inspiring them to become the next generation of environmental leaders and innovators, skilled in ways that promote responsible stewardship of human, natural, and financial resources. UMaine is part of the Campuses for Environmental Stewardship (CES) project aimed at integrating service-learning pedagogy into environmental stewardship courses, encouraging students to work with community partners on issues of pressing environmental concern. Such service-learning projects will stimulate community-campus partnerships and teach students to apply their knowledge to real-world problems. A wide variety of disciplines are represented in this proposal. These include: economics, forestry/tourism, communication, sustainability, and anthropology. The CES project will cultivate diversified skill sets amongst participants via cross-course interactions at multiple academic levels and will provide professional development opportunities for associated faculty. This team will develop an interdisciplinary, coordinated model that can be sustained at UMaine, involving common service-learning projects, partners and events, opportunities for mentorship (at various levels), as well as culminating student-led community presentations. Plans are underway to study the various impacts of this model in order to share and develop best practices. This group of faculty collectively believes in active learning as the most effective way for students to understand/retain knowledge and to be inspired to create positive change.
Suggested Readings:
- Dewey, J. Democracy and Education. 2004.
- Hooks, B. Teaching critical thinking: Practical Wisdom. 2009.
- Orr, D. W. Earth in Mind: On Education, Environment, and the Human Prospect. 2004.
- Venkatesh, S. A. Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Street. 2008.
- Zolli, A., & Healy, A. M. Resilience: Why Things Bounce Back. 2012
FPBC=Fields Pond Book Club List