Workshop length: Half-Day

Recently, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the National Academy of Engineers, and the American Society of Animal Sciences, emphasized the grand challenge of providing access to clean and healthy water today and into the future for homo sapiens sapiens and those fauna and flora with which we share the planet.  The meaning and management of water affects every aspect of life and thus all disciplines of learning. How can our campuses and classrooms take an interdisciplinary approach to curriculum and pedagogy focused on access to clean water that will prepare our students for productive futures as citizen scientists, NGO innovators, hydrologists, engineers, animal, soil, and data scientists? 

The proposed workshop will connect faculty who are currently researching and/or teaching about water with faculty interested in developing interdisciplinary assignments, projects, publications, and courses related to the meaning and management of water. Exploring and deepening the meaning of water is a unique capacity of arts, humanities, and literature, and the management of water is a unique capacity of the natural and social sciences and engineering. Indigenous knowledge informs both the meaning and management of this essential resource.

The University of Hawaii system office of Sustainability sponsors a "Many Minds One University" (#MM1U) initiative to feature teaching and research that can contribute to the state's sustainability goals. The focus for AY 2017-2018 is Water. The workshop faciltiators will frame the conversation by describing the MM1U initiative, the systemwide S-Designation program that highlights sustainability-focused courses, and how colleges and universities can support interdisciplinary curriculum and research.

Outcomes:
Participants in the workshop will complete a curriculum design activity and share their work and ideas on "the meaning and management of water" ;

Participants will share research and perspectives to create a mind map of water, using "Environment, Wellness, and Community" to explore connections;

Participants will leave with an assignment or course outline, as well as ideas for how to implement interdisciplinary connections at their college or university.

Agenda:

First, the faciltiators will model sharing of both research and teaching strategies from their fields of Anthropology and Literature:

Dr. Robert Franco will share research that uses the archaeological data combined with an analysis of Hawaiian chants, legends, and proverbs in an attempt to better understand the meaning of water to the indigenous people of the Hawaiian islands. 

Dr. Krista Hiser will share a "Cli Fi Book Club" assignment and student work using Emmi Itäranta's novel, Memory of Water. The assignment is embedded in a Learning Community course, "Decade Zero: Understanding the Science and Rhetoric of Climate Change."

These starting points will stimulate discussion of the interdisciplinary connections around water.

The facilitators will guide individual and small group collaboration to create assignment or course designs.

Participants will share out, and then brainstorm strategies to support interdisciplinary teaching and research at their campuses.

teachingtobigquestions.wordpress.com, https://www.hawaii.edu/sustainability/get-involved/many-minds-one-university/