2018 Conference

Workshop

1. Workshop title: Curriculum Development to Improve Student’s Collaborative and Interdisciplinary Capacity to Address Complex Environmental and Sustainability Issues
   
2. Length: Full-day
   
3. Proposed theme and justification: One of the biggest challenges for higher education is creating effective interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary linkages to address the many “wicked problems” facing society. More specifically, higher education needs to develop the capacity of its faculty to more effectively engage students in the integration of disciplines and perspectives across diverse disciplinary and professional divides. This session will specifically engage participants in the processes, approaches, and products developed by the NSF-funded EMBeRS (Employing Model-Based Reasoning for Socio-environmental Synthesis) project for creating more effective interdisciplinary teams. Participants will leave the workshop with activities ready to implement into their curriculum and use with their students.

4. Goals and Learning Outcomes: The goal of the workshop is to explore the EMBeRS (Employing Model-Based Reasoning for Socio-environmental Synthesis) model for creating more effective interdisciplinary teams that have a shared vision

Upon completion of the workshop, will be able to:

• Describe model-based reasoning and the EMBeRS model as an approach to improve collaboration
• Identify the range of factors that impact the success of interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary teams
• Develop knowledge of the factors that impact the success of collaborative teams
• Describe the concept and importance of dispositional distance to successful team outcomes.
• Create curriculum materials that they can incorporate into their courses and programs.

5. Workshop Outline:
   
   

Part 1. Morning

• Introduction

Participant Introductions – Name, Institution, One expectation/goal they have for the workshop.

Facilitator (s) Introduction – Our Goals for the workshop.; Pre-survey 

• Wicked Problem Identification
  Teams co-create a list of challenges across groups. Explicitly – identify specific elements of the EMBeRS process.

• Stakeholder Analysis around their selected wicked problem

• Challenge and strategies for Managing Differences – Dispositional, Cultural, Disciplinary and Expertise

Part 2. Afternoon 

• Employing Systems Thinking

• Designing Interdisciplinary Activities

• Presenting and Sharing Activities developed during the workshop.

• Workshop Reflection. Reflect on entire workshop using a template: design, activity, and learning outcomes. Post survey

6. Workshop Leader:

Dave Gosselin

• Director of Environmental Studies and Professor, University of Nebraska.
• Principle Investigator, Employing Model-Based Reasoning for SocioEnvironmental Synthesis.
• Member, Board of Directors, Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences

7. Workshop Summary (200 words or less):

Complex environmental and sustainability problems require working across disciplinary and professional boundaries. Such inter- and transdisciplinary team work presents a variety of unique challenges. A key challenge is the difficulty of combining deep knowledge across diverse perspectives into a system view of the problem that successfully aligns available knowledge and expertise in synergistic ways. In this workshop, participants will engage in the processes, approaches, and products developed by the NSF-funded EMBeRS (Employing Model-Based Reasoning for Socio-environmental Synthesis) model for creating more effective interdisciplinary teams.   Participants will then engage in activities that include using iterative, consensus model-building, reflective practice, and a variety of other experiential learning approaches.  Participants will leave the workshop with activities ready to implement into their curriculum and use with their students.