
Sustainable Idaho is a collaboration between the Portneuf Resource Council and the ISU Sustainability Club. Today we'll be talking to Professor Dr. Ellis and Dr. Dale about Idaho State University's new sustainability class. It is a one semester class that meets the Objective 5 requirement. This is taught by Professors Dr. Sato, Dr. Dale, Dr. Ellis, and Dr. Rodriguez.
What inspired the development of this course and would you describe the content of the class?
Yeah, so this course is a response, really, to a grassroots, I would say, response from both faculty and students. We had a faculty senate subcommittee that was looking into sustainability, and this idea of a general education class was suggested by them.
And then, about the same time, the ASISU president at the time, Emma Watts, also brought forth a suggestion for a general education class in sustainability. So I'm pretty certain, though, the student support was the driving force behind making this class a reality, and Sustainability Club was very much involved in also developing that.
And as far as the content of the course, we have several engineering faculty members that have been teaching topics related to sustainability for several years, so it was really just kind of recasting some of those topics. You know, you ask what inspired it. I would say that from the point of view of an instructor, I think we have an obligation to explain to the students where we are and where we might be going in terms of the climate.
This, of course, will be their planet that we leave with them, so we want them to be as informed as possible as to what we're leaving them. The content of the class is pretty multidisciplinary. We have physics, we have engineering cove, some chemistry, geology, a little bit of history. And then a, a very important aspect of the course is the human element. How does what we're facing relate to people and society and, and things like that count. And it's, it's a very complex human problem.
When will this class be offered again, the intent when the course was, uh, you know, proposed was to offer the course on a continuous basis.
Will there be any guest lectures from different fields?
Yeah, absolutely. And it's funny you should ask that. President Wagner, ISU president, has shown a strong interest in the class. He understands that this is an important issue. And also an MBA sustainability manager, Jessica Carnes. A lot of different people coming in and everything, which is really cool.
What kind of projects will the students be working on in the class? Well, as I said, Professor Rodriguez from the ISU Department of Philosophy will have the students take a topic from some of the more technical areas of the class and have them make a 10 to 15 minute video presentation. And this presentation will be on how the technical aspects relate to society.
And then there's some other group activities that will go on in the class. Sounds like there's going to be a lot of different projects.
You mentioned ISU's Sustainability Manager, Jessica Karnes, earlier. How will she be involved in the class and will students be doing any projects with her?
She'll be giving a series of lectures. She'll speak on recycling and then also on careers and sustainability.
How does this new course show that ISU is taking a proactive step towards sustainability? If your question really is about if the campus is taking proactive steps, that's another issue I think that pretty much remains an open question.
I think we're getting started, but I don't think we have achieved a whole lot yet, I would say. We hope ISU can take some real steps forward in this area. This particular class, we have no delusions that it's going to save the world, but, you know, we think it's the first step in that direction. Yeah, it definitely is and it's good to inform the incoming students and just everybody in general about sustainability. How will this course impact students' thoughts and actions on sustainability in their day to day life? And how do you see this course influencing students' careers and majors?
Well, I think Dr. Dale has described pretty well. This is probably one of the biggest challenges I think this next generation is going to face. And my hope for the course is that they would come out of here with some tools, uh, that they could help in evaluating possible solutions. Really we're trying to do something that is somewhat unique in academia, I would say.
This course is about a current problem with no real clear solution. I think it's trying to prepare students for the future. It's what we're trying to do.
If I could add, I think ISU students are smart, and they're going to decide for themselves what to think of this, you know, what we present to them. One thing I told them the first day of class is that I see it as a problem.
It is my job to inform them of the issues of the science, not to convince them of anything. I think that we will give them the basic knowledge of what's happening and they'll take it where they think it should be taken, okay, which is how it should be. It's a hard thing to have to like think about when you're teaching is the future and how that's going to be taken and everyone has their own different views on it.
What kind of students might be interested in taking this class? Well, it can say, so far we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores. The class is pitched at a level so that any non science oriented person can take it.
Yeah, if I might add, I think this course should have broad appeal because this is a problem that we all face.
And I think the more that people can understand about the problem and the proposed solutions I think the better off we're going to be as a society.
Since this course is being taught from a perspective that non science majors can understand, I can see how students will be more interested in learning about sustainability in this course.
With three of the four professors teaching this course, being in the hard sciences, will there be any other course that addresses the fields of biology, ecology, sociology, and psychology or medicine when it comes to climate change? And do you see the opportunities to collaborate with these other disciplines in the future?
Yeah, we, we definitely do see opportunities to collaborate more. So you mentioned biology, ecology, sociology, medicine, and psychology. Let me just add a few more to that list. I think geosciences is very relevant here in terms of issues like carbon sequestration. Computer science, there are a lot of computer models involved in this, in this field.
Law, how do, if we want to modify the climate, how do we do that? Because that crosses boundaries between nations. Same issues in political science. Urban planning, finance, how do we make a financial system which encourages sustainability and communication. So, the many other fields in addition to what you mentioned that are relevant and you know certainly would be amenable to collaboration. Just from my point of view, I think any future solutions that we come up with will require real specialists in these fields.
I might mention one thing along those lines, I believe History is currently offering some sort of certificate program in sustainability and they have adopted our course as part of their curriculum.
It's one of their electives. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's happening already across campus. It is. That was good to see.
That is really nice to see that the interest in sustainability is growing across the ISU campus with your class being offered to fulfill an Objective 5 credit and as an elective for a certificate in history, and maybe a minor here at ISU in the future.
Thank you to Dr. Ellis and Dr. Dale for taking the time to discuss Idaho State University's new sustainability class, Without Whom This episode could have not been possible.
Funding for our Sustainable Idaho Student Hosts is provided in part by this radio station, the ISU Office for Research, and the Center for Ecological Research and Education through the ISU Career Path Internship Program. Direction, funding, and additional support is provided by the Portneuf Resource Council.