Sustainability in Our Classrooms | The Teaching & Learning Centre | Seneca Polytechnic

In this short self-directed online course, faculty participants will explore strategies to integrate environmental, economic, and social sustainability into their course. Through interactive modules and discussions, we will engage with multiple perspectives about the natural world and reflect on climate justice and the impact of the climate crisis on our communities and regions around the world. We will then discuss methods to encourage students to develop themselves as global citizens who contribute meaningfully to their communities and workplaces. After reviewing sustainability models, frameworks, and a variety of examples from faculty at Seneca Polytechnic who are teaching sustainability, we will brainstorm authentic tasks, activities and assessments to promote sustainability in the classroom. To be awarded the Sustainability Foundations badge, participants will develop a Sustainability Integration Plan which maps to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Opportunities will be provided to share strategies with colleagues for feedback and further discussion.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:

• explore personal values, wellness and relationships with the natural world through different understandings of sustainability (e.g., worldviews, concepts, and frameworks)
• generate ideas to integrate sustainability into courses using frameworks such as the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
• re-imagine student engagement, growth and development through sustainability integration into our curriculum and classrooms
• develop an idea for a sustainability-themed learning experience to support students’ career readiness and develop citizenship skills at the local, regional and global level

Course dates: May 21 to Jun. 14, 2024
This is a four-week asynchronous course.

A message to those of us who are new to sustainability: This course will not offer enough time, space or capacity for us to reflect deeply enough to transform ourselves into sustainability educators. But that’s ok. We can be educators who weave sustainability into related aspects of our industries and disciplines. This course is designed to offer us some time and space to start thinking about how we relate to the natural world in all its forms and how this might impact our teaching practice. As you go through these modules, consider where there might be potential for you to engage with these ideas on your own time, through collaboration with others, and ultimately through interactions with students.

Register in MyPD*.

Registration closes at 1:00 p.m. (Eastern time) on Friday, May 17, 2024.

This 4-week course is fully asynchronous. Participants can move through the materials at their own pace to complete the required deliverables.

*If you do not have access to MyPD, email teaching@senecapolytechnic.ca and we can manually register you. Please email us from your Seneca email address.

This course is part of the PD Plan for Non Full-time Faculty but is open to all faculty members and instructors.

This offering is part of Seneca's Micro-credentials for Faculty PD program.