Ball State University
ER-9: Sustainability Learning Outcomes

The University Core Curriculum (UCC) is a required component of all undergraduate degrees. The spirit of the UCC emerges from the kinds of intellectual attitudes the University strives to develop in students. The central purpose of the UCC is to enable students to live rich, satisfying lives and to undertake the broad responsibilities of citizenship in a free society. In addition to the UCC classes, all students must complete WISER+ courses, which ask students to engage in issues related to: W Writing I International Awareness S Service and Civic Engagement E Environmental Awareness and Sustainability R Respect for Human Liberty and Diversity among Peoples and Cultures + A American Institutions and/or History T Technological Literacy Courses with WISER+ designations may also be used to satisfy UCC and/or major requirements. The purpose of WISER+ is to integrate 21st Century skills into all our curricula. WISER offers ‘E’ for sustainability. The WISER web site lists the criteria and related outcomes needed to qualify as a sustainability ‘E’ course.

UCC-21: WISER Guidelines Tier 2 courses must carry at least one WISER designation. Any other university courses, with the exception of those in the foundation, may be approved as WISER courses. All WISER courses must have category-specific learning objectives and associated assessments. For a course to be given an ‘E’ designation, course descriptions must: 1. Clearly show how environmental awareness or environmental sustainability will be a substantial unit or a continuous thread of the course. 2. Clearly state how environmental awareness or environmental sustainability achieves some of the learning objectives of the course. Examples of Possible Learning Objectives for Environmental Awareness and Environmental Sustainability Below is a list of possible learning objectives for an ‘E’ course. This is not an exhaustive list, nor must a course include all—or even most—of the topics below to carry an ‘E’ designation. Any of the topics below could be developed into a substantial part of an ‘E’ course. Students can: 1. Explain fundamental environmental concepts using appropriate vocabulary. 2. Articulate and apply the scientific method and its role in scientific inquiry concerning the environment. 3. Explain the co-evolution of humans with their environment and the limitations of human interactions with it. 4. Analyze environmental problems in a structured way and develop strategies for solutions that indicate how scientific principles interact with ethical, political and/or economic principles. 5. Describe the state of the environment in relation to the social structure and human health. 6. Analyze the complexities of phenomena that link economics, politics, culture, history, biology, geology, and physical processes. 7. Engage in dynamic, vigorous exchange across the traditional disciplinary boundaries within and between natural and social/human sciences. 8. Work with specific communities to facilitate self-conscious, reflective engagement with linked socio-environmental processes. With thanks to the Council on the Environment for help with this list.