DePauw University
ER-14: Incentives for Developing Sustainability Courses

DePauw received a three-year, $600,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support the development of Environmental Studies and Environmental Science courses. Part of this grant is specifically set aside for faculty course development.

Faculty can apply for funding to develop a new course or revise an existing course.

These are the course development and enhancement funded by the Mellon grant: Course projects funded in Summer 2010 were: • Course development: 1. Gender, power, and environment (Sociology & Anthropology) 2. American literature and environment (English) 3. Latin American environmental history (History) 4. Weather, climate, and climate change (Geosciences) 5. Environmental impact of the Roman empire (Classical Studies) • Course enhancement: 1. Nature and environmental writing (English) 2. Environmental stress impacts on the biology of organisms (Biology) Course projects funded in summer 2011 were: • Course development: 1. A Major Revision of GEOS 380: Environmental Geophysics (Geosciences) 2. Philosophy and Climate Change (Philosophy) 3. Haiti: Literature, Health, Environment (English, Women’s Studies) 4. Environmental Ethics Overhaul (Philosophy) 5. Course Re-Design for Modern Environmental Problems (Geosciences) • Course enhancement: 1. First-Year Seminar: Science of Design (Computer Science) 2. First-Year Seminar: Science of Design (Psychology) 3. Energy Conservation in a New Light (Physics and Astronomy) 4. Green Germany (Modern Languages) 5. Politics of Developing Nations (Political Science) Course projects funded in summer 2012 were: • Course development: 1. Into the Wild: An Environmentally Friendly First-Year Seminar (English) 2. Feminist Approaches to Environmentalism (Women’s Studies) 3. Airs, Waters, Places: Classics and the Environment (Classical Studies) 4. Environmental Crisis Narratives (English) • Course enhancement: 1. Theater and the Natural Environment: First-Year Seminar (Communication and Theater) 2. The Literature of California: First-Year Seminar (English) 3. Structure and Properties of Inorganic Compounds (Chemistry and Biochemistry) Course projects funded in summer 2013 were: • Course development: 1. Energy and the Environment (Geosciences) 2. Environmental Conflict Analysis and Resolution (Conflict Studies) Student/faculty research projects funded in Summer 2010 were: 1. Role of mud-dwelling insects in Lake Erie hypoxia (Geosciences) 2. Evolution of the timing of diapause in the field of swallowtail butterflies (Biology) 3. Ghost Ranch oral history (Communication and Theater) Student/faculty research projects funded in summer 2011 were: 1. Direct Testing of the “Everything is Everywhere” Hypothesis (Biology) 2. Medieval Environmentalism: Art, God, and Climate Change (Art History) Student/faculty research projects funded in summer 2012 were: 1. Archaeological Practicalities: DePauw Campus Excavation and Survey of a Prehistoric Mound in Turkey (Classical Studies) 2. Opening the Black Box of Ecosystem Function: Interactions between Biodiversity and Carbon Cycling in Small Ponds (Biology) 3. Engineering Novel Drought Resistance in a Plant Model (Biology) 4. A Two-Stage Procedure for Sampling a Rare, Clustered and Mobile Population (Mathematics) 5. Foliar Pigments Floral Color Change and Pollinator Visitation in the Perennial Herb Saponaria officinalis (Biology) 6. Investigating Agricultural Runoff in Putnam County (Geosciences) Student/faculty research 2013: 1. Ecology and Genetics of Floral Color Change and Pollinator Attraction in the Perennial Herb Saponaria Officianalis (Bouncing Bet) (Biology) 2. Archaeological Topography in Northern Lycia, Turkey (Classical Studies) 3. Plants vs. Climate Change (Chemistry) 4. Theoretical Investigation of Small Molecules Coupled to Infrared Picosecond Pulse Trains (Chemistry) 5. Novel Metal-Containing Ionogels: Expanding Their Formulations and Usefulness (Chemistry) 6. Viewing Inner Mongolia From Outside the American Center (Asian Studies/Chinese) DEPP 2011 Capping off last academic year, DEPP students completed the following DEPP capstone projects: • Creating a 40-minute documentary about Indiana industrial farms; • Leading an “environmental policy tour” through Indiana high schools; • Publishing an article in one of Ukraine’s largest newspapers about the country’s emerging hydrofracking industry; • Researching additional incentives for geothermal installations in schools; • Writing a newsletter article about the Indiana House of Representatives’ 19 Tea Party freshmen; • Analyzing the failure of several local governments to participate in redistricting; • Writing an article about the education benefit and portability of the DEPP model. DEPP 2012 • Summer 2012 stipend support for students on the project entitled "DePauw Environmental Policy Project (DEPP): History of Indiana Environmental Policy"