Eastern Iowa Community College District
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

The EICCD Sustainability Initiative Curriculum Team has adopted the definition of sustainability in the curriculum provided in the STARS 1.0 manual: EICCD Definition of Sustainability in the Curriculum: Sustainability-focused courses concentrate on the concept of sustainability, including its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, or examine an issue or topic using sustainability as a lens. Sustainability-related courses incorporate sustainability as a distinct course component or module, or concentrate on a single sustainability principle or issue. The goal of sustainability education is to provide students, regardless of their courses of study, the knowledge and skills to help create a healthy economy, society, and environment. In order to determine whether or not a course has this goal in mind, it is useful to ask whether or not a given course will help students to achieve one or more of the following: • Understand and be able to effectively communicate the concept of sustainability • Develop and use an ethical perspective in which they view themselves as embedded in the fabric of an interconnected world • Become aware of and explore the connections between their chosen course of study and sustainability • Develop technical skills or expertise necessary to implement sustainable solutions. • Understand the way in which sustainable thinking and decision-making contribute s to the process of creating solutions for current and emerging social, environmental, and economic crises • Contribute practical solutions to real-world sustainability challenges • Synthesize understanding of social, economic, and environmental systems and reason holistically A course does not have to accomplish all of these things to be designated as sustainability-related or sustainability-focused. (From STARS 1.0 Technical Manual – Administrative Update One)

EICCD compiled an inventory of sustainability-focused/related classes through the "Fall 2010 Sustainablity Curriculum Survey" that was administered throught he CampusCruiser email survey tool to all Full Time and Adjunct Faculty. EICCD's definition of Sustainability, Sustainability Focused and Sustainability Related was provided in the survey. Respondents were asked if they currently or within the past three years have taught a sustainability focused/related course, and if so, the course number, term taught, and location. Those teaching sustainability-related courses were also asked the means by which they incorporated aspects of sustainability into their course. Respondents were also asked whether they planned to integrate or further integrate sustainability into their courses over the next three years. A space was provided on teh survey for other comments. EICCD Sustainability Manager, Dean of Credit Offerings, and Dean of Applied Technology have also conducted a manual search of Course Tabs and Course Developemtn Modules (CDM) to further identify sustainability focused and related course offerings,