North Seattle College
AC-1: Academic Courses

The first sustainability course list for North Seattle was established circa 2011 for STARS has been updated for every STARS submission after. This submission built upon all this previous work. The District Sustainability Coordinator scanned through all courses added since 2017. Potential sustainability inclusive courses were identified based upon course title and description. We also reached out directly to the co-lead and all North faculty who have participated in our Climate Justice Project over the past several years. This program is designed to help faculty incorporate sustainability into their course(s). Faculty confirmed they had incorporated sustainability into their course(s) during the time period analyzed. These courses were added to the previous 2017 list. This new list was sent to Department Deans to verify previous courses still include sustainability and to verify any new courses that have been added do indeed include sustainability (Earth Charter and UN SDG goals were included to help Deans and faculty identify sustainability-inclusive courses). In some cases, the District Sustainability Coordinator reached out directly to faculty who teach courses in question. Course descriptions and scoring was finalized based upon feedback from Deans and faculty. Syllabi and master course outlines (MCOs) were then cross-referenced against the AASHE STARS sustainability definition listed below.

All courses that had over 4 students enrolled were compiled from the time period of Summer 2020-Spring 2021. Courses removed include practicum, individual instruction, capstone, physical education, independent research, special projects/topics, job shadow, extern/internship and performance arts.

Sustainability related course rubric was created that aligns with the AASHE sustainability definition. AASHE defines sustainability in a pluralistic and inclusive way, encompassing human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods, and a better world for all generations. STARS attempts to translate this broad and inclusive view of sustainability to measurable objectives at the campus level. Thus, it includes credits related to an institution’s environmental, social, and economic performance.

Each offering or section of a course was counted as an individual course. We calculated the number of courses that sustainability focused and sustainability inclusive for each quarter, and then summarized this data on the "Synopsis" tab. The “SustCourses” tab identifies all sustainability courses that were taught at NSC, including focused and inclusive. The "SustCourses" tab adds up all sustainability-focused courses in cell G4.

North Seattle College offers "clustered classes," which can be best expressed as one class, taught by the same instructor(s) simultaneously that incorporates concepts from several different courses offered at the college. Many of the clustered courses are multiple levels of a course in one "classroom," like Art 101, 102, and 103 as a cluster (this is 3 levels of design being taught at the same time by the same instructor). These clustered courses were included in the course inventory. Each cluster was considered one course. If any of the clustered courses were sustainability-related, that cluster was included as a sustainability inclusive course.

Each offering or section of a course was counted as an individual course. The tab "SustCourses" is a list of sustainability courses that the institution offers, but it does not include how many times the course was taught during the review period. The individual quarters show which courses were offered and totals for each. The synopsis tab adds up all quarters.