University of California, Santa Barbara
ER-14: Incentives for Developing Sustainability Courses

"Turning over a New Leaf: Greening Your Course": Mini-Grant Program for Faculty Infusing Sustainability Into Curriculum The Instructional Improvement Program (IIP) encourages applicants to help us achieve the sustainability aspects of the 2007-2025 Strategic Academic Plan which states, as a part of its mission, “Our academic community of faculty, students, and staff is characterized by a culture of interdisciplinary collaboration that is responsive to the needs of our multicultural and global society. Our commitment to public service is manifested through the creation and distribution of art, culture, and knowledge that advances the well-being of our state, nation, and world. All of this takes place within a living and learning environment like no other, as we draw inspiration, opportunity, and advantage from the beauty and resources of UC Santa Barbara’s extraordinary location at the edge of the Pacific Ocean.” Successful proposals seeking to infuse sustainability into undergraduate courses will encompass one or more of the following: • Service learning experiences that make use of the university or local community as a “living laboratory”: There are ample demonstration sites (solar panels, bioswales-biological filtration for stormwater, organic gardens, and farms, etc) which could be used as teaching tools in academic courses. With each of these locations, there are opportunities to use campus staff and community members as guest lecturers or mentors for student projects. • Opportunities for the broader campus or community to learn from student research/projects: Class assignments/projects that are structured such that they can be shared with a larger audience, by students, or instructors (or both). • Community building: Provides an opportunity for community outreach or community building around environmental issues. • Demonstrated Learning Outcomes: Student learning of sustainability is measured/demonstrated. Please see attached list of recommended learning outcomes from the Academic Senate Sustainability Work Group. • Interdisciplinary: Collaborative projects which involve faculty and/or students from different disciplines to explore cross-cutting themes, such as environmental justice, human food systems, and scarcity of natural resources (water, air, soil, etc.). All projects must be designed with the understanding that this grant is a one-time source of funding per project, and the course must be able to sustain the changes to curriculum in future years without additional funding. New this year for the IIP grants is the requirement that all grant recipients present the project outcomes. Faculty can also apply for a grant to develop sustainability “modules” that can be used by a wide range of instructors within their department or campus-wide. These modules should be in a format that is easy for instructors to use (such as video, with chapters, study questions, and project ideas) and should relate to “core topics/questions” related to sustainability). There is an interactive workshop hosted by Instructional Development for those interested in infusing sustainability into their courses.

Funding awards for successful proposals for infusing sustainability into the curriculum or creating sustainable course modules range from $500 to $1000.

Instructional Development Offers two grant programs which can be used for infusing sustainability into courses; however, neither are specifically promoted with this purpose. Both grants do specifically highlight support for electronic learning tools, such as course websites and GauchoSpace which reduce paper usage substantially. More information on these grants can be found here: Instructional Improvement Grants http://grants.id.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/2011-2012_Call.pdf Faculty Mini-grants: http://grants.id.ucsb.edu/faculty-mini-grants