University of Central Florida
AC-2: Learning Outcomes

1. Interdisciplinary Studies - Environmental Studies Track Learning Outcome: Through this interdisciplinary program, students will gain an understanding of the tools that can be applied across a spectrum of science, social behavior, and humanities. Student seeking journalistic or artistic careers will gain a scientific background by which to understand environmental science, while students going into the sciences will appreciate the social, political and ethical dimensions of environmental actions and policy decisions. 2. Environmental Engineering Learning Outcome: Through this program students will understand the interactions of humans and their environment. This includes the planning, design, and control of systems to ensure their environmental quality. Students will gain tools needed to address challenges in sustainability and efficiency for the management of water, land, and air. 3. Conservation Biology Learning Outcome: Students will gain an understanding of conservation as it relates to independent research, nongovernmental organizations, and government sectors. By combining traditional biological sciences, economics, law, urban/rural planning, politics, communication, philosophy, and environmental engineering, the conservation biology program provides students with the knowledge to address various conservation challenges.

Please refer to the uploaded file below for more details on the sustainability learning outcomes offered at the course level. This list also includes the number of degrees awarded for programs that require sustainability focused courses. To identify these programs, all required courses in each program were examined. A program was then classified as having a sustainability learning outcome if it required the completion of at least sustainability focused course. These courses have syllabi that explicitly state learning objectives pertaining to environmental, social, and/or economic sustainability. Note: This list does not include programs that require courses that include sustainability; the course must be sustainability focused. Moreover, the list does not include sustainability focused courses offered as restricted electives. At the University of Central Florida, students are able to customize their required courses based on individual interests. While, these courses are not mandated, many students do adopt these sustainability based learning outcomes before graduation.

Institution Level Program Undergraduate students at the University of Central Florida must complete 36 semester credits hours to satisfy the UCF General Education Program (GEP). The purpose of the GEP is to introduce students to a broad range of human knowledge and intellectual pursuits, to equip them with the analytic and expressive skills required to engage in those pursuits, to develop their ability to think critically, and to prepare them for life-long learning. The GEP curriculum provides students with the intellectual, ethical, and aesthetic foundations necessary to make informed choices; to accept the responsibilities of working and living in a rapidly changing world. The GEP program is sectioned into five foundation areas and then further tiered into groups. A. Communications Foundation Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze the situational characteristics of a communication act: audience, purpose, and source/author. They will also gain communication and speaking skills as well as the ability to write in a clear, logical, and appropriate manner. Students will demonstrate the ability to communicate ideas in both oral and written formats to diverse audiences regarding sustainability themes. B. Cultural and Historical Foundation Students will be able to gather, synthesize, and analyze information from appropriate resources and be able to critically evaluate information and sources for accuracy and credibility. They will identify and deepen appreciation of common human themes and the richness of diverse cultures as well as analyze and discuss the meaning of an artwork, performance, or text in diverse aesthetic, historical and cultural contexts. The Cultural and Historical Foundation equips students with an extensive understanding of diversity and humanity—skills needed to combat sustainability challenges in a rapidly changing world. This foundation blends cultural and historical contexts to better understand these complex and upcoming challenges. C. Mathematical Foundation Students will demonstrate the skills needed to solve real world quantitative problems including choosing the proper technique and/or technology. This includes an understanding of mathematical, statistical, and computing concepts as well as an understanding of essential computing concepts. This ties into sustainability as students will gain the quantitative and technical skills needed to analyze data, think strategically, develop systems and assess sustainability-related issues in the real world. D. Social Foundation Students will understand how an individual's place in the world is affected by social, economic, and political institutions. They will demonstrate an understanding of the interaction among social, economic, and political structures and functions and how individuals behave and interact with other individuals in their psychological, political, economic and social environments. This Foundation is crucial to sustainability studies as it directly address two of the three pillars of sustainability: society and economics. These courses will enable students to understand social and economic structures inherent to sustainability comprehension and progress. E. Science Foundation Students will demonstrate an understanding of science as an empirical attempt to acquire information about the real world, develop possible explanations of these phenomena, and test the explanations by predicting the outcome of future observations. Courses address concepts such as energy, scientific principles, conservation, systems thinking, and climate change. Moreover, the Introduction to Environmental Science course (housed within this foundation) is listed as a required Florida State Core Course and can be used to satisfy state mandated Science Foundation requirements. Number of students that graduate from programs that have adopted at least one sustainability learning outcome was calculated by taking the total number of degrees awarded throughout the 2014-16 academic years: -Less Students from Graduate programs -Less FCS recent entry students (transfer students, who may or may not have had to complete the general education program. -And adding graduates from the Civil Engineering MS/MSCE, Environmental Engineering MSEnvE/PhD/MS, Mechanical Engineering MS/PhD/MSME, and Conservation Biology programs. 15,214 + 400 = 15,614