Sustainability Office
Kagin Commons
1600 Grand Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105
651-696-8138
Comments & questions to:
sustainability@macalester.edu

curriculum resources

Potential Student Projects List (www.macalester.edu/stustainability/studentprojects/possibleprojects.html) - Macalester’s Sustainability Office updates a listing of potential student projects sorted by topic and discipline that involve needed campus sustainability research. 

Disciplinary Associations Network for Sustainability (www2.aashe.org/dans/) - Sponsored by the US Partnership on Education for Sustainable Development, the Disciplinary Associations Network for Sustainability is a network of professional associations working on sustainability in higher education.

• Interdisciplinary Student Projects: A National Initiative for a Sustainable Future (www2.aashe.org/dans/resources.php) - The Disciplinary Assoc. Network for Sustainability has three assignment models that can be used by any discipline.

Education for Climate Neutrality and Sustainability: Guidance for ACUPCC Institutions (www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/html/solutions_academics.php) - This new resource is intended as guidance for schools to implement the educational requirements of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment. The commitment requires “actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and other educational experience for all students.”

Emory University, Piedmont Project (www.scienceandsociety.emory.edu/piedmont/participants.htm) - The Piedmont Projects is a well respected sustainability faculty development workshop started at Emory University. The website includes example courses and activities from workshop participants in humanities, social science and natural science.  English topics are listed below as an example.

• English:  American Literature and the Transformation of the Environment
• English & ILA: Romanticism:  The Ecological Imagination
• English (Oxford):  Nature Writing
• English:  Thoreau for the Twenty-First Century
• English:  Advanced Writing Workshop
• English:  Utopian Literature in Environmental Perspective

Science Education Resource Center (SERC) (http://serc.carleton.edu/) - SERC is a web resource for geoscience faculty, but much of the information is useful for all disciplines.  In 2006, Carleton and St. Olaf developed a sustainability faculty development seminar and included resource material and Minnesota specific material for the web.

• Cows, Colleges and Curriculum:  Sustainability Issues in the Classroom - Faculty Development Seminar (http://serc.carleton.edu/sustainability)
• Participants submitted the course syllabi or activities (http://serc.carleton.edu/sustainability/activities.html):
• American Studies
• Green Museum: Students Investigate Everyday Stuff & Its Environmental Impact
• Sustaining US
• Environmental Studies
• Sustainability at Carleton
• German
• Intermediate German II
• History
• Big Box Briefing Book Research Project
• Political Science
• Sustainable Development Debate—An In-Class Simulation Exercise
• Readings and Class Discussion on Sustainability and Sustainable Development
• Sociology
• Urban Sociology     

The workshop resources website also includes links to Minnesota data and information:

• Minnesota Sustainability Data (http://serc.carleton.edu/sustainability/resources.html)
  • Cancer Mortality Maps and Graphs - Data may be searched by state.
  • Community-based Air Emissions Mapping Tool and Environmental Justice - The Minnesota Community-based Air Emissions Mapping Tool was developed to provide a visual snapshot of air emissions from multiple sources across the state displayed along with community and population census data.
  • Environmental Data Access - The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Environmental Data Access system allows users to view and download water quality data and air quality data about Minnesota.
  • Farm Subsidies Database - The Environmental Working Group has a searchable farm subsidy database that is searchable by state, county, and name.
  • Minnesota River Basin Data Center - Includes animations, fact sheets, and basin overviews.
  • Minnesota Milestones - The report uses 70 progress indicators to determine whether the state is achieving 19 publicly determined goals.
  • Surf Your Watershed - The EPA surf your watershed site is a clearinghouse for environmental information by state and watershed.
  • TOXMAP: Environmental Health e-Maps - A mapping program of Toxic Release Inventory and Superfund sites as well as demographic data. In addition, the Science Education Resource Center has a datasheet, Exploring TOXMAP Data in the Classroom with more information about using TOXMAP data in classes.
  • USGS Real-Time Water Data for Minnesota - Includes data on streamflow, precipitation and groundwater. In addition, the Science Education Resource Center has a datasheet, Exploring USGS Peak Streamflow Data in the Classroom with more information about using this type of data in classes.
• Minnesota Sustainability Information, Websites and Online Reports
• Cost of Mercury - This memo Minnesota House of Representative Research Department Memo details about the economic costs of mercury exposure of Minnesota children.
• Economic Profile of the Upper Mississippi River Region - U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Report prepared by: Industrial Economics, Incorporated, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1999.
• Minnesota Report Card on Environmental Literacy - Survey of Minnesotans’ beliefs, knowledge and behaviors towards the environment.
• The Price of Pollution Cost Estimates of Environment-Related Childhood Disease in Minnesota - 2006 Report by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
• Surf your watershed - The EPA surf your watershed site is a clearinghouse for environmental information by state and watershed.
• Sustainability The Very Idea - 1993 Report by Minnesota Planning/Minnesota Environmental Quality Board that describes sustainability in Minnesota.

The Science Education Resource Center also includes other information for faculty interested in sustainability:

• Climate Change Collection (http://serc.carleton.edu/climatechange/index.html), a library of digital resources about climate change and climate variability reviewed by climate experts and science teachers.
• Teaching with Visualizations (http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/visualization/index.html) includes a link to an excellent visualization collection.  Includes geosciences topics (geology topics, hurricanes, tornadoes, etc.).

Macalester College · 1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105  USA · 651-696-6000
Comments and questions to webmaster@macalester.edu