SUSTAIN 2A03

Fundamentally, this course aims to promote continuing action towards a sustainable future by creating more knowledgeable and more effective change agents.

Additionally, it will support the larger Sustainable Future Project goals of building reciprocal relationships between students, community members, and McMaster University, and it will engage all parties in the journey towards a sustainable future.

The fundamental objective can be elaborated:

1. More knowledgeable change agents: Enable students to understand and tackle specific local sustainability challenges in the context of global sustainability with attention to economic, social, environmental and technological dimensions.
2. More effective change agents: Involve students in self-directed, active experiential learning, focusing on local projects in order to help them move closer to where they would like to be as change-agents and citizens.

By the end of the course, we envision that students are more engaged in understanding sustainability and more effective in acting on their knowledge.

We envision that McMaster University will use this course to demonstrate its commitment to the pillars of Forward with Integrity (President Deane, 2011)

Student Experience: This course provides experiential, self-directed, and interdisciplinary opportunities and contributes to the distinct experience of undergraduate students as sustainability knowledge brokers.  Through the work of the planning team, it will also be an example of a successful collaborative project across faculties, and a model for other new, innovative courses to follow.

Community Engagement: This course builds bridges between the university and the local community by providing opportunities for community members to both to benefit from, and contribute to, the learning of undergraduate students, understanding our common need for a sustainable future.  This course also provides the opportunity for realized, measurable results indicating the betterment of the community.

Research: This course provides opportunities for more undergraduates to engage in meaningful, experiential research.

Internationalization: This course creates more opportunities to place local knowledge and local action within a global context.

Course Syllabus

 

Sustain 2A03 Course Calendar

---

Special Events and Information

A group of students from Sustain 2A03 are looking for students to audition for their video campaign to promote water fountain usage on campus. Auditions are being held on March 6th in T13 Rm 122 @ 3:30-6:30 and on March 8th in T13 Rm 104 @4:00 - 5:30. Click here for more information.

Register for CAN-BIKE at McMaster: A Sustain 2A03 group project:

Exciting lecture by Bob Willard, author of "The New Sustainability Advantage: Seven Business Case Benefits of a Triple Bottom Line", on March 7, 2013 at 4-6pm at ETB 535. Please RSVP to Lotfi Belkhir belkhir@mcmaster.ca

Hamilton Sustainable Victory Gardens Inc.(aka Hamilton Victory Gardens) is a not-for-profit corporation whose main goal is to provide fresh local organic produce to Hamilton's marginalized community through local food banks and hot meal programs. They are looking for volunteers to help build gardens, plant crops, recruit volunteers etc. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Bill Wilcox at bwilcox@hamiltonvictorygardens.org

Hamilton's first Environmental Summit will be held on Thursday, April 25, 2013 at the Waterfront Conference and Banquet Centre, to highlight accomplishments and address issues related to environmental sustainability and our City.

Environment Hamilton and Scene Change are working on an Eco Theatre project and are inviting people to help them write the scirpt! Click here for more information.

Trees for Zambia is a Conference of Action that runs from 7th to 28th July 2013 in the beautiful Livingstone (home of the Victoria Falls) and will see people planting over 5000 trees, making solar cookers, attending educational workshops on climate related issues and having a LOT of fun! Read all about the project here.

Sustainable Cities Symposium: Fostering Innovation for the Future. Symposium will be held on April 19th, 2013 and will focus on the opportunities and challenges in planning for sustainability. Click here to register.

The Sustainable Design Awards: Students from across Ontario will be invited to give their definition of sustainability and propose an original concept in context to their definition. Registration Deadline: March 3, 2012 and Submissions Due: June 2nd, 2013. Click here for additional information.