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:

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.
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.