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Global Solutions for Sustainable Living

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Exemplar Type: COURSE
Title: Global Solutions for Sustainable Living
Grades: 6-8, Undergraduate, Graduate
Discipline: Interdisciplinary
Submitted By: Tricia Spencer

Course Description
“Global Solutions for Sustainable Living” identifies the laws of nature that are inherent in the diverse ecosystems that comprise and sustain life on earth. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the energy we need to sustain ourselves, the food we eat and the buildings we live in are all parts of that system. Our goal in this course is to identify the critical environmental issues that we face in each of these areas: Ecosystems, Architecture and the Built Environment, Air, Water, Renewable Energy & Agroecology.

Global Solutions for Sustainable Living: Ecosystems

Ecosystems represent the interaction of how the laws of nature work within a specific geographic area. These laws of nature express a unique collection of relationships as energy moves and expands throughout the system creating a rich mixture of biodiversity. These diverse systems support all life on earth; the buildings where we live and work, the air we breathe, critical water resources, energy and the food we eat. Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or nonliving parts. Biotic factors include plants, animals, and other organisms.

Abiotic factors include rocks, temperature, and humidity. The laws of nature that make up the diverse ecosystems on earth are connected and provide the transfer of energy from one system to another in a larger biome. Biomes are large sections of land, sea, or atmosphere. Forests, ponds, reefs, and tundra are all types of biomes that manifest specific laws of nature that are expressed in the flow of energy from one system to another and are connected that make life on Earth possible. - Tricia Spencer, Research and Education Fellow, San Francisco Institute of Architecture

Resources

Topic Questions

  1. How are nature based solutions being applied to restore global ecosystems?

  2. What services do ecosystems provide to support human life on earth?

  3. How have ocean ecosystems been affected by global warming?

  4. How has the degradation and alteration of natural law within Earth’s ecosystems affected global equality?

  5. How can nature based solutions be employed to combat the degradation of ecosystems?

  6. Why is it important to maintain biodiversity in ecosystems?

Project and Action Plan

  1. Determine the type of ecosystem where you live. Identify the services that ecosystem provides. Develop a plan to educate those living in your area of the value of that systems in order to restore biodiversity in your area.

  2. Design a plan to connect existing green spaces in your neighborhood, city, county, prefect or state where you live for a rewilding project. Work with local or state conservations specialists on best methods to establish native species within the corridor.

  3. Identify the ecosystem where you live and develop a plan to present to local city officials requiring effective land-use planning and development to protect natural systems within your local ecosystem.

BENCHMARKS REPRESENTED IN THIS EXEMPLAR

Big Ideas

  • A healthy and sustainable future for human and other life is possible

  • Adaptability helps all living things (including humans) survive (even thrive) over time

  • Creativity (the generation of new forms) is a key property of all living systems and contributes to nature's ability to sustain life

  • Humans are dependent on Earth's life-support systems

  • Diversity makes complex life possible. It assures resilience in living systems

  • Everything must go somewhere because there is no such place as "away". Matter and energy do not appear or disappear. They cannot be created or destroyed. In a healthy community, one species' waste is another species' food

  • All systems have limits. Healthy systems live within their limits. Tap the power of limits

  • Life organizes towards life. Life contributes to its own regenerative capacity, and so far, .1% of all the species that have existed on Earth have prevailed.

  • Places are alive, unique and evolving. If humans want to flourish over time, our relationships with the places in which we live must be mutually beneficial

  • There is an appropriate rate and scale for every living thing and they may not be the same in every circumstance

  • Change is inevitable. Life is dynamic and living systems develop or they die

  • We are all in this together: We are interdependent on each other and on the natural systems

  • Nature sustains life by creating and nurturing communities

  • A sustainable solution solves more than one problem at a time and minimizes the creation of new problems

  • Treating symptoms makes them worse over time, creates new problems and doesn't address the fundamental problem. Create change at the source not the symptom

  • Every system is perfectly formed to get the results it gets

  • The changes to the Earth's surface environments made by human activity are causing unintended consequences on the health and well-being of human and other life on Earth (proposed Anthropocene Epoch)

  • The significant problems we face can't be solved with the same thinking we used to create them. Our prior experiences with the world create cognitive frameworks (also known as mental models/maps) that inform what we can perceive. They shape our behavior and our behavior causes results. If we want to produce different results, it all begins with a change in thinking

  • There is no beginning or end in a system. Intervene where there are favorable conditions, i.e., where and when possible

  • Sustain-ability requires individual and social learning and community practice

  • We all depend on and are responsible for "the commons", i.e., what we share and hold in trust for future generations. Recognize and Protect the Commons

Applied Knowledge and Actions

  • Laws and Principles that govern the physical and biological world

  • Cultures, Traditions, and Change

  • The Many Ways of Knowing

  • System Dynamics and Change

  • Responsible Local and Global Citizenship

  • Multiple Perspectives

Higher Order Thinking Skills

  • Anticipatory: Futures Thinking

  • Emergent: Creative Thinking

  • Emergent: Design Thinking

  • Emergent: Ecological Design

  • Emergent: Regenerative Design

  • Complex: Critical Thinking

  • Complex: [Living] Systems Thinking

  • Mindful: Questioning

Dispositions

  • Courageous

  • Curious

  • Efficacious

  • Humble

  • Imaginative

  • Open Minded

  • Persevering

  • Compassionate

  • Empathetic

  • Ethical

  • Place/Community Conscious

  • Respectful

  • Responsible

Applications and Actions

  • Create Social Learning Communities

  • Engage in Dialogue

  • Engage in Role-Playing, Learning Journeys, Simulations & Games

  • Plan Scenarios

  • Accept responsibility for the consequences of design

  • Apply technology appropriately so that today's solutions don't become tomorrow's problems

  • Contribute to the regenerative capacity of the systems upon which we depend

  • Count and value all the capital (natural, financial, human and social)

  • Design for whole systems integrity with ecological principles and physical laws in mind

  • Design to optimize health and adaptability

  • Design with efficiency and effectiveness for a no waste world that runs off of clean and renewable energy, contributes to diversity, recognizes inter-dependencies and taps the power of limits

  • Tap the power of limits and use constraints to drive creativity

  • Empower people and groups

  • Envision, strategize and plan

  • Evolve the rules when necessary

  • Govern from the bottom up

  • Make the least change for the greatest effect

  • Relentlessly adjust to the here and now with the future in mind

  • Take responsibility for the difference you make

  • Trust local wisdom

  • Leave every place better than you found it

  • Be inclusive

  • Embrace mutually beneficial rights of humanity and nature

  • Practice justice and equity for all

  • Take responsibility for the effect you have on future generations

  • Create and maintain highly functional and successful teams

Hands On Skills

  • Hands On Skills: Use and creation of appropriate technology to the place and culture in which you find yourself

  • Hands On Skills: Cartography (mapping, geo-spatial, geographic)

  • Hands On Skills: Design/Drawing

  • Hands On Skills: Gardening/Farming (organic, permaculture/bio-dynamic, integrated pest management)

Community Connections

  • Develop sustainable community visions and re-visions over time

  • Map community assets and conduct needs assessments

  • Develop, measure and monitor SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic & time bound) goals and sustainable community indicator sets. Schools data is embedded in social, ecological and economic indicator sets

  • Evaluate progress (read the feedback), reflect, adjust, and continually improve performance

  • School buildings and grounds serve the whole community as learning hubs for continuing education of individuals as well as school and community stakeholders to learn together for the future they want

  • School buildings and grounds serve the whole community as places to celebrate

  • Provide Internships for students