In the January edition of Edubytes, our guest editor is Alejandra Urcelay, Data Manager at the UBC Sustainability Hub. She highlights the UBC Sustainability Hub’s initiatives to enhance climate and sustainability teaching and learning.
At the UBC Sustainability Hub, we provide a range of supports for faculty and students to teach and learn about current and emerging climate and sustainability issues. Recently, we have been expanding and enhancing our programs and resources, so that more faculty and students can engage in impactful and interdisciplinary academic and experiential sustainability education.
One way we develop resources for faculty and students on current and emerging climate and sustainability topics is by analyzing all UBC’s current courses and programs. Our data team filters and organizes courses by Faculty, subject, and year, and publishes them in easy-to-use course finder tools. Recent analysis has created a brand-new resource for climate-specific courses, featuring 79 offerings across various subjects.
For faculty members seeking to design new sustainability course content, we offer a limited number of fellowships per year through the Sustainability Education Fellows program. This program supports interdisciplinary teams of faculty members doing curriculum development centred on transformative learning, incorporating experiential, applied and interdisciplinary sustainability education principles. Recent faculty projects we’ve supported include integrating sustainability into four first-year core curriculum courses in the Faculties of Land and Food Systems and Forestry, and adding new modular content on carbon and sustainability accounting to courses in the Faculties of Applied Science, Forestry, and the Sauder School of Business. In addition to this cohort-based program, we recently added an open access Sustainability Teaching Resource Library, which provides over 100 reports, toolkits, multimedia, and other materials to assist faculty in creating and updating teaching content.
For University, Faculty and Departmental advisors who get questions from students who are interested in extracurricular sustainability and experiential learning opportunities, we would recommend the Sustainability Ambassadors Program and Catalyst:
- The Sustainability Ambassadors program, a hands-on learning and leadership experience for students passionate about sustainability, now offers an opportunity for students to explore various aspects of sustainability in-depth through topic-centred cohorts. For example, the Climate Outreach Cohort recently partnered with the City of Vancouver to support the City’s Climate Emergency Action Plan and Climate Change Adaptation Strategy.
- Catalyst, UBC’s free certification program for sustainability engagement and leadership, now allows all UBC students and staff to get recognized for their sustainability and climate action efforts. With three levels of engagement — Engage, Amplify and Lead — all students can develop sustainability knowledge and skills, and receive a Catalyst certification.
Through these initiatives and others, the UBC Sustainability Hub advances climate and sustainability teaching and learning, helping to prepare faculty and students to address global challenges through impactful and transformative education.
Additional Resources
Sustainability Teaching Resource Library
The Sustainability Teaching Resource Library offers around 100 reports, toolkits, multimedia, and other materials to assist faculty in creating and updating their teaching content. Curated and maintained by the Sustainability Hub, this resource supports the integration of sustainability into courses and programs, helping educators enhance their teaching practices and advance sustainability education at UBC.
Climate Course List
This curated collection showcases climate-related courses at UBC Vancouver, spanning multiple themes and disciplines. The resource has a course finder tool, allowing users to search and filter courses based on keywords, Faculty, Subject, or year level. While some courses are restricted to certain student groups, the tool highlights those with no prerequisites, co-requisites, or restrictions, encouraging all students to explore climate learning.
We welcome contributions to expand this resource. Please contact alejandra.urcelay@ubc.ca with any course addition requests.
Sustainability Education Fellows Program
The Sustainability Education Fellows Program provides funding and support to full-time UBC Vancouver faculty who are developing innovative sustainability courses and programs. Fellows design curricula that integrate experiential, applied, and interdisciplinary sustainability principles. Fellows also collaborate in a cohort, meeting monthly to share insights and strategies, ultimately advancing sustainability education across diverse academic disciplines at UBC.
Sustainability Ambassadors Program
The Sustainability Ambassadors Program offers students an enriching leadership experience focused on sustainability. Students work in interdisciplinary teams, engaging in experiential learning to develop core sustainability competencies.
Catalyst
Catalyst is UBC’s free certification program for sustainability engagement and leadership, open to students from all disciplines. The program offers three streams: Engage (low commitment, learning opportunities), Amplify (mid-level, supporting workshops and events), and Lead (high-level, leading teams and facilitating dialogue).
Students gain recognition for their sustainability efforts while developing valuable skills and actively advancing UBC’s climate and sustainability goals.
UBC Climate Emergency Week
Climate Emergency Week at UBC, organized by the Sustainability Hub in collaboration with students, faculty, staff, and community partners, aims to mobilize the university community around climate action and justice for people and the planet.
Since its launch, the program has grown, expanding its reach with additional events and workshops each year that provide experiential learning opportunities for students, faculty, and staff to engage with, learn about, and take transformative action in response to the climate crisis.
The next UBC Climate Emergency Week is February 10-14, 2025, check the website for details.
Enjoyed reading about enhanced teaching resources for climate and sustainability learning? Learn about other topics we covered in the January 2025 edition by reading the complete Edubytes newsletter. To view past issues, visit the Edubytes archive.
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