Transforming Education for Sustainability

Front matter

Maria S. Rivera Maulucci Stephanie Pfirman Hilary S. Callahan Editors

Transforming Education for Sustainability

Discourses on Justice, Inclusion, and Authenticity

Preface

This volume was conceptualized in January 2017. At that time, we were all at Barnard College and Maria reached out to Hilary and Stephanie about advancing the teaching of environmental justice across the curriculum. We sought to run a Willen Seminar at Barnard—a convening of faculty around a common interest— and sent out a call for chapters. In the Willen Seminar, we would explore how engaging in environmental research also means grappling with questions of justice and sustainability. We also hoped to explore the limitations of human inquiry, human impacts upon the environment and how to mitigate them, implications for human and ecosystem health, and, ultimately, the rights of future generations. At a time when science was increasingly being called into contention (the first March for Science was held April 22, 2017), especially with respect to climate science, we believed there was a need for scientists and those whose research connected to environmental issues to explore common ground and consider the implications for teaching the next generation.

The Willen Seminar was held during the 2017-2018 academic year with four meetings per semester. The seminar gathered faculty in the sciences, social sciences, and education from Barnard and Columbia who were working with issues of the environment and/or environmental justice to explore the literature on ecojustice and share research and teaching strategies. Seminar sessions investigated the connections between research and teaching in the classroom, the research laboratory, and in the field and how the faculty members were navigating the complexities of particular environmental science issues, such as climate change, water quality, soil health, urban environments, and biodiversity, in ways that conveyed their complexity, the real sociopolitical context, and their hope for the future. We focused on topics such as what is ecojustice, connecting ecojustice research and teaching, and had presentations from several potential contributors to the volume.

At around the same time, a campus-wide effort from 2016 to 2018 worked on defining the college’s climate leadership, and later sustainability leadership, through a 360-degree approach to academics, finance and governance, and campus culture and operations with attention to the role of women, people of color, and low-income communities. A significant commitment was made in the spring of 2017, when vi Preface

Barnard announced an innovative approach to divestment. “In a first for any college in the nation, Barnard will divest from fossil fuel companies that deny climate science or otherwise seek to thwart efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change.”! This approach was developed by a Presidential Task Force to Examine Divestment, which was established in response to a student-led campaign by the group Divest Barnard. Grounded in the diverse perspectives of the faculty, students, administrators, board members, and facilities representatives on the Task Force, their recommendations approached the issue from a new direction, one that was authentic to Barnard College: our mission and our context.

Following on the divestment discussions, during the 2017-2018 academic year, the Sustainable Practices Committee at Barnard held a workshop series to develop a shared climate action vision statement. These discussions culminated in Barnard’s Climate Action Vision 2019 which recommended that Barnard provide pedagogical support for faculty to create new courses or adapt existing ones with the goal that 100% of students would participate in a sustainability class or event each year.

Coming out of these separate but complementary faculty dialogues across the year, it became apparent that the overarching concept that connected all our work was sustainability, and that justice, inclusion, and authenticity were central to ways in which we approached the work as scientists, social scientists, and educators. Thus, we decided to focus our attention in this volume on teaching sustainability in authentic, inclusive, and just ways—themes that are threaded through the chapters.

AS we were gathering manuscripts, life happened. First, one of us needed successive medical treatments beginning in 2016, each of which took a further toll, and one of us took a new position in 2018. Then, in 2020, COVID-19 hit New York City—and one of us very hard—losing a partner to this disease further compelled a focus on protecting life.

2020 was also transformative in raising attention around the country to systemic issues of racism and justice. The Black Lives Matter movement and the disparate effects of the pandemic further reinforced issues of justice as life and death.

2020 also showed unmistakable signs of climate change with intense wildfires in Australia and the USA, catastrophic flooding in China and the USA, the most active hurricane season on record for the Atlantic Ocean with 30 named storms, and record-breaking heat and storms in Europe and the Arctic, with a temperature over 100 degrees in Siberia.

The following year, Barnard convened Sustaining Curricula 2021, a series of four interdisciplinary faculty panels at Barnard College that took place virtually during the Spring semester. The panels encouraged faculty integration of climate action, sustainability, and the environment into their courses, with collaboration and pedagogical exchange across the disciplines.

‘Barnard magazine, Spring 2017 https://barnard.edu/magazine/spring-2017/divesting-deniers; also see Union of Concerned Scientists, 2017 https://blog.ucsusa.org/kathy-mulvey/barnardcollege-to-divest-from-fossil-fuel-companies-that-deny-climate-science/

*https://barnard.edu/sites/default/files/inline-files/ClimateA ction Vision-2019-final-5.pdf

Preface vii

These events and experiences strengthened our focus in new ways—not only did we want this Environmental Discourses volume to address teaching the subject matter of sustainability in authentic, inclusive, and just ways, but we also wanted to consider the process and institutional aspects of teaching, and the human side of the people involved—the faculty, students, and staff. To this end, we reached out to additional BIPOC colleagues to gain more diverse perspectives, and included the Barnard Sustaining Curricula panel discussions in this volume.

As we draw this project to completion, we hope that the voices and experiences we bring together in this volume point to the challenges as well as the possibilities of doing authentic and inclusive work for sustainability and justice in the context of our curricula, our students, our institutions, our communities, and our world.

New York, NY, USA Maria S. Rivera Maulucci Tempe, AZ, USA Stephanie Pfirman

New York, NY, USA Hilary S. Callahan

Contents

Maria S. Rivera Maulucci, Stephanie Pfirman, and Hilary S. Callahan

PartI Framing and Reframing Sustainability and Environmental Justice

2 A History of Ecojustice and Sustainability: Maria S. Rivera Maulucci

Part II Sustainability and Ecological Perspectives on Biodiversity Nicholas Gershberg

What Does Cell Biology Have to Do

Jonathan Snow

Terryanne Maenza-Gmelch

Going Up: Incorporating the Local Ecology of New York City Green Roof Infrastructure

Matthew E. Rhodes, Krista L. McGuire, Katherine L. Shek, and Tejashree S. Gopal

It Turned into a Bioblitz: Urban Data Collection for Building Scientific Literacy and Environmental Connection. .. .

Kelly L. O’Donnell and Lisa A. Brundage

Syndemic: Using Game-Based Learning

Emma Ruskin and Tal Danino

Part III Sustainability and Environmental Justice Perspectives in Undergraduate Science Education

Teaching Chemistry in Context: Environmental Lead Exposure:

Rachel Narehood Austin, Ann McDermott, Katrina Korfmacher, Laura Arbelaez, Jamie Bousleiman, Arminda Downey-Mavromatis, Rahma Elsiesy, Sohee Ki, Meena Rao, and Shoshana Williams

Brownfield Action: A Civic-Oriented, Web-Based,

Peter Bower and Sedelia Rodriguez

Learning from the Many, Teaching to the Many: Applying Ecojustice Principles to Undergraduate Pedagogy in Environmental Science, Ecology,

Mary A. Heskel and Jennings G. A. Mergenthal

Hilary S. Callahan, Michael Wolyniak, Jennifer Jo Thompson, Matthew T. Rutter, Courtney J. Murren, and April Bisner

PartIV Climate Change: Engagement, Politics, and Action

Teaching About Climate Change

Laura Kay and Kassandra Fuiten

Contents

Contents

Sedelia Rodriguez and Kassandra Fuiten

Perspectives on Teaching Climate Change:

Stephanie Pfirman and Gisela Winckler

Building a Circular Campus: Consumption, Net Zero Emissions, and Environmental

Sandra Goldmark, Leslie Raucher, and Ana Cardenas

Part V Sustaining Curricula 2021 Panel Discussions at Barnard

Sustaining Curricula: Multidisciplinary Faculty

Jennifer Rosales

Orlando Betancor, Hilary S. Callahan, Carl Wennerlind, Yuval Dinoor, and Rachel Elkis

Panel Two: Climate Change and Anthropocene,

Angelo Caglioti, Jonathan Snow, Andrew Crowther, Maria S. Rivera Maulucci, Yuval Dinoor, and Aastha Jain

Elizabeth M. Cook, Manu Karuka, Angela M. Simms, Joscelyn Jurich, Yuval Dinoor, and Rachel Elkis

Kadambari Baxi, Sandra Goldmark, Martin Stute, Joscelyn Jurich, Linda Chen, and Olivia Wang xi

Editors and Contributors

About the Editors

Maria S. Rivera Maulucci joined the faculty at Barnard College in 2004 and is the Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Education. Prior to Barnard, she served as Director of the Science & Technology Professional Development Center for Region One in the Bronx and as the Director of Urban Forestry for the Environmental Action Coalition. Her expertise in STEM pedagogy and teacher education draws on 16 years of teaching mathematics, science, and technology at the elementary, secondary, and postsecondary levels. She has worked with both school and community-based education programs. Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on how inservice and preservice teachers learn to teach for social justice, particularly in STEM fields, and the role of language, identity, and emotions in teacher development. Professor Rivera was the principal investigator for the Barnard Noyce Teacher Education Scholars Program (BNTSP) and Co-PI for the Summer STEM Teaching Experiences for Undergraduates Program, both funded by the National Science Foundation. She is currently the Co-PI for a Carnegie Foundation grant, Joint Barnard-American Museum of Natural History Summer STEM Teaching Experiences for Undergraduates, a project that provides STEM pedagogical training for undergraduates who teach math and science summer enrichment courses for high school youth. She has served on the board of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST) and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching and Cultural Studies of Science Education. She has been a strong supporter of diversity, inclusion, and sustainability initiatives at the college and in professional organizations, including NARST and the Association for Science Teacher Education.

Stephanie Pfirman is a Foundation professor in the College of Global Futures and a Senior Sustainability Scientist at the Julie Ann Wrigley Global Institute of Sustainability and Innovation at Arizona State University. Before joining ASU in 2018, Pfirman was Hirschorn Professor of Environmental and Applied Sciences and xiii

Xiv Editors and Contributors co-chair of the Department of Environmental Science at Barnard College. She held a joint appointment with Columbia University’s Earth Institute and the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences as an adjunct research scientist at the Lamont- Doherty Earth Observatory. Professor Pfirman focuses on understanding and responding to the changing Arctic, developing innovative approaches to formal and informal education, and exploring the intersection between diversity and interdisciplinarity. Pfirman’s Arctic research addresses implications of changes in sea ice origin, drift, and melt patterns, including defining the Last Ice Area, recently established as a protected area by Canada. She is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. As a former co-PI of a National Science Foundation Advancing Women in the Sciences (ADVANCE) grant, past president of the Council of Environmental Deans and Directors, and chair of the Columbia Earth Institute’s Faculty Development Committee, Pfirman has helped to understand and foster the career trajectories of women and interdisciplinary scholars. Pfirman co-designed EcoChains: Arctic Life, a card-game that earned a Parent’s Choice award. A longtime advocate for action on climate change, as a senior scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, Pfirman co-developed one of the first climate change exhibitions, “Global Warming: Understanding the Forecast,” produced jointly with the American Museum of Natural History.

Hilary S. Callahan, an Ann Whitney Olin Professor of Biology, joined the faculty at Barnard College in 1999 and today serves as department chair and directs the Arthur Ross Greenhouse; she is also an affiliate of Columbia University’s Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology. She learned her early love for nature from knowledgeable relatives, and gained her identity as a botanist and activist during her undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral years in New Haven, Connecticut; Madison, Wisconsin; and Knoxville, Tennessee, where she fostered friendships with scholars across disciplines and with labor activists, grassroots conservationists, community journalists, and progressive politicians. Today, she resides in The Bronx. She has received multiple National Science Foundation funding awards for her research projects and mentoring of experiences in STEM research for undergraduates, including UNPAK: Undergraduates Phenotyping Arabidopsis Knockouts, described in this volume. Her writings in plant ecological genetics focus on plant responses to environmental change. As part of the Barnard Teaches digital initiative, she created an interdisciplinary course in botany and its history in collaboration with the New York Botanical Garden and the Columbia Center for Science and Society. Over the years, she has contributed to the Barnard Noyce Teacher Scholar Program (BNTSP), founded Barnard’s Beckman Scholars Program, and served on many sustainability committees and working groups. Since 2018, she has served as President of the Board of Directors of Black Rock Forest in Cornwall, New York.

Editors and Contributors XV Contributors

Laura Arbelaez Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Shirley-Ann Augustin-Behravesh Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, Phoenix, AZ, USA

Rachel Narehood Austin Department of Chemistry, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Kadambari Baxi Department of Architecture, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Orlando Betancor Department of Spanish and Latin American Cultures, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

April Bisner Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA

Jamie Bousleiman Jacobs School of Medicine University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

Peter Bower Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Lisa A. Brundage Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

Angelo Caglioti Department of History, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA Hilary S. Callahan Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Ana Cardenas Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Linda Chen Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Elizabeth M. Cook Environmental Science, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA Andrew Crowther Department of Chemistry, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Tal Danino Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Yuval Dinoor Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Arminda Downey-Mavromatis Chemical & Engineering News, Washington, DC, USA

Rachel Elkis Barnard College, New York, NY, USA Rahma Elsiesy California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA Kassandra Fuiten Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Nicholas Gershberg Arthur Ross Greenhouse, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Xvi Editors and Contributors

Ralph Ghoche Department of Architecture, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA Sandra Goldmark Department of Theatre, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA Tejashree S. Gopal Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Mary A. Heskel Department of Biology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN, USA Aastha Jain Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Joscelyn Jurich Center for Engaged Pedagogy, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Manu Karuka Department of American Studies, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Laura Kay Physics & Astronomy, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Sohee Ki Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Katrina Korfmacher Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA

Terryanne Maenza-Gmelch Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Ann McDermott Chemistry, Biological Sciences, and Chemical Engineering, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA

Krista L. McGuire Biology and Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

Jennings G. A. Mergenthal Department of Biology, Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN, USA

Courtney J. Murren Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA

Kelly L. O’Donnell Macaulay Honors College, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

Angelica E. Patterson Black Rock Forest and Miller Worley Center, Mt. Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA, USA

Stephanie Pfirman College of Global Futures, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

Suzanne Pierre Critical Ecology Lab, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, USA

Jorge Ramos Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Meena Rao Department of Chemistry, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Editors and Contributors xvii

Leslie Raucher Sustainability, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Matthew E. Rhodes Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA

Maria S. Rivera Maulucci Education Program, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Sedelia Rodriguez Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Jennifer Rosales Center for Engaged Pedagogy, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Emma Ruskin David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA

Matthew T. Rutter Department of Biology, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, USA

Katherine L. Shek Department of Biology, Barnard College and University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, USA

Angela M. Simms Departments of Sociology and Urban Studies, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Jonathan Snow Department of Biology, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Martin Stute Department of Environmental Science, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Jennifer Jo Thompson Crop and Soil Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

Unyimeabasi Udoh School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA Olivia Wang Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

Carl Wennerlind Department of History, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA Shoshana Williams Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

Tanisha M. Williams Biology Department, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA, USA

Gisela Winckler Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Columbia University, Palisades, NY, USA

Michael Wolyniak Department of Biology, Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden Sydney, VA, USA

Chapter 1 A) Education for Sustainability: Connecting se with Signs of Hope

Maria S. Rivera Maulucci, Stephanie Pfirman, and Hilary S. Callahan

1.1 Setting the Scene

In 2017 when this project began, hardly a week went by without some headline or another testifying to environmental justice issues. For example, “Storms hit poorer people harder from superstorm Sandy to Hurricane Maria” (Sellers, 2017) and “Urban noise pollution is worst in poor and minority neighborhoods and segregated cities” (Casey et al., 2017). We saw regular headlines about climate change, such as, “Federal scientists call the warming of the Arctic ‘unprecedented over the last 1500 years’” (Mooney, 2017) and “2017: The year climate change hit” (Banos Ruiz, 2017). We also saw headlines reporting attacks on science and scientists. “Climate scientists face harassment, threats and fears of ‘McCarthyist attacks’” (Milman, 2017). These attacks led to “Tens of thousands march[ing] for science and against threats to climate research” (Cushman, 2017).

Fast-forward 5 years to the completion of this project and the headlines for 2021 show problems still abound, but some signs of hope are recognized. For example, “How much air pollution do you live with? It may depend on your skin color.” (McCormick, 2021) contrasts with the “EPA gets serious about environmental justice” (Macfarlan et al., 2021). “Climate change [is] widespread, rapid, and intensifying — IPCC” (IPCC, 2021) contrasts with, “COP26 news: Coal phase-out boosts

M. S. Rivera Maulucci (4) Education Program, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA e-mail: mriveram @barnard.edu

S. Pfirman College of Global Futures, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

H. S. Callahan Department of Biology, Barnard College, New York, NY, USA

© The Author(s) 2023 1 M. S. Rivera Maulucci et al. (eds.), Transforming Education for Sustainability,

2 M. S. Rivera Maulucci et al.

hope for limiting warming to 1.5 °C” (Marshall et al., 2021). “*‘We’re heartbroken. We’re overwhelmed’ — U.S. hospitals grapple with delta outbreak as omicron takes root” (Kimball et al., 2021) appears alongside, “How Puerto Rico became the most vaccinated place in America” (Narea, 2021).

In the context of a rapidly-warming world, a global pandemic, systemic racism and environmental racism, as science researchers and educators, we recognize an urgent need for comprehensive sustainability and environmental justice education. We also recognize the special role that higher education can and should play in the creation of a sustainable future. In particular, higher education must challenge several prevailing assumptions (Cortese, 2003, p. 17):

e Humans are the dominant species and separate from the rest of nature.

e Resources are free and inexhaustible.

e Earth’s ecosystems can assimilate all human impacts.

e Technology will solve most of society’s problems.

e All human needs and wants can be met through material means.

e Individual success is independent of the health and well-being of communities, cultures, and the life support system.

To challenge these assumptions and achieve a holistic vision of education for sustainability that attends to viability, feasibility, durability, wholeness, and scalesensitivity, we must thoughtfully and carefully address issues of justice, inclusion, and authenticity. Justice includes commitments to integrity, civil and human rights, fairness, and equity. Inclusion unpacks how we involve, incorporate, and weave together diverse stakeholders and perspectives and foster a sense of belonging. Finally, authenticity deepens our understanding of the genuineness, originality, credibility, and trustworthiness of our different approaches to sustainability.

In this volume, we gather voices from natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities, educators, administrators, staff, and students. Contributions range from life in the universe, climate change, volcanoes, birds, honey bees, microbiology, and the chemistry of lead, to green roofs, Bio Blitzes, science teacher education, and higher education. The work takes place in the community, at institutions, across institutions, and in the field, the classroom, the lab, and even within personal lives. Time scales range from billions to hundreds of thousands of years, to the historical, decadal, present, and projected and predicted future. Formats include reviews, personal essays, project narratives, curriculum reflections, interviews, panel discussions, and group conversations. The chapters explore sustainability and environmental justice through a focus on the subject matter (what to teach or research), the process (how to teach or motivate students and stakeholders to care about sustainability), and the people (who teaches, who learns, and who matters in education for sustainability). That said, this volume has an admittedly STEM foundation — in part due to the background of the editors — but also because many faculty come to sustainability from the natural sciences. All tell the story of their learning as they grapple with teaching for sustainability with authenticity, inclusivity and justice.

1 Education for Sustainability: Connecting with Signs of Hope 3

Part I of the book focuses on how we frame and reframe sustainability and environmental justice through a historical lens (María Rivera Maulucci, Chap. 2), the lens of diversity in academia (Shirley-Ann Behravesh, Chap. 3), an intersectional lens (Angelica E. Patterson, Tanisha M. Williams, Jorge Ramos, Suzanne Pierre, Chap. 4), a critique of ecology’s white nationalism problem (Ralph Ghoche and Unyimeabasi Udoh, Chap. 5), and the lens of science teacher education (Maria S. Rivera Maulucci, Chap. 6). Together, these chapters explore the fraught history (Ghoche and Udoh; Rivera Maulucci) and present-day experiences of academics grappling with sustainability in authentic, inclusive, and just ways (Behravesh; Patterson et al.; Rivera Maulucci). Concerning the student experience, “Education for Sustainability can help us answer the timeless question, ‘Why are we learning this.’ ... Students also see that sustainability pathways can expand their ideas about the meaning and relevance...” of the subject (Rivera Maulucci, Chap. 6). On the other hand, a feeling of responsibility for relevance and inclusivity can wear on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) faculty. Through contributing to numerous department, university, and community committees, along with stepping up to informally mentor students, etc., as the only Black faculty member in her unit, Behravesh found that she lost traction towards her goal of academic advancement. “[B]y appearing to take everything in stride — I also made my efforts, and the toll it was taking on me, invisible.” In her discussion with colleagues of color, Williams explains that, “... being the color we are, from the cultures we are from, and having the experiences we have, [means] we are not just scientists. We are actually doing justice work just by showing up” (Patterson et al.).

Part II of the book explores sustainability and ecological perspectives on biodiversity. The chapters delve into sustainability issues surrounding the purpose of ex-situ conservation, specifically in greenhouse collections (Nick Gershberg, Chap. 7), cell biology and saving pollinators (Jonathan W. Snow, Chap. 8) finding the most important places for birds (Terryanne Maenza-Gmelch, Chap. 9), the local ecology of New York City green roofs (Matthew Rhodes, Krista McGuire, Katherine L. Shek, and Tejashree S. Gopal), conducting urban BioBlitzes (Kelly O’ Donnell and Lisa Brundage, Chap. 11), and using game-based learning to engage students in learning about the human microbiome (Emma Ruskin and Tal Danino, Chap. 12). These chapters provide classroom and field-based examples of using experiences to engage students authentically.

Rhodes et al. note “... we intended for our students to gain a deeper understanding of these ecological challenges in the city in which they lived and achieve a more personal connection to their laboratory research projects.” Both Maenza-Gmelch and Snow discuss teaching reciprocity — that managing the environment for nonhumans, also protects it for ourselves. Snow explains “... an environment that is healthy for pollinators is also healthy for people. So you automatically get into aspects of climate justice, and where people live, and how the environment they are in is going to impact their health.”

O’ Donnell and Brundage and Ruskin and Danino also consider justice, but from a knowledge access perspective, “...we consider providing all students, whether they will become scientists or not, with foundational knowledge to navigate the

4 M. S. Rivera Maulucci et al.

scientific information they will encounter in day-to-day life to be a pressing social justice matter.” (O’Donnell and Brundage).

Part III of the book investigates sustainability and environmental justice perspectives in undergraduate science education. The chapters explore the chemistry and pedagogy of environmental lead exposure (Rachel Narehood Austin, Ann McDermott, Katrina Korfmacher, Laura Arbelaez, Jamie Bousleiman, Arminda Downey-Mavromatis, Rahma Elsiesy, Sohee Ki, Meena Rao, and Shoshana Williams, Chap. 13), Brownfield Action, a web-based active learning simulation (Peter Bower and Sedelia Rodriguez, Chap. 14), integrating ecojustice principles into ecology and environmental science courses (Mary A. Heskel and Jennings G. A. Mergenthal, Chap. 15), and using plant science in the UNPAK project (Undergraduates Phenotyping Arabidopsis Knockouts) to expand critical thinking skills and meaningful personal relationships, both so necessary for journeying from classes and on-campus research toward careers and life’s other challenges. (Hilary S. Callahan, Michael Wolyniak, Matthew Rutter, Courtney Murren, April Bisner, and Jennifer Jo Thompson, Chap. 16).

Each chapter addresses experiences with changing perspectives on teaching. Wolyniak of the UNPAK project emphasizes integrating classroom and independent experiences, crucial for allowing college students “to participate in the research regardless of their previous background and experience. This is a powerful tool ... [to] inspire many more students than I could have before, and to attract people who may have slipped through the cracks.” Heskel and Merganthal, also working on a college campus, discuss a fundamental shift in teacher orientation. While our teaching “... often recognize[s] the importance of human systems and their effects ... It is less common for professors to expand into the structural inequalities of human systems and how they shape the science we practice and the content we deliver.”

Austin et al. caution,

...talking about issues of social justice in the classroom requires a skilled facilitator. College science teachers may not be trained or experienced in moderating such difficult conversations. It can be helpful to lay out some guidelines for talking about racism, equity, and justice at the beginning of the class, particularly that their colleagues and community members may have very different life experiences and perspectives... It is important to remind students to remain humble and to acknowledge how much they do not know about diverse communities’ experiences and multidisciplinary perspectives. It can be challenging to balance this message while also encouraging students to become as confident of their basic scientific skills as quickly as they can.

Part IV of the book zooms in on climate change, engagement, politics, and action from the perspective of teaching about astronomy (Laura Kay and Kassandra Fuiten, Chap. 17), volcanoes (Sedelia Rodriguez and Kassandra Fuiten, Chap. 18), two decades of evolving approaches to teaching about climate change in environmental science (Stephanie Pfirman and Gisela Winckler, Chap. 19), and the process of building a circular campus at Barnard College (Sandra Goldmark, Leslie Raucher, and Ana Cardenas, Chap. 20). Kay and Fuiten and Rodriguez and Fuiton integrate teaching about climate change into their teaching of astronomy and volcanoes. Kay notes, “It is certainly an environmental justice issue to keep Earth habitable for

1 Education for Sustainability: Connecting with Signs of Hope 5 humans! There is no way we can relocate everyone to another planet in the foreseeable future.” Rodriguez talks about intentionality in connecting students with their environments.

I think that teaching students about the natural world is especially important because hopefully as they look more at their environment, they will appreciate it more and want to preserve it. Knowing what happens naturally helps plan for a sustainable community. We can’t control everything — what can we not change? What do we need to work around? When you don’t understand the natural world, it’s harder to fight for it. Knowledge about the environment becomes a vehicle for activism.

Pfirman and Winckler tackle the political polarization of climate change “...explor[ing] how faculty who taught [a course in] climate over the years responded to [a] shifting landscape of both external context and internal responses.” They explain that

While scientists teaching about evolution have long had to face these issues, the rest of the scientific community was largely distanced from being confronted with questions about their opinions or positions, versus facts or a scientific consensus. For those who were teaching about climate, this was an unusual, and sometimes uncomfortable, situation. ... [We] needed to learn how to address these differences with authenticity — congruent with who we are, and our own values — both in the classroom and beyond.

Goldmark et al. bring the need for action outside of the classroom home, stating “building a circular campus becomes about more than recycling, waste, or even greenhouse gas emissions; it is about creating a more equitable and just community.”

Finally, Part V brings us up to Spring 2021 with an introduction and series of edited transcripts from sustaining curricula conversations held at Barnard over Zoom due to the pandemic. These conversations brought faculty and students together to explore how sustainability was being integrated into the undergraduate curriculum. The introduction to the panel discussions (Jennifer Rosales, Chap. 20) provides an overview of the campus initiatives leading up to the interdisciplinary faculty panels and an explanation of themes for each panel. The first panel (Orlando Betancor, Carl Wennerlind, Hilary Callahan, Yuval Dinoor, Rachel Elkis, Chap. 22) addresses the theme of theorizing the environment from the perspective of History, Spanish and Latin American Cultures, and Ecology. The second panel (Angelo Caglioti, Andrew Crowther, Jonathan Snow, Maria S. Rivera Maulucci, Yuval Dinoor, Aastha Jain, Chap. 23) takes up the theme of climate change and the Anthropocene from the perspective of Environmental History, Chemistry, Biology, and Science Education. The third panel (Elizabeth M. Cook, Manu Karuka, Angela M. Simms, Joscelyn Jurich (Ed.) Yuval Dinoor, Rachel Elkis, Chap. 24) focuses on environmental justice. The fourth panel discussion (Kadambari Baxi, Sandra Goldmark, Martin Stute, Joscelyn Jurich (Ed.), Linda Chen, Olivia Wang, Chap. 25) takes up the challenge of decarbonization and design.