Teaching Modules
In collaboration with the Land Stewardship working group, Miami-Dade County school teacher Laroche will create three new teaching modules. The first will use exploratory questions to guide students in developing a standardized method for quantifying canopy cover within an area, using data produced by the working group. They will then be introduced to census block data to explore reasons for the differences in tree canopy between communities. The second will develop an environmental cost value for each tree using an algorithm similar to one currently being used at Baltimore Ecosystem Study LTER (BES). Next students will use the data in a GIS project that will map tree canopy data and the cost value for each tree to demonstrate the impact that trees have in their neighborhoods. The third module will address population growth in South Florida beginning with an activity that examines past aerial photographs of neighborhoods. Using the cost values from the second module, students will predict how changes in tree canopy could affect those neighborhoods and test those predictions in a comparison of census block data and current aerial photographs. The conclusion of this module will discuss the results of their findings and report any environmental injustices that may exist.
Dr. James Heffernan reports that at present, there is no agreed-upon core curriculum in sustainability science and human-environment interactions. Our efforts locally at FIU and in conjunction with the DGS in sustainability will contribute to the development of such a curriculum, and to the production of students with experience in the interdisciplinary work that characterizes the study of human-environment interactions. Another important component of the seminar co-taught by Heffernan, Ogden and Rivero is the development of workable models for cross-institution interactions that do not require extensive travel. Our group is active in testing alternative configurations and structures for such collaborations.
Hugh Gladwin, in partnership with Peter Craumer and Rebecca Vega, has developed a Global Learning Course, titled "Our Coastal Environment from the Bay to the World."
