Academics & Research
All education is environmental education.
-David Orr
Not surprisingly, a significant amount of sustainability education at SIUE occurs in and around the classroom in a variety of ways:
Sustainability App
Want to learn more about what SIUE is doing to be a more sustainable university? We have an app for that! Erin Balding, Jordin Ray, and Stephen Russell (Computer Science, '17) built the Sustainable SIUE app for their senior assignment project so that others can learn about some of the great features that our campus offers. Sustainable SIUE currently highlights 20 sustainability points of interest, with more to be added. Each point of interest is mapped and has a learning module attached. Faculty can take advantage of the Scavenger Hunt option that allows for student teams and check-ins by contacting Connie Frey Spurlock (cfrey@siue.edu). Download the app at https://sustainable.isg.siue.edu/download/.
SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative
SIUE Successful Communities Collaborative (SSCC) is a cross-disciplinary program that supports one-year partnerships between the University and communities in Illinois to advance local resilience and sustainability based on community-identified environmental, social, and economic issues and needs. Our mission is to connect communities with the students and faculty of SIUE.
Student Projects
In Spring 2017, Profs. Elaine AbuSharbain (Department of Biological Sciences) and Jessica Krim (Department of Teaching and Learning) taught Sustainability at Work in the 21st Century (IS 399). Students in the course were tasked with completed a sustainability-themed educational action project. These videos are two examples of their work.
Pilot Sustainability Faculty Fellowship
July 2016 marked the completion of a three-year pilot sustainability fellowship with Connie Frey Spurlock, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies.
Mississippi Project
In 2011, Dr. Connie Spurlock Fry and Kevin Adkins created the Mississippi Project which sponsors annual curricular workshops. (Mississippi Project VI was held on August 11, 2016.) The workshop is modeled after the Ponderosa Project at Northern Arizona University and the Piedmont Project at Emory University, which have both drawn national attention for their innovative approaches to curricular change. The workshops explore how faculty can meaningfully integrate sustainability – broadly defined – into their classrooms.
Sustainability in the Curriculum
In 2009, as part of a SAG-sponsored sustainability audit, conducted by ENVS GA Ron Morlen, University faculty were asked to identify courses that concentrated on sustainability, including its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, as well as courses that included sustainability as a course component or module. Over 40 courses were identified in fields as diverse as Biology, Business, Anthropology, Engineering, Philosophy and Environmental Science.
Degree Programs
Environmental Science
SIUE offers an undergraduate minor in Environmental Science and at the graduate level, offers a Masters in Science with six possible areas of emphasis: Environmental Biology; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Education; Environmental Policy and Public Administration; Environmental Technology and Assessment; Environmental Toxicology. The University also offers a Professional Science Master's (PSM.)
Civil Engineering
To address the needs of the civil engineering profession, the SIUE Department of Civil Engineering has created two professional development sequences (PDS) for post-baccalaureate study. Both highlight aspects of sustainable development relevant to civil engineers. The PDS for Sustainable Infrastructure includes courses on sustainable engineering (CE 596), intelligent transportation systems (CE 578), and municipal infrastructure (CE 460). The PDS for Sustainable Planning includes courses on sustainable engineering (CE 596), solid waste management (CE 588), and transportation planning (CE 475).
Department of Geography
The Department of Geography now offers an Area of Specialization in Sustainability. This area of study offers an interdisciplinary approach to understanding human-environment systems and interactions in terms of their sustainability across space and over time. Sustainability generally refers to the capacity to meet contemporary social, economic, and environmental needs in a balanced manner and in ways that do not compromise the capacity of future generations to also meet these same needs. Students who concentrate in this area of study will be better prepared for a wide range of careers, including resource and ecosystem management, sustainable facilities management and business operations, environmental policy, consulting, education, and advocacy, and urban and regional sustainability planning.
Sustainability LibGuide
The Sustainability LibGuide is a resource from the Lovejoy Library that provides a central point for locating resources to help you to learn about sustainability. This guide can be used to help you find eresources, databases, multimedia, research tips, faculty resources, and more.
CAS Interdisciplinary Roundtables
In order to contribute to the understanding among scholars across disciplinary lines, the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville launched a new initiative: Interdisciplinary Roundtables. One of these roundtables approved in Fall 2009 is "SIUE - Nature Preserves Partnerships." The roundtable members are: Jennifer Rehg - Coordinator (Anthropology);Elaine M. Abusharbain (biologival Sciences); Peter Minchin (Biological Sciences); Rick Essner (Biological Sciences); Kurt Schulz (Biological Sciences); Elizabeth Walton (Geography and Environmental Sciences); Chris Pearson (Philosophy); Connie Frey (Sociology & Criminal Justice Studies); Laura Perkins (Speech Communication).
The roundtable is exploring the potential for the university and local nature preserves to collaborate in research, teaching, and community outreach. Its goals are to highlight the many research and education opportunities for SIUE faculty and students that already exist in natural areas on campus and at local preserves, and to identify ways to enhance and expand these opportunities.
Research
SIUE faculty members are engaged in research efforts to enhance sustainability initiatives on campus through the following:
- Invasive Species Control - The University provides one of the few natural areas in the region for enjoyment and research. Non-native invasive plant species are threatening this unique and valuable resource. The University has made a long-term commitment to controlling the invasive Species and restoring native species. Control efforts have been underway for several years, but a cohesive plan was lacking. In 2008-2009, a Biological Sciences faculty member began:
- Conducting and documenting a campus-wide inventory of invasive plant species;
- Recommending control methods based on best practice and field research;
- Developing a control plan and beginning more organized control efforts.
- Dr. Kurt Schultz, completed an inventory and progress has been made in removing garlic mustard and several other invasive Species.
- Endangered Habitats - In Fall 2008, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) awarded funds to Richard Essner and Peter Minchin, both associate professors in the SIUE Department of Biological Sciences, for their project, "A Multivariate Habitat Model for the State Threatened Cerulean Warbler and Other Neotropical Migrant Songbirds in Southwestern Illinois." The object of the study will include establishing 140 permanent vegetation plots on the SIUE campus and the adjacent Bohm Woods State Nature Reserve. Data is expected to be collected on the composition and structure of the forest community, looking at both woody and herbaceous plant species of the area. The study also includes a census of the area to generate baseline data for future efforts aimed at monitoring population trends within the designated area.
- Dr. Nic Guehlstorf (Political Science), a 2008 Urban Scholar, is researching Brownfields in Metro East and ways to effectively address them. As defined by the US Environmental Protection Agency, Brownfields are properties whose expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.
- Laura Bernaix PhD and Cynthia A. Schmidt PhD, School of Nursing, have performed research in prenatal lead screening and prenatal blood lead levels within St. Clair County, for which they received a $10,000 grant from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) in 2003.
