“We need a new ethic of place, one that has room for salmon and skyscrapers, suburbs and wilderness, Mount Rainier and the Space Needle, one grounded in history.”

Matthew Klingle, Writing in Emerald City: An Environmental History of Seattle

Curriculum for the Bioregion

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Curriculum for the Bioregion

"Curriculum for the Bioregion" is an initiative of the Washington Center that aims to better prepare undergraduates, as well as ourselves, to live in a world where the complex issues of environmental quality, environmental justice, and sustainability are paramount. This faculty and curriculum development project is based on two ideas: local environmental knowledge is the basis for understanding the larger issues of global change, and within this framework of global change, experiential learning in local places has lasting meaning. A new grant from The Russell Family Foundation is supporting a constellation of faculty learning communities to develop and share curricula that will integrate sustainability concepts and practices in lower-division, general education college classes.

What is a Bioregion and Why This Project?

Bioregions are, literally, "life places" - places characterized by the interrelated natural and social systems upon which we rely for our well-being. The focus of this project, the Puget Sound bioregion, includes the Sound itself and the watersheds that drain into it. This bioregion is home to 4.2 million people as well as a rich diversity of marine and terrestrial life. Situating learning in our bioregion would mean connecting students with the immediacy and significance of what is happening here, linking classroom theory to local places, people, and practices. Creating curriculum for the bioregion implies that we prepare our students for a locally rooted citizenship that will ensure healthy communities, economies, and ecosystems.

We see "curriculum for the bioregion" not as a single, "add-on" course. Rather, we envision a collection of teaching approaches that could be used in existing courses and that engage students with the issues facing the bioregion. We also envision a community of faculty and staff engaging students in bioregional learning and with those people and organizations working on solutions. If this place-based learning is successfully implemented, more college graduates will have the tools to assume personal and community responsibility for environmental stewardship wherever they live.

Project Description

0.12 MB word doc Sustainability Learning Outcomes_2008
Over 130 faculty members involved in the Curriculum for the Bioregion initiative helped shape this set of sustainability learning outcomes. We hope this list will stimulate conversation and integration across the entire curriculum. Feedback and improvements are most welcome; write us at bioregion@evergreen.edu.

0.13 MB word doc Integrating Sustainability into Undergraduate Curriculum
The Curriculum for the Bioregion initiative aims to better prepare undergraduates, as well as ourselves, to live in a world where the complex issues of environmental quality, environmental justice, and sustainability are paramount. This faculty and curriculum development project is based on two ideas: local knowledge is the basis for understanding the larger issues of global change, and within this framework of global change, experiential learning in local places has lasting meaning.

0.11 MB word doc Curriculum for the Bioregion Update
This update describes current work the initiative is doing organizing faculty learning communities around sustainability issues.

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Curriculum for the Bioregion
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Washington Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Education
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