[ Developing Ideas Digest ][ IISDnet Contents ]

About Di Digest | Back Issues | Mailing List | Email DI | On Line Features 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
LitScan
TrendWatch

2.

'Embodied Curricula'

The idea of an 'embodied curriculum' is about walking the talk of sustainable development in the educational arena. It refers to the need to reconcile the contradictions between stated values (such as, 'reduce waste') and demonstrated values or outcomes (like increased paper wastage in the Electronic Age). In an attempt to bridge the gap and 'embody' stated values in school curricula, David Orr at Oberlin College, Ohio is building on a new foundation in which the ethics of ecological design and student engagement figure front and center. If buildings and social patterns mirror one another, then design elements like dedicated energy-saving and recycling programs, fewer walls and more congregation areas, and common meal halls for staff and students could help make college life a wholly more environmentally-attuned and participatory experience. Given the architect's or designer's mission of making the abstract concrete, it may not be surprising that architects and designers are at the forefront of the 'embodied curriculum' movement. A few months ago, William McDonough, Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Virginia, launched an Institute for Sustainable Design to encourage multidisciplinary exchange and collaborations on sustainable design issues with colleagues far and wide. Among its many initiatives, the Institute is embarked on a 'sustainable hospitals' drive with the university's nursing school, promoting a "cradle to cradle" system of disposing of product packaging and hazardous waste through re-use. The university's Kidney Centre will be the first test hospital in the program. This signals that the rest of the architectural world is now following McDonough's lead in advocating sustainable design principles internationally. The World Congress of the International Union of Architects recently adopted what it calls a Declaration of Interdependance for a Sustainable Future, following closely on some principles McDonough produced to promote sustainable design at the upcoming Expo 2000 World's Fair in Hannover, Germany. If Einstein was right in saying, "No problem can be solved by the consciousness that created it," then schools like Oberlin College and the University of Virginia may be showing the way to a new awareness of the ethics needed among educators to promote sustainable development in schools. [do as you teach]

Tufts Education
Tufts University was among the first universities to establish environmental education and protection at the core of its curricula. This alternative approach to understanding and appreciating life in all its complexities links academic disciplines with the natural environment. How? By attracting private and public sector sponsorship in developing workshops and courses to provide students with environmental problem-solving skills. For example, the civil engineering curriculum was modified to include waste containment and clean-up as well as more traditional subjects such as dam-building. The results? Feedback so far has been good – students reported that they found the revised courses stimulating and interesting. The goal now is to increase environmental awareness in the public and private sectors by fostering long-term partnerships among institutions both in the US and elsewhere.

Word Watch sustainable design n. design which enhances ecological, social and economic well-being.

cradle-to-cradle system n. a manufacturing process in which the wastes of one system become the raw materials of another.

Hannover Principles n. nine principles of sustainable design for Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany.

In Depth Wann, David. Deep Design: Pathways to a Livable Future. Washington, Island Press, 1996. 216 p

Koester, Robert J.,ed. Proceedings: Greening of the Campus Conference, April 4-6, 1996. Muncie, IN: Ball State University Center for Energy Research/Education/Service. 329p.

error-file:TidyOut.log
Virtual Ideas
The Hannover Principles and William McDonough's world of sustainable design
Preview Hannover, Germany's Expo 2000 'design-your-own-future' site
Making sustainability and secondary education 'Second Nature' http://www.secondnature.org or www.starfish.org
Sustainable Development on Campus