Preparing students to tackle urgent and complex environmental problems is a critical challenge. Problems such as global climate change, water resource management, and sustainable development are dynamic, complex problems that require interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to solve. Socio-environmental synthesis (S-E synthesis) is a problem-solving approach that considers the integrated nature of the environment and human society, and combines insights, methods, and data from the natural and social sciences to produce knowledge and inform solutions. The National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC) is dedicated to educating about this approach and its broad relevance, and to teaching the core concepts and competencies necessary to understand, research, and address socio-environmental problems.
SESYNC hosted a four-day short course on Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies July 15–18, 2014, at SESYNC in Annapolis, MD. The goals of the short course are to:
- Introduce participants to S-E synthesis as a problem-solving approach.
- Engage participants in advancing the teaching of S-E synthesis and related concepts and competencies.
- Enable participants to use case-based teaching approaches such as the case study method, a powerful and effective teaching approach, to teach S-E synthesis.
- Support participants in developing their own case study classroom activity that can be used in their classrooms and shared on the SESYNC website.
Resources:
| Resource Title |
Brief Summary |
|---|---|
| Go-Back Land: Restoring Abandoned Farmland and Sustaining Farm Towns |
Oct 21, 2014 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
| Using System Maps to Analyze Complex Social-Environmental Issues: A Case Study of Geoduck Aquaculture in the Puget Sound |
Nov 23, 2014 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. This case has been selected by SESYNC as an exemplary S-E synthesis case study. |
| To Fish or Not to Fish: Challenges of Managing Culturally and Ecologically Important Species |
Dec 05, 2014 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
| Teaching socio-environmental synthesis with the case studies approach |
Dec 11, 2014 Article published in the Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences. |
| His Lips Drink Water But His Heart Drinks Wine: Groundwater Availability, Access, and Governance in the Guadalupe Valley, Mexico |
Dec 21, 2014 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
| Designing an Urban Green Infrastructure Network: Balancing Biodiversity and Stakeholder Needs |
Jan 02, 2015 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
| When It Rains, It Pours: A Socio-Environmental Approach to Understanding Coastal Flooding |
Jan 02, 2015 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
| A Pipeline in Paradise, Part 1: Learning the Relevant Science |
Jan 02, 2015 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
| Wildland Fire, Human Perspectives, and Fire Management in Jackson Hole, Wyoming |
Jan 02, 2015 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
| Risk Perception and Institutional Complexity in the 2014 West Virginia Chemical Spill |
Jan 02, 2015 This resource was developed as part of the Teaching Socio-Environmental Synthesis with Case Studies short course, held at SESYNC in July 2014. |
