Abstract
Since 2018, students in the Falls Church City Public School System’s (FCCPS) sustainability education program have been developing a deeper understanding of urban agriculture, sustainable design and engineering, and environmental science each subsequent year through multiple, intentional experiences. This interdisciplinary approach lends itself well to easier collaborations between TEE teachers and their core academic peers, especially in courses such as physics, environmental science, earth and space science, and ecology. These experiences combine their classroom instruction with project-based activities in the school’s aquatic education facility, the vivarium (indoor greenhouse) facility, the school gardens (pollinator, native plants, food production), and living labs (water retention area designed ecosystems). These environmental-focused ecosystems support integrated STEM learning by aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This paper emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary sustainability initiatives within organizations. Education on sustainability must be interdisciplinary, incorporate diverse perspectives, and occur across all learning contexts. New forms of technology and the interaction with it requires individuals who can focus on critical thinking, invention, and adaptability. The challenges of today and tomorrow will require students to have robust experiences to address these complex issues. For STEM, implementation of transdisciplinary teaching and learning using a blended approach across disciplines can help students apply knowledge and skills to create and innovate new solutions, and to solve problems across disciplines. As students identify and define a problem, they design and build new, novel, useful, and unique solutions to local phenomena that creates a more sustainable world.
Presenters
Ray Wu RorrerEducator, Falls Church City Public Schools, Meridian High School / Mary Ellen H, Virginia, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
STEM EDUCATION, EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING, SUSTAINABILITY, VIVARIUM, INTERDISCIPLINARY ECOLOGICAL PRACTICES
