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Grand Challenge Curriculum (GCC) Courses

Academic Unit: Undergrad Education Admin

GCC 3003 - Seeking Solutions to Global Health Issues [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5003 (ending 06-SEP-16)
Often, the most progress on challenging issues such as health and equity is made when you apply an interdisciplinary perspective. The same is true for global health issues. Whether responding to emerging pandemics, food insecurity, maternal mortality, or civil society collapse during conflict, solutions often lie at the intersection of animal, environmental, and human health. In this course, students will work in teams to examine the fundamental challenges to addressing complex global health problems in East Africa and East African refugee communities here in the Twin Cities. Together we will seek practical solutions that take culture, equity, and sustainability into account. In-field professionals and experts will be available to mentor each team, including professionals based in Uganda and Somalia. This exploration will help students propose realistic actions that could be taken to resolve these issues. This course will help students gain the understanding and skills necessary for beginning to develop solutions to global health issues. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 3005 - Innovation for Changemakers: Design for a Disrupted World [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Summer)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5005
Do you want to make a difference? We live at the intersection of COVID-19, racism, economic recession, and environmental collapse. Now is the time to make an impact. In this project-based course, you will work in interdisciplinary teams. You'll develop entrepreneurial responses to current social and environmental problems. You'll develop tools, mindsets, and skills to address any complex grand challenge. Your project may address food insecurity, unemployment, housing, environmental impacts, equity, or other issues. Proposed designs for how you might have a social impact can take many forms (student group, program intervention with an existing organization, public policy strategy, or for-profit or non-profit venture) but must have ideas for how to be financially sustainable. Community members, locally and globally, will serve as mentors and research consultants to teams. Weekly speakers will share their innovative efforts to serve the common good. A primary focus of the course is up-front work to identify the ?right? problem to solve. You will use a discovery process, design thinking, and input from field research to addressing the challenge you choose. You will build a model around the community?s culture, needs, and wants. By the end of the class, you will have a well-designed plan to turn your project into an actionable solution if that is of interest. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 3007 - Toward Conquest of Disease [ENV]
(3 cr; Prereq-sophomore, junior, senior; A-F only; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5007
Since the rise of civilization, the large predators of humans have been subdued and the most dangerous predators remaining are those unseen--vastly smaller than our bodies. They are the microbial predators that cause disease. Infectious disease has devastated human populations and even caused global population declines. Subduing and managing disease is one of the grand challenges of our time. Through an enormous global effort, we have driven smallpox in humans and Rinderpest in livestock extinct from the natural world, and guinea worm is expected to follow. Other infectious diseases are in continual decline. In this course we will combine ecological thought and ecological models with historical and future perspectives to understand the fundamental dynamics of our miniscule predators, and relate this to similar miniscule predators of wild and domestic animals, to crops, and to other plants. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3011 - Pathways to Renewable Energy [TS]
(3 cr; Prereq-sophomore, junior, senior; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5011, CNES 1082H (inactive, ending 20-JAN-15, starting 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082H until 05-SEP-00, was CLAS 1182 until 05-SEP-00, was RELA 1182 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 1082H (inactive, ending 04-SEP-07, was RELA 1082H until 02-SEP-08)
This interdisciplinary course will examine obstacles to energy transitions at different scales. It will explore the role of energy in society, the physics of energy, how energy systems were created and how they function, and how the markets, policies, and regulatory frameworks for energy systems in the US developed. The course will closely examine the Realpolitik of energy and the technical, legal, regulatory, and policy underpinnings of renewable energy in the US and Minnesota. Students will learn the drivers that can lead global systems to change despite powerful constraints and how local and institutional action enables broader reform. Students will put their learning into action by developing a proposal and then working on a project to accelerate the energy transition and to ensure that the energy transition benefits people in a just and equitable way. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3013 - Making Sense of Climate Change - Science, Art, and Agency [CIV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5013
The overarching theme of the course is the role of artistic/humanistic ways of knowing as tools for making sense and meaning in the face of "grand challenges." Our culture tends to privilege science, and to isolate it from the "purposive" disciplines--arts and humanities--that help humanity ask and answer difficult questions about what should be done about our grand challenges. In this course, we will examine climate change science, with a particular focus on how climate change is expected to affect key ecological systems such as forests and farms and resources for vital biodiversity such as pollinators. We will study the work of artists who have responded to climate change science through their artistic practice to make sense and meaning of climate change. Finally, students create collaborative public art projects that will become part of local community festivals/events late in the semester.
GCC 3014 - The Future of Work and Life in the 21st Century [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5014
This course seeks solutions to the technological, demographic, and economic forces that challenge taken-for-granted mindsets and existing policies around work, careers, and life. Students will consider positive and negative impacts of the forces that render the conventional education/work/retirement lockstep obsolete. What do these changes mean for men and women of different ages and backgrounds? What are alternative, sustainable ways of working and living in the 21st century? These questions reflect global challenges that touch the lives of people everywhere. Students will work in teams to begin to address these realities and formulate innovative solutions to better transform learning, working, caring, and community-building in the 21st century. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3015 - Bioinspired Approaches to Sustainability - Greening Technologies and Lives [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: FREN 1001 (ending 20-JAN-15, starting 02-SEP-08), GCC 5015, MONT 1001 (ending 20-JAN-15, starting 03-SEP-13)
How can we build a sustainable society? From designing cities and technologies that use green energy, to health care and agriculture that can sustain billions, the sustainability challenges that face us today are immense. The field of biomimicry seeks solutions to such problems by looking to the diverse ways in which organisms have adapted to varied and sometimes extreme environments. With over 1.3 million described species (and likely over 8 million in existence), chances are a species out there has evolved some solution to a particular problem. But how do we go about figuring out which species this might be? And which trait holds the adaptation in which we are interested? What might be some limitations associated with copying this adaptation--how might we build on it instead? This course teaches bio-inspired approaches to sustainability solutions. Throughout the course, students work in teams of complementary expertise to identify a sustainability problem, research a relevant biological system, and build a prototype bio-inspired solution to their focal problem.This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3016 - Science and Society: Working Together to Avoid the Antibiotic Resistance Apocalypse [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5016
Before the discovery of antibiotics, even a simple thorn prick could lead to life threatening infection. Antibiotics are truly miracle drugs, making most bacterial infections relatively easy to cure. However, this landscape is rapidly changing with the advent of microbes that are resistant to antibiotics. This course will provide an overview of how antibiotic use invoked antibiotic resistance, including in depth discussions of antibiotic resistant microorganisms and the impact of globalization on this exploding problem. Societal and ethical implications associated with antibiotic use and restriction in humans and animals will be discussed, along with global issues of antibiotic regulation and population surveillance. The class will conclude with discussions of alternative therapeutic approaches that are essential to avoid "antibiotic apocalypse." The course will include lectures by world-renowned experts in various topics, and students will leverage this knowledge with their own presentations on important topics related to issues of personal freedom versus societal needs. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3017 - World Food Problems: Agronomics, Economics and Hunger [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: CVM 6060 (inactive), AGRO 4103 (inactive, was APEC 4103 until 21-JAN-03, was FSCN 4103 until 21-JAN-03, was APEC 4103 until 03-SEP-02, was FSCN 4103 until 03-SEP-02, was APEC 4103 until 22-JAN-02, was FSCN 4103 until 22-JAN-02, was APEC 4103 until 07-SEP-99, was FSCN 4103 until 07-SEP-99), APEC 4103 (inactive), FSCN 4103 (inactive), GCC 5017
This course provides a multi-disciplinary look at problems (and some of the possible solutions) affecting food production, distribution, and requirements for the seven plus billion inhabitants of this planet. It is co-taught by a plant geneticist (Morrell) and an economist (Runge) who together have worked on international food production and policy issues for the past 40 years. Historical context, the present situation and future scenarios related to the human population and food production are examined. Presentations and discussions cover sometimes conflicting views from multiple perspectives on population growth, use of technology, as well as the ethical and cultural values of people in various parts of the world. The global challenge perspective is reflected in attention to issues of poverty, inequality, gender, the legacy of colonialism, and racial and ethnic prejudice. Emphasis is placed on the need for governments, international assistance agencies, international research and extension centers, as well as the private sector to assist in solving the complex problems associated with malnutrition, undernutrition, obesity, and sustainable food production. Through a better understanding of world food problems, this course enables students to reflect on the shared sense of responsibility by nations, the international community and ourselves to build and maintain a stronger sense of our roles as historical agents. Throughout the semester students are exposed to issues related to world food problems through the lenses of two instructors from different disciplinary backgrounds. The core issues of malnutrition and food production are approached simultaneously from a production perspective as well as an economic and policy perspective throughout the semester. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 3018 - What American Dream? Children of the Social Class Divide [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
As a result of the increasing and widening social class divide present in the early 21st century, American families and their children are facing more challenges than ever before. In this course, students will identify and confront the barriers to opportunities created by the divide and seek solutions that can be pursued with families, schools, and communities, and public policy to redress these inequities. Because of the complexity of this grand challenge, an interdisciplinary approach to intervention and policy is required. From course instructors' respective vantage points in prevention science, developmental and educational psychology, and family social science, and with the perspectives provided by faculty contributors from economics, law, and pediatrics, students engage with diverse modes of inquiry, epistemologies, and critical lenses by which possible solutions can be generated and implemented. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3021 - The Achievement Gap: Who is to Blame? [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Students in GCC 3021 will start the semester with a review of what unequal schooling looks like in the United States. The course uses the history of Detroit to examine how underinvestment and discrimination positioned minoritized communities to receive inadequate education. School structures--including resources, climate and discipline, academic tracks, and community engagement--will be explored. Students will consider what it means to say that there are "achievement gaps" in our society's schools. Mainstream assumptions and meanings will be questioned and criticized, and alternatives, such as the notion of an "education debt," will be explored. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3025 - Seeking the Good Life at the End of the World: Sustainability in the 21st Century [CIV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
What does it mean to live "the good life" in a time of rapid climate changes, mass extinction of plant and animal species, and the increasing pollution of our oceans, atmosphere, and soils? Is it possible to live sustainably, as individuals and societies, in what scientists are calling the Anthropocene, or this new epoch of human influence over the planet? Will sustainability require that we sacrifice the gains humanity has made in our quality of life? Or can we find a way to create a good Anthropocene? This course will attempt to answer these questions in four ways: 1. By providing an overview of sustainability science, both what it says about about human and natural systems and how it comes to make these claims 2. By examining various conceptions of the good life, both individual and social, and how they intersect with the findings of sustainability science 3. By exploring the conflicts that exist within and between differing visions of sustainability and the good life through case studies in energy, water, and food 4. By pursuing collaborative research projects that will help students apply their knowledge and skills to current problems in sustainability studies We will read widely in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities to understand a range of historical and contemporary perspectives on these questions, and in doing so we will put abstract ethical principles into conversation with a diversity of specific cultures and environments. By the end of the course, students will have examined their own assumptions about personal and professional happiness, considered how these align with and diverge from societal visions and values, and explored innovative solutions to help sustain our productive economy and our planet. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3026 - Stepping Into the Gap: How can you support diversity in STEM? [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
The goal of this class is to empower students to alter the cognitive, social, and emotional factors that have led to the underrepresentation of many groups in STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In addition to studying research on the psychology of learning and diversity, we will survey literature about scientific communication and learn about the impact of disparities in educational opportunities. We will also engage in discussions about the persistent problems related to equity and access in STEM education. In October, November, and December, the class meets at a local middle school (easily accessible by public transportation). University students lead introductory science demos, stage a science fair so the middle school students have a chance to play judge, and then partner with the middle school students as they invent, execute and present their own science fair projects. During September, and on school holidays in October and November, the class will discuss theories and research that explains the crisis being experienced across America and in particular, in the Twin Cities. They will design evidence-based curriculum materials to address key issues and have hands-on experiences as peer mentor-teachers. Overall, this class will provide experiences that are likely to be transformative in relation to students' views of education, opportunity, and the power of their involvement. This class builds on a partnership between the University of Minnesota and a local middle school. The overarching goal is to support students from groups typically underrepresented in science as they participate in an advanced science learning opportunity: the science fair. Our engagement with the school science fair process should result in an experience that motivates future participation in STEM opportunities. This is a grand challenge curriculum course.
GCC 3027 - Power Systems Journey: Making the Invisible Visible and Actionable [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5027
An energy revolution is underway, and needs to accelerate to support climate and economic goals. But the general citizenry does not understand our current energy systems, particularly the seemingly invisible phenomena of electricity, and its generation, distribution, and use. Technical knowledge is only half the solution, however. It is through human decisions and behaviors that technical solutions get applied and adopted, and the importance of communication and storytelling is being recognized for its relevance to making change. How can science literacy and behavior-motivating engagement and storytelling be combined to help make systemic change? This course explores the integration of science-based environmental education, with art-led, place-based exploration of landscapes and creative map-making to address this challenge. How do we make electricity visible, understandable, and interesting -- so we can engage citizens in energy conservation with basic literacy about the electric power system so that they can be informed voters, policy advocates, and consumers. In this class, you will take on this challenge, first learning about the electric power systems you use, their cultural and technical history, systems thinking, design thinking, and prior examples of communication and education efforts. With this foundation, you will then apply your learning to create a public education project delivered via online GIS Story maps that use a combination of data, art, and story to help others understand, and act on the power journey we are all on. All will share the common exploration of power systems through field trips, and contribute to a multi-faceted story of power, presented in a group map and individual GIS Story maps. No prior knowledge of GIS story maps or electricity issues is needed. The study of power systems can be a model for learning and communicating about other topics that explore the interaction of technology and society toward sustainability. This is a Gr
GCC 3028 - Harnessing the power of research, community, clinic and policy to build a culture of health [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5028
Imagine a world where factors such as race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status had no bearing on a person's health status, quality of life, or longevity--a world where everyone had an equal opportunity to live a long and healthy life. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Despite decades of focused public health efforts, health inequities remain; individuals from low income and diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds are far more likely to, (1) struggle with chronic health conditions, (2) report lower quality of life, and (3) have a lower life expectancy, than others. Bold and innovative solutions are needed to address this grand challenge. Integration is one such method that can potentially increase the success and sustainability of approaches to reduce health disparities and create a culture of health for all. Integration is an approach to solving complex public health problems that merges academic research, clinical practice, policy and community resources in new ways. This interactive course will challenge students to identify root causes of health, including access to food, housing, transportation and education. Students will also focus on health disparities and barriers to eliminating these existing, disparate, negative outcomes. Students will be introduced to the concept of integration science and practice; will learn about the importance of integration across research, practice, community, and policy domains to address health disparities; and will cultivate the communication skills needed to intentionally and successfully facilitate integration practice. Course instructors with unique vantage points as concerned scientists, health practitioners, and policy wonks will engage students in class discussions and activities, individual writing assignments and small-group work aimed at unveiling the reasons health disparities persist globally--challenging them to consider opportunities for integration to alleviate existing disparities. The semester will culminate in stu
GCC 3029 - Agents of Change: scientific and philosophical perspectives [CIV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 5029
Grand challenges like structural racism, climate change, gender oppression, and global poverty have to be solved by individual people, acting together, often through institutions. This means that we need good agents of change to address the challenges we face. What does it mean to be a `good agent?? What are the best ways to think about this kind of agency? And how can we foster more of it in ourselves, our friends, our children, and our fellow citizens? This course is taught by a philosopher and a psychologist, and we approach questions like these from both perspectives. Traditionally, many philosophers have thought that we need to cultivate virtues such as compassion and open-mindedness in order to be good people. Some recent psychological work casts doubt on this picture: the social and environmental forces that influence our behavior cannot be overcome with virtuous character! On the other hand, psychological research also shows that some of the good traits we have are ones that develop reliably, from early childhood. Which perspective offers more opportunities for progress? Should we foster good agency by working on individual character or by changing social circumstances? Or, if both are important, what would a combined approach look like? The ultimate goal of the course is to encourage students to apply the theoretical and scientific ideas about improving agency to specific grand challenges. How do philosophy and psychology help us to define and resolve the challenges that confront people who want to make a difference? To provide a model for this kind of research, we focus on structural racism and white supremacy to expose the ways in which individual and structural forces can impede epistemic and moral agency. Course requirements include active class participation, group projects, and writing assignments designed to foster creative engagement across different fields.
GCC 3031 - The Global Climate Challenge: Creating an Empowered Movement for Change [CIV]
(3 cr; Prereq-soph, jr, sr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was GCC 3010 until 22-JAN-19, GCC 5031
Students will explore ecological and human health consequences of climate change, the psychology of climate inaction, and will be invited to join us in the radical work of discovering not only their own leadership potential but that of others. We will unpack the old story of domination and hierarchy and invite the class to become part of a vibrant new story of human partnership that will not only help humanity deal with the physical threat of climate change but will help us create a world where we have the necessary skills and attitudes to engage the many other grand challenges facing us. Using a strategy of grassroots empowerment, the course will be organized to help us connect to the heart of what we really value; to understand the threat of climate change; to examine how we feel in the light of that threat; and to take powerful action together. Students will work in groups throughout the course to assess the global ecological threat posed by climate change, and they will be part of designing and executing an activity where they empower a community to take action. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3032 - Ecosystem Health: Leadership at the Intersection of Humans, Animals, and the Environment [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: was GCC 3020 until 22-JAN-19, GCC 5032
What are the effects of climate change, disease emergence, food and water security, gender, conflict and poverty, and sustainability of ecosystem services on health, and how do we lead across boundaries for positive change? Unfortunately, these large-scale problems often become overwhelming, making single solution-based progress seem daunting and difficult to implement in policy. Fortunately, the emerging discipline of ecosystem health provides an approach to these problems grounded in trans-disciplinary science. Ecosystem health recognizes the interdependence of human, animal and environmental health, and merges theories and methods of ecological, health and political sciences. It poses that health threats can be prevented, monitored and controlled via a variety of approaches and technologies that guide management action as well as policy. Thus, balancing human and animal health with the management of our ecosystems. In this class, we will focus on the emerging discipline of ecosystem health, and how these theories, methods, and shared leadership approaches set the stage for solutions to grand challenges of health at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment. We will focus not only on the creation and evaluation of solutions but on their feasibility and implementation in the real world through policy and real-time decision making. This will be taught in the active learning style classroom, requiring pre-class readings to support didactic theory and case-based learning in class. Participation and both individual and group projects (written and oral presentation) will comprise most of the student evaluation. These projects may reflect innovative solutions, discoveries about unknowns, or development of methods useful for ecosystem health challenges. We envision that some of them will lead to peer-review publications, technical reports, or other forms of publication. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 3036 - Seeking Connection through Decolonization: The Power of Indigenous Lands and Languages [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Seeking Connection through Decolonization: The Power of Indigenous Languages and Place-Based Knowledge in the Face of Racism How has unequal distribution of power resulted in the decline in Indigenous language and the loss of societal connections to the land? How might we all, from different positionalities, revitalize our relationships to indigenous land and languages, in the face of racism and attempts to perpetuate colonization? In this course students will grapple with ideological roots of the ongoing decline in Indigenous language and place-based knowledge and how their decline has implications for all peoples. To understand the connections, students will participate in Indigenous language learning (Dakota and Ojibwe) as acts of cultural production. Discussion and reading will be supplemented with visits to local sites, for example, Medicine Gardens, Bell Museum, Gibbs Farm, and Bdote to directly interact with the land as pedagogy. Through the course themes, students will experience the interconnectedness of place-based knowledge, language, and human identity, while also seeing the importance of understanding the lands on which one resides and the power of indigenous languages in re-imagining those relationships. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 3037 - Wealth & Inequality: Past, Present, Future [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Fostering just and equitable communities is a grand challenge of our time. The global wealth gap between a handful of elites and the rest of the world?s population is increasingly unsustainable. Across the last generation, wealth inequality has spiked more sharply than ever before, and even the elite have come to recognize how concerning rising inequality has become with the World Economic Forum ranking ?wealth disparity? among the top five risks facing the planet right now. In this course, we will explore how our society came to produce such a severe concentration of wealth in the hands of a privileged few. Our focus is on wealth--the total amount of accumulated assets, broadly defined, in individuals, households, communities, and beyond--because it is precisely these starkly uneven stores of value, reproduced through inheritances across generations, that have accelerated contemporary inequality. We will work to understand the social structures, historical conjunctures, and global processes that perpetuate the inequitable distribution of wealth in our current moment. We will then envision social changes that promise to reduce wealth disparities and create a more just and equitable world. Throughout, we will explore how culture, identity, institutions, economic and political systems, and other social forces are entangled with and constitute the global flows of money and assets. The purview of this course is global, as our attention will focus on the large global and structural processes and historical conjunctures that have long shaped global wealth inequality. It makes little sense to limit the inquiry to national borders given the unequal distribution of wealth was produced on a global scale. At the same time, we are mindful of the importance to act (and think) locally; as such, many of our examples and readings will focus on the United States. Given that wealth inequality in the U.S. is one of the worst in the world--the richest 1 percent have captured nearly 60
GCC 3038 - Human Threats to Ocean Health [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Human Threats to Ocean Health This grand challenge course addresses the scope of the anthropogenic alterations in natural biogeochemical cycling (BGCC) of oceans that will help the students to develop strategies to intervene, advocate, and sustain planetary health for all of humanity. The following grand challenge questions will be addressed: (1) How does Ocean Biogeochemical Cycling (BGCC) of nutrients support global ecosystems and biodiversity? (2) What human (anthropogenic) activities disrupt ocean BGCC of nutrients, resulting in depletion of biodiversity, ecosystem health, ecosystem services, and environmental justice for humans? (3) What do humans have to do to protect the future of ocean health and all of humanity? Global recycling of nutrients and metals within the environment (geosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere) and the biosphere are essential for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services on which all of humanity depends. Living organisms extract and transform nutrients for their metabolism, growth, and reproduction, ultimately releasing these nutrients (often in a transformed state) back to the inanimate sphere via biogeochemical cycling (BGCC) driven by energy transformations. In natural environments, BGCC maintains a dynamic equilibrium/homeostasis between abiotic and biotic spheres, a process essential for survival of life on Earth. However, the current human practices have caused massive changes in the BGCC of nutrients, thus disrupting the natural cycling and (i) threatening the biosphere?s nutrient availability and (ii) precipitating many of the current environmental problems such as climate change, nitrogen pollution, ocean acidification, acid rain, mercury deposition, etc. At the current scale of human development, these alterations to the BGCC in the oceans may seriously damage the environment and biodiversity, thus threatening the entire Planet?s future. Further, the adverse effects of the loss of ecosystem services may not be shared eq
GCC 3041 - Transition to a Sustainable World: Can Behavior Modification Help Facilitate Global Sustainability? [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Despite understanding the consequences of not acting to curb unsustainability, why do people fail to act? Human?s behavioral apathy toward sustainability may be due to an inaccurate characterization of sustainability and/or a lack of understanding of cultural diversity and behavior. Therefore, an understanding of the human behavior will contribute greatly to (i) decipher human actions that negatively impact global ecosystems, (ii) slowdown or stop human ecologically destructive trajectory, and (iii) promote sustainable alternatives. The problem is that environmental issues are not generally included in psychology programs, and psychology is not often represented in environmental programs. In the United Nation?s (UN) Sustainable Development goals 2030 (UN SDG 2030), psychological indices have been conspicuously absent (except for mental health in general terms) even though environmental degradation, social or economic inequity, all are implicated by human behavior. The UN SDG 2030 is based on the unproven concept that sustainability is an intersection of social, economic and environmental factors, the key pillars of sustainability. Since economic activity and society are subsets of human behavior, psychology should be considered central to unsustainability and/or sustainability. Therefore, we hypothesize that behavioral psychology has a critical role to play in creating a sustainable society. The aim of the proposed GCC is to discuss (un)sustainability using this new paradigm that will allow new approaches to achieve transition from unsustainability to sustainability worldwide. The specific aims of the proposed GCC are following: (i) Describe interaction between sustainability and behavioral psychology as the 4th pillar of sustainability. (ii) Explain the behavioral correlates of cultural differences in terms of transition to sustainability. (iii) Explain the consumption (related to unsustainability) and conservation (related to sustainability) behavior. (iv) Determi
GCC 3042 - Just Education: The Role of Higher Education in Disrupting Mass Incarceration [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. We have just 5% of the world?s population, but 25% of its prisoners. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated persons in this country has increased by 700%. Of the 2.3 million people currently in prison or jail, however, just 6 percent have access to higher education. Indeed, contemporary higher education policy and infrastructure disregards incarcerated individuals as potential postsecondary students. Even as colleges and universities across the country champion diversity-driven and inclusivity-oriented mission statements, and look to create viable postsecondary pathways for systemically underserved students, only a handful include incarcerated and justice-impacted individuals in these efforts. The University of Minnesota is not currently among them. This course will explore the intersection of higher education and mass incarceration in the United States with a focus on the role of higher education in disrupting the collateral consequences of incarceration and justice involvement. In particular, we will examine the potential for the University of Minnesota to play a pivotal role in disrupting what we call the ?ripple effect? of incarceration and justice involvement on individuals and communities in Minnesota. Students will have an opportunity to tour local correctional facilities and both hear from and present to experts in the field, including formerly incarcerated people. In addition, students? ideas will directly inform a ?college in prisons? program that is being developed by Professors Moriearty and Shlafer, in collaboration with other University scholars and administrators, and the Minnesota Department of Corrections. In this way, students? work in this class and their projects will directly and meaningfully inform the real world and the development of the college in prisons program in ?real time.? As a teaching team with expertise in law, juvenile justice, criminal justice, child welfare,
GCC 3043 - Regenerative Game Studio: Playing For the Future [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Meeting the interrelated UN Sustainable development goals facing humanity will require imagination and emotional labor of unprecedented scale. We must collectively learn to overhaul our extractive systems with regenerative approaches in which humans are in a mutually beneficial relationship with the earth?s systems. The task of working across SDGs is a grand challenge in itself. Games are an effective way to engage people in understanding complex problems and collaborating toward solutions. Designing games challenges students to examine systems, identify leverage points, confront trade-offs, and be creative. In doing so, it prepares them to become system teachers, leveraging organizations and networks for change. We invite students from a range of backgrounds to apply their disciplinary expertise and interests in new ways. No prior sustainability knowledge or game design experience is needed. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5003 - Seeking Solutions to Global Health Issues [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Often, the most progress on challenging issues such as health and equity is made when you apply an interdisciplinary perspective. The same is true for global health issues. Whether responding to emerging pandemics, food insecurity, maternal mortality, or civil society collapse during conflict, solutions often lie at the intersection of animal, environmental, and human health.In this course, students will work in teams to examine the fundamental challenges to addressing complex global health problems in East Africa and East African refugee communities here in the Twin Cities. Together we will seek practical solutions that take culture, equity, and sustainability into account. In-field professionals and experts will be available to mentor each team, including professionals based in Uganda and Somalia. This exploration will help students propose realistic actions that could be taken to resolve these issues. This course will help students gain the understanding and skills necessary for beginning to develop solutions to global health issues. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 5005 - Innovation for Changemakers: Design for a Disrupted World [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Summer)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3005
Do you want to make a difference? We live in a world full of complex challenges, such as COVID-19, racism, economic recession, and environmental collapse, to name a few. Now is the time to use your own skills and passion to make a positive impact in the world. In this project-based course, you will learn how to develop effective and sustainable responses to current social and environmental problems. You'll study a variety of tools, mindsets, and skills that will help you to address any complex grand challenge, as well as engage with case studies of successful grand challenge projects in the past. Your project may address food insecurity, unemployment, housing, environmental impacts, equity, or other issues. Proposed designs for how you might have an impact may take many forms (student group, program intervention with an existing organization, public policy strategy, or for-profit or non-profit venture) but this class will focus on how to make ideas financially sustainable. The primary focus of this (GCC 5005) course is how to develop a pilot project plan that addresses a grand challenge. You will learn business modeling, financial projections, and pitching to potential investors and funders. You will build a model for your idea around input from primary and secondary research, as well as the affected community's culture, needs, and wants. Community members, locally and globally, may serve as mentors and research consultants to teams. External speakers will be brought in to share their stories of how to build and scale innovative efforts to serve the common good. Students enrolled will work either independently, or in small teams, on a project of their own choosing. Ideally, students will apply to take this class with a project in mind. By the end of the class, students will have a well-designed plan to turn their project into an actionable solution if that is of interest. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill
GCC 5007 - Toward Conquest of Disease [ENV]
(3 cr; Prereq-sophomore, junior, senior, graduate student; A-F only; offered Every Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3007
Since the rise of civilization, the large predators of humans have been subdued and the most dangerous predators remaining are those unseen--vastly smaller than our bodies. They are the microbial predators that cause disease. Infectious disease has devastated human populations and even caused global population declines. Subduing and managing disease is one of the grand challenges of our time. Through an enormous global effort, we have driven smallpox in humans and Rinderpest in livestock extinct from the natural world, and guinea worm is expected to follow. Other infectious diseases are in continual decline. In this course we will combine ecological thought and ecological models with historical and future perspectives to understand the fundamental dynamics of our miniscule predators, and relate this to similar miniscule predators of wild and domestic animals, to crops, and to other plants.This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5008 - Policy and Science of Global Environmental Change [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: FNRM 5146 (inactive, starting 02-SEP-03, was FR 5146 until 21-JAN-14), EEB 5146 (inactive)
Through readings, lectures, discussions, written assignments, and presentations this course introduces the critical issues underpinning global change and its environmental and social implications. The course examines current literature in exploring evidence for human-induced global change and its potential effects on a wide range of biological processes and examines the social and economic drivers, social and economic consequences, and political processes at local, national, and international scales related to global change. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5011 - Pathways to Renewable Energy [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: CNES 1082H (inactive, ending 20-JAN-15, starting 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was CLAS 1082H until 07-SEP-04, was RELA 1082H until 05-SEP-00, was CLAS 1182 until 05-SEP-00, was RELA 1182 until 07-SEP-99), RELS 1082H (inactive, ending 04-SEP-07, was RELA 1082H until 02-SEP-08), GCC 3011
This interdisciplinary course will examine obstacles to energy transitions at different scales. It will explore the role of energy in society, the physics of energy, how energy systems were created and how they function, and how the markets, policies, and regulatory frameworks for energy systems in the US developed. The course will closely examine the Realpolitik of energy and the technical, legal, regulatory, and policy underpinnings of renewable energy in the US and Minnesota. Students will learn the drivers that can lead global systems to change despite powerful constraints and how local and institutional action enables broader reform. Students will put their learning into action by developing a proposal and then working on a project to accelerate the energy transition and to ensure that the energy transition benefits people in a just and equitable way. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5013 - Making Sense of Climate Change - Science, Art, and Agency [CIV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3013
The overarching theme of the course is the role of artistic/humanistic ways of knowing as tools for making sense and meaning in the face of "grand challenges." Our culture tends to privilege science, and to isolate it from the "purposive" disciplines--arts and humanities--that help humanity ask and answer difficult questions about what should be done about our grand challenges. In this course, we will examine climate change science, with a particular focus on how climate change is expected to affect key ecological systems such as forests and farms and resources for vital biodiversity such as pollinators. We will study the work of artists who have responded to climate change science through their artistic practice to make sense and meaning of climate change. Finally, students create collaborative public art projects that will become part of local community festivals/events late in the semester.This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5014 - The Future of Work and Life in the 21st Century [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3014
This course seeks solutions to the technological, demographic, and economic forces that challenge taken-for-granted mindsets and existing policies around work, careers, and life. Students will consider positive and negative impacts of the forces that render the conventional education/work/retirement lockstep obsolete. What do these changes mean for men and women of different ages and backgrounds? What are alternative, sustainable ways of working and living in the 21st century? These questions reflect global challenges that touch the lives of people everywhere. Students will work in teams to begin to address these realities and formulate innovative solutions to better transform learning, working, caring, and community-building in the 21st century. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5015 - Bioinspired Approaches to Sustainability: Greening Technologies and Lives
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: FREN 1001 (ending 20-JAN-15, starting 02-SEP-08), GCC 3015, MONT 1001 (ending 20-JAN-15, starting 03-SEP-13)
How can we build a sustainable society? From designing cities and technologies that use green energy, to health care and agriculture that can sustain billions, the sustainability challenges that face us today are immense. The field of biomimicry seeks solutions to such problems by looking to the diverse ways in which organisms have adapted to varied and sometimes extreme environments. With over 1.3 million described species (and likely over 8 million in existence), chances are a species out there has evolved some solution to a particular problem. But how do we go about figuring out which species this might be? And which trait holds the adaptation in which we are interested? What might be some limitations associated with copying this adaptation?how might we build on it instead? This course teaches bioinspired approaches to sustainability solutions. Throughout the course, students work in teams of complementary expertise to identify a sustainability problem, research a relevant biological system, and build a prototype bio-inspired solution to their focal problem. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5016 - Science and Society: Working Together to Avoid the Antibiotic Resistance Apocalypse [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3016 (starting 17-JAN-17)
Before the discovery of antibiotics, even a simple thorn prick could lead to life threatening infection. Antibiotics are truly miracle drugs, making most bacterial infections relatively easy to cure. However, this landscape is rapidly changing with the advent of microbes that are resistant to antibiotics. This course will provide an overview of how antibiotic use invoked antibiotic resistance, including in depth discussions of antibiotic resistant microorganisms and the impact of globalization on this exploding problem. Societal and ethical implications associated with antibiotic use and restriction in humans and animals will be discussed, along with global issues of antibiotic regulation and population surveillance. The class will conclude with discussions of alternative therapeutic approaches that are essential to avoid "antibiotic apocalypse." The course will include lectures by world-renowned experts in various topics, and students will leverage this knowledge with their own presentations on important topics related to issues of personal freedom versus societal needs.This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5017 - World Food Problems: Agronomics, Economics and Hunger [GP]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: CVM 6060 (inactive), AGRO 4103 (inactive, was APEC 4103 until 21-JAN-03, was FSCN 4103 until 21-JAN-03, was APEC 4103 until 03-SEP-02, was FSCN 4103 until 03-SEP-02, was APEC 4103 until 22-JAN-02, was FSCN 4103 until 22-JAN-02, was APEC 4103 until 07-SEP-99, was FSCN 4103 until 07-SEP-99), APEC 4103 (inactive), FSCN 4103 (inactive), GCC 3017
This course provides a multi-disciplinary look at problems (and some of the possible solutions) affecting food production, distribution, and requirements for the seven plus billion inhabitants of this planet. It is co-taught by a plant geneticist (Morrell) and an economist (Runge) who together have worked on international food production and policy issues for the past 40 years. Historical context, the present situation and future scenarios related to the human population and food production are examined. Presentations and discussions cover sometimes conflicting views from multiple perspectives on population growth, use of technology, as well as the ethical and cultural values of people in various parts of the world. The global challenge perspective is reflected in attention to issues of poverty, inequality, gender, the legacy of colonialism, and racial and ethnic prejudice. Emphasis is placed on the need for governments, international assistance agencies, international research and extension centers, as well as the private sector to assist in solving the complex problems associated with malnutrition, undernutrition, obesity, and sustainable food production.Through a better understanding of world food problems, this course enables students to reflect on the shared sense of responsibility by nations, the international community and ourselves to build and maintain a stronger sense of our roles as historical agents. Throughout the semester students are exposed to issues related to world food problems through the lenses of two instructors from different disciplinary backgrounds. The core issues of malnutrition and food production are approached simultaneously from a production perspective as well as an economic and policy perspective throughout the semester. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 5022 - The Human Experience of Sensory Loss: Seeking Equitable and Effective Solutions [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
This course focuses on the visual, auditory, and other sensory pathways that convey information about the world to mind and brain. Millions of people worldwide experience deficits in sensory function that affect their quality of life. We will focus on the characteristics of healthy sensory functioning as well as how sensory disorders can affect personal identity, impede information processing, and alter brain structure and function. The course will address the demographics and risk factors for sensory disabilities, the implications of these disabilities for activities of daily living, the history of society's response to sensory disability, as well as societal, ethical, and personal attitudes toward sensory disabilities. The course will also explore translational and applied approaches for addressing sensory disabilities. Each class session will be co-taught by a pair of instructors, representing multiple scientific and social perspectives. A major goal of the course is to view sensory function and impairment from multiple perspectives cognitive science, neuroscience, medicine, engineering, society, consumers, ethics and social justice. The course will combine lectures, discussions, and student-led presentations of research papers. The course will include hands-on demonstrations of assistive technology and panel discussions with people with visual and hearing disabilities. During the semester, each student (or pairs of students) will develop a mini research proposal to address a real-world issue related to sensory impairment. The proposal must be translational in nature, and must include consultation with consumers of the proposed project. The final class session will be devoted to poster presentations of the mini proposals. The proposal report must include consideration of potentially opposing viewpoints about the proposed research. This course addresses two of our University's grand challenges: Advancing Health Through Tailored Solutions, and Just and Equitable Co
GCC 5027 - Power Systems Journey: Making the Invisible Visible and Actionable [TS]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3027
An energy revolution is underway, and needs to accelerate to support climate and economic goals. But the general citizenry does not understand our current energy systems, particularly the seemingly invisible phenomena of electricity, and its generation, distribution, and use. Technical knowledge is only half the solution, however. It is through human decisions and behaviors that technical solutions get applied and adopted, and the importance of communication and storytelling is being recognized for its relevance to making change. How can science literacy and behavior-motivating engagement and storytelling be combined to help make systemic change? This course explores the integration of science-based environmental education, with art-led, place-based exploration of landscapes and creative map-making to address this challenge. How do we make electricity visible, understandable, and interesting--so we can engage citizens in energy conservation with basic literacy about the electric power system so that they can be informed voters, policy advocates, and consumers. In this class, you will take on this challenge, first learning about the electric power systems you use, their cultural and technical history, systems thinking, design thinking, and prior examples of communication and education efforts. With this foundation, you will then apply your learning to create a public education project delivered via online GIS Story maps that use a combination of data, art, and story to help others understand, and act on the power journey we are all on. All will share the common exploration of power systems through field trips, and contribute to a multi-faceted story of power, presented in a group map and individual GIS Story maps. No prior knowledge of GIS story maps or electricity issues is needed. The study of power systems can be a model for learning and communicating about other topics that explore the interaction of technology and society toward sustainability. This is a Grand
GCC 5028 - Harnessing the Power of Research, Community, Clinic and Policy to Build a Culture of Health [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3028
Imagine a world where factors such as race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status had no bearing on a person's health status, quality of life, or longevity--a world where everyone had an equal opportunity to live a long and healthy life. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Despite decades of focused public health efforts, health inequities remain; individuals from low income and diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds are far more likely to, (1) struggle with chronic health conditions, (2) report lower quality of life, and (3) have a lower life expectancy, than others. Bold and innovative solutions are needed to address this grand challenge. Integration is one such method that can potentially increase the success and sustainability of approaches to reduce health disparities and create a culture of health for all. Integration is an approach to solving complex public health problems that merges academic research, clinical practice, policy and community resources in new ways.This interactive course will challenge students to identify root causes of health, including access to food, housing, transportation and education. Students will also focus on health disparities and barriers to eliminating these existing, disparate, negative outcomes. Students will be introduced to the concept of integration science and practice; will learn about the importance of integration across research, practice, community, and policy domains to address health disparities; and will cultivate the communication skills needed to intentionally and successfully facilitate integration practice. Course instructors with unique vantage points as concerned scientists, health practitioners, and policy wonks will engage students in class discussions and activities, individual writing assignments and small-group work aimed at unveiling the reasons health disparities persist globally--challenging them to consider opportunities for integration to alleviate existing disparities. The semester will culminate in stude
GCC 5029 - Agents of Change: scientific and philosophical perspectives [CIV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Every Fall)
Equivalent courses: GCC 3029
Grand challenges like structural racism, climate change, gender oppression, and global poverty have to be solved by individual people, acting together, often through institutions. This means that we need good agents of change to address the challenges we face. What does it mean to be a `good agent?? What are the best ways to think about this kind of agency? And how can we foster more of it in ourselves, our friends, our children, and our fellow citizens? This course is taught by a philosopher and a psychologist, and we approach questions like these from both perspectives. Traditionally, many philosophers have thought that we need to cultivate virtues such as compassion and open-mindedness in order to be good people. Some recent psychological work casts doubt on this picture: the social and environmental forces that influence our behavior cannot be overcome with virtuous character! On the other hand, psychological research also shows that some of the good traits we have are ones that develop reliably, from early childhood. Which perspective offers more opportunities for progress? Should we foster good agency by working on individual character or by changing social circumstances? Or, if both are important, what would a combined approach look like? The ultimate goal of the course is to encourage students to apply the theoretical and scientific ideas about improving agency to specific grand challenges. How do philosophy and psychology help us to define and resolve the challenges that confront people who want to make a difference? To provide a model for this kind of research, we focus on structural racism and white supremacy to expose the ways in which individual and structural forces can impede epistemic and moral agency. Course requirements include active class participation, group projects, and writing assignments designed to foster creative engagement across different fields.
GCC 5031 - The Global Climate Challenge: Creating an Empowered Movement for Change [CIV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was GCC 5010 until 22-JAN-19, GCC 3031
Students will explore ecological and human health consequences of climate change, the psychology of climate inaction, and will be invited to join us in the radical work of discovering not only their own leadership potential but that of others. We will unpack the old story of domination and hierarchy and invite the class to become part of a vibrant new story of human partnership that will not only help humanity deal with the physical threat of climate change but will help us create a world where we have the necessary skills and attitudes to engage the many other grand challenges facing us. Using a strategy of grassroots empowerment, the course will be organized to help us connect to the heart of what we really value; to understand the threat of climate change; to examine how we feel in the light of that threat; and to take powerful action together. Students will work in groups throughout the course to assess the global ecological threat posed by climate change, and they will be part of designing and executing an activity where they empower a community to take action. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. For: so, jr, sr, grad
GCC 5032 - Ecosystem Health: Leadership at the intersection of humans, animals and the environment [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Equivalent courses: was GCC 5020 until 22-JAN-19, GCC 3032
What are the effects of climate change, disease emergence, food and water security, gender, conflict and poverty, and sustainability of ecosystem services on health? Unfortunately, these large-scale problems often become overwhelming, making single solution-based progress seem daunting and difficult to implement in policy. Fortunately, the emerging discipline of Ecosystem Health provides an approach to these problems grounded in transdisciplinary science. Ecosystem Health recognizes the interdependence of human, animal and environmental health, and merges theories and methods of ecological, health and political sciences. It poses that health threats can be prevented, monitored and controlled via a variety of approaches and technologies that guide management action as well as policy. Thus, balancing human and animal health with the management of our ecosystems. In this class, we will focus on the emerging discipline of ecosystem health, and how these theories, methods and computational technologies set the stage for solutions to grand challenges of health at the interface of humans, animals, and the environment. We will focus not only on the creation and evaluation of solutions but on their feasibility and implementation in the real world through policy and real time decision-making. This will be taught in the active learning style classroom, requiring pre-class readings to support the didactic theory and case-based learning in class. Participation and both individual and group projects (written and oral presentation) will comprise most of the student evaluation. These projects may reflect innovative solutions, discoveries about unknowns, or development of methods useful for ecosystem health challenges. We envision that some of them will lead to peer-review publications, technical reports or other forms of publication. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5036 - Seeking Connection through Decolonization: The Power of Indigenous Lands and Languages [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall & Spring)
Seeking Connection through Decolonization: The Power of Indigenous Languages and Place-Based Knowledge in the Face of RacismHow has unequal distribution of power resulted in the decline in Indigenous language and the loss of societal connections to the land? How might we all, from different positionalities, revitalize our relationships to indigenous land and languages, in the face of racism and attempts to perpetuate colonization? In this course students will grapple with ideological roots of the ongoing decline in Indigenous language and place-based knowledge and how their decline has implications for all peoples. To understand the connections, students will participate in Indigenous language learning (Dakota and Ojibwe) as acts of cultural production. Discussion and reading will be supplemented with visits to local sites, for example, Medicine Gardens, Bell Museum, Gibbs Farm, and Bdote to directly interact with the land as pedagogy. Through the course themes, students will experience the interconnectedness of place-based knowledge, language, and human identity, while also seeing the importance of understanding the lands on which one resides and the power of indigenous languages in re-imagining those relationships. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum (GCC) course. GCC courses are open to all students and fulfill an honors experience for University Honors Program students.
GCC 5041 - Transition to a Sustainable World: Can Psychology Help Facilitate Global Sustainability? [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Fall)
Despite understanding the consequences of not acting to curb unsustainability, why do people fail to act? Human?s behavioral apathy toward sustainability may be due to an inaccurate characterization of sustainability and/or a lack of understanding of cultural diversity and behavior. Therefore, an understanding of the human behavior will contribute greatly to (i) decipher human actions that negatively impact global ecosystems, (ii) slowdown or stop human ecologically destructive trajectory, and (iii) promote sustainable alternatives. The problem is that environmental issues are not generally included in psychology programs, and psychology is not often represented in environmental programs. In the United Nation?s (UN) Sustainable Development goals 2030 (UN SDG 2030), psychological indices have been conspicuously absent (except for mental health in general terms) even though environmental degradation, social or economic inequity, all are implicated by human behavior. The UN SDG 2030 is based on the unproven concept that sustainability is an intersection of social, economic and environmental factors, the key pillars of sustainability. Since economic activity and society are subsets of human behavior, psychology should be considered central to unsustainability and/or sustainability. Therefore, we hypothesize that behavioral psychology has a critical role to play in creating a sustainable society. The aim of the proposed GCC is to discuss (un)sustainability using this new paradigm that will allow new approaches to achieve transition from unsustainability to sustainability worldwide. The specific aims of the proposed GCC are following: (i) Describe interaction between sustainability and behavioral psychology as the 4th pillar of sustainability. (ii) Explain the behavioral correlates of cultural differences in terms of transition to sustainability. (iii) Explain the consumption (related to unsustainability) and conservation (related to sustainability) behavior. (iv) Determi
GCC 5042 - Just Education: The Role of Higher Education in Disrupting Mass Incarceration [DSJ]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. We have just 5% of the world's population, but 25% of its prisoners. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated persons in this country has increased by 700%. Of the 2.3 million people currently in prison or jail, however, just 6 percent have access to higher education. Indeed, contemporary higher education policy and infrastructure disregards incarcerated individuals as potential postsecondary students. Even as colleges and universities across the country champion diversity-driven and inclusivity-oriented mission statements, and look to create viable postsecondary pathways for systemically underserved students, only a handful include incarcerated and justice-impacted individuals in these efforts. The University of Minnesota is not currently among them. This course will explore the intersection of higher education and mass incarceration in the United States with a focus on the role of higher education in disrupting the collateral consequences of incarceration and justice involvement. In particular, we will examine the potential for the University of Minnesota to play a pivotal role in disrupting what we call the "ripple effect" of incarceration and justice involvement on individuals and communities in Minnesota. Students will have an opportunity to tour local correctional facilities and both hear from and present to experts in the field, including formerly incarcerated people. In addition, students' ideas will directly inform a "college in prisons" program that is being developed by Professors Moriearty and Shlafer, in collaboration with other University scholars and administrators, and the Minnesota Department of Corrections. In this way, students" work in this class and their projects will directly and meaningfully inform the real world and the development of the college in prisons program in "real time." As a teaching team with expertise in law, juvenile justice, criminal justice, child welfare, psy
GCC 5043 - Regenerative Game Studio: Playing For the Future [ENV]
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
Meeting the interrelated UN Sustainable development goals facing humanity will require imagination and emotional labor of unprecedented scale. We must collectively learn to overhaul our extractive systems with regenerative approaches in which humans are in a mutually beneficial relationship with the earth's systems. The task of working across SDGs is a grand challenge in itself. Games are an effective way to engage people in understanding complex problems and collaborating toward solutions. Designing games challenges students to examine systems, identify leverage points, confront trade-offs, and be creative. In doing so, it prepares them to become system teachers, leveraging organizations and networks for change. We invite students from a range of backgrounds to apply their disciplinary expertise and interests in new ways. No prior sustainability knowledge or game design experience is needed. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course.
GCC 5044 - A Circularity Revolution: Working to Close the Loop on Global Issues [ENV]
(3 cr; Student Option; offered Every Fall)
A Circularity Revolution: Working to Close the Loop on Global Issues is designed to provide students the fundamental knowledge and perspectives to develop and critique sustainable solutions for water, energy, and materials use, re-use, and upcycling from technological, policy, and cultural viewpoints. The class will focus on how each student's personal and disciplinary identities intersect with society?s needs and on creating a common vocabulary, grounding students in natural elemental cycles, differing perspectives on circularity and resource use, and the importance of the co-creation of solutions. Key foci are introducing experimental analytical strategies, and basic tools and mechanisms to achieve and interrogate circularity, such as principles of green engineering, lifecycle assessment, economic and policy tools, and after-progress narratives. Case studies, social practice art interventions, and a group project will be used to demonstrate how science and technology, policy, and expansive community/stakeholder knowledge all are important aspects of developing and re-conceptualizing sustainable solutions to problems in water, material, and energy use. The course compliments a new National Science Foundation-sponsored Research Trainee Program with a circularity theme.
GCC 5501 - Knowledge to Impact: Creating Action with Your Grand Challenge Project Idea
(3 cr; A-F only; offered Periodic Spring)
This course provides an intensive, hands-on experience designing and developing a sustainable intervention to an aspect of a Grand Challenge. In other words, converting knowledge to impact. The target audience is students and student teams who have identified and/or worked on a specific problem in a previous GCC course and wish to dig deeper in developing a project plan. Students should enter the class with a problem statement identifying the challenge they aim to address, a target location or community, and a proposed solution or intervention that they wish to develop. Student solutions should address a problem that is about a broadly defined Grand Challenge; examples of applicable areas include water, immigration and refugees, energy, housing, educational opportunity gap, public health, food and sustainable agriculture. Ideas outside this range are also acceptable. By the end of class, students will create a plausible design and implementation plan for a solution that addresses their self-created Grand Challenge problem statement. This solution or intervention could take many forms, depending on student interest and problem statement. Business or nonprofit plans, policy and advocacy plans, media and awareness campaigns and activism plans are all possible. Determining the correct path(s) is part of the learning objectives for the course. Students will leave the course with a completed preliminary pitch deck for their plan in order to make the case for initial, or seed stage, support. Throughout this document (and course), the terms solution and intervention will be used somewhat interchangeably. This reflects the fact that different disciplines use different words to describe similar aspects of the overall process covered in this class. Understanding some of those differences is part of the learning objectives for the class. This is a Grand Challenge Curriculum course. GCC courses are open to second year undergraduate students and above and graduate students

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