Handbook : Unit informationEdith Cowan University

Faculty of Health, Engineering and Science

School: Natural Sciences

This unit information may be updated and amended immediately prior to semester. To ensure you have the correct outline, please check it again at the beginning of semester.

• Unit Title

  Introduction to Sustainability

• Unit Code

  SCI1001

• Year

  2015

• Enrolment Period

  1

• Version

  1

• Credit Points

  15

• Full Year Unit

  N

• Mode of Delivery

  On Campus
  Online

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Description

This unit provides the conceptual and theoretical foundations for the principles of sustainability. It provides students with ways of conceptualising real-world problems and solutions where environmental, economic and social issues are involved together. Students will be introduced to an operational understanding of interdisciplinarity, and practical approaches to achieve integration across disciplines and fields of endeavour, using systems thinking and critical thought.

Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit students should be able to:

1. Articulate the nature of disciplines, describe the ways in which disciplines relate to one another, and be able to identify and distinguish multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary approaches to sustainability challenges.
2. Demonstrate an ability to apply principles of sustainability to real-world and global situations.
3. Explain how principles of sustainability can be formulated from ethical, cultural and empirical foundations.
4. Use systems concepts and terminology in appropriate contexts, and describe the differences between systems thinking and other forms of thought.
5. Use teamwork to analyse a case study and identify the changes in attitudes and behaviours (at individual and community levels) that are required across environmental, economic and societal domains to achieve sustainability or sustainable development.

Unit Content

1. Exploration of case studies in sustainability and sustainable development.
2. Introduction to disciplinarity, and the nature of multi-, inter-, cross- and transdisciplinarity.
3. Introduction to systems thinking.
4. Principles of sustainability.
5. Teamwork for multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary pursuits.
6. The construction of problem statements, and the nature of sustainable solutions.
7. The multiple perspectives of sustainability and sustainable development.
8. The roles of instigating and managing changes in attitudes and behaviours in sustainable solutions.

Additional Learning Experience Information

Lectures, tutorials/workshops (includes skills workshops and teamwork exercises using debates and role playing).

Assessment

GS1 GRADING SCHEMA 1 Used for standard coursework units

Students please note: The marks and grades received by students on assessments may be subject to further moderation. All marks and grades are to be considered provisional until endorsed by the relevant Board of Examiners.

Text References

• ^ Robertson, M. (2014) Sustainability: Principles and practice 1st Great Britain: Routledge.
• Schellnhuber, H.J., Molina, M., Stern, N., Huber, V., & Kadner, S. (2010). Global sustainability: a Nobel cause. London: Cambridge University Press.
• Edwards, A.R. (2005). The sustainability revolution: portrait of a paradigm shift. Canada: New Society Publishers.
• Charron, D.F. (2012). Ecohealth research in practice: innovative applications of an approach to health insight and innovation in international development. Canada: International Development Research Centre and Springer.
• Waltner-Toews, D., Kay, J, & Lister, N-M. (2008). The ecosystem approach: complexity, uncertainty, and managing for sustainability. New York: Columbia University Press.
• Manzi, T., Lucas, K., Jones, T.L., & Allen, J. (2010). Social sustainability in urban areas. Communities, Connectivity and the Urban Fabric. London: Earthscan.

^ Mandatory reference

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