Interdisciplinary education offers a collaborative approach to multifaceted topics, such as environmental sustainability. In this article, we present the conceptual framework and lessons learned from a team-taught course, entitled Sustainability, Energy, and the Green Economy (SEGE). Faculty from the departments of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology…

The most challenging global problems of our age involve coupled human--environmental systems within the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. The undergraduate students currently in our classrooms will be tomorrow's global citizens, each of whom must be prepared to understand and reason about these challenges and ultimately make decisions about them in a…

Interdisciplinary field study courses at 2-year colleges can provide an opportunity to enhance student learning. The authors present here an 11-day interdisciplinary field-study course designed for nonscience majors at a 2-year college. Using a theoretical learning framework that emphasizes cognitive and metacognitive gains, the field study…

The author reports on various aspects of teaching economics in an interdisciplinary, team-taught course, including reflections on a unique experiment in teaching economics to nonmajors. By the incorporation of selected topics of gender economics into the interdisciplinary course about the changing economic statuses of women throughout history, the…

Describes a course for college seniors, science majors and non-majors, designed to trace the development of modern science as part of western culture. Reports three years of experience. An outline of the course and a reading list are included. (GH)

Describes a course entitled "Science, Technology and the Public in the Nineteenth Century" that incorporates history and biology in order to make non-science majors more aware of both the process of science and its relationship to society. Discusses Louis Pasteur's life and accomplishments as an example of course content. Contains 18…

Two linked courses examining conservation science and art history of 17th-century Dutch painting are described. The two courses have been taught on campus and, most recently, as study-abroad courses in collaboration with the Center for European Studies, Universiteit Maastricht, The Netherlands. The highly interdisciplinary courses are intense, yet…

Discusses some of the alternative approaches adopted by the Experimental College-Earth Science Teacher Project at Minot State College in an attempt to attract general education students and transmit the excitement and challenge of science to non-majors. (JR)

Describes a course that explores the ways in which geology can have an underlying influence on human events that is much deeper and more subtle than the distribution of resource wealth and geologic hazards. The course revolves around a series of geological topics that have direct relevance to particular prehistoric, historical, political, or…

If science can be taught in a way that makes it accessible to the nonmajor, student fear of science would decrease. The topic of memory allows for an interdisciplinary analysis because films can be selected to complement the science. A course at Brooklyn College is described. (MLW)

Describes an engineering course for education and other nonscience majors. In this course, students integrate basic principles of applied physical science and engineering to solve authentic design problems. Discusses the nature of the interactive and problem-based instructional format and its effects on developing students' scientific inquiry…

Student interest was stimulated and critical thinking skills developed through an "Issues in Social Biology" course which include several topics in genetics. Judicious selection of topics, course format, and ordering of subjects are discussed, along with suggestions for course improvement development. (DH)

Chemeketa Community College's (CCC's) efforts to place a greater emphasis on the humanities within occupational curricula are described in this report. It first relates the background of the rift between humanities and technical faculty at the college, which developed after the introduction of a separate transfer curriculum in 1970 and which…

Discusses need for and nature of science courses for the nonspecialist, outlining the content of an integrated four-year program devoted to sciences (first two years), technology (third year) and science/technology/human problems (fourth year). Includes recommendations for implementing such a program. (Author/JN)

Describes an interdisciplinary program consisting of two courses. The first course deals with the chemistry of drugs and poisons; the second course focuses on fictional works in which these drugs and poisons are central to the plots. (SK)