This workshop aims to engage, inspire, and support faculty members from across disciplines who are interested in voluntarily infusing relevant climate change and/or sustainability concepts into their courses. The overall goal of this curriculum program is to boost climate change/sustainability education at UCI, especially targeting those students for whom climate and sustainability may not be a focus.
Who: UCI faculty members
What: A Faculty Skills-Sharing Workshop
Where: The workshop will be hosted at the Steele/Burnand Anza-Borrego Desert Research Center during the height of spring wildflower season in the desert. Lodging and meals at the Research Center will be provided.
When: 4:00 pm, Friday, April 15 through 4:00 pm, Saturday, April 16, 2016. The Research Center is family-friendly and participants may opt to spend the night Saturday to explore the Borrego Springs region.
Why: To integrate climate and sustainability into already existing courses at UCI, especially targeting students who wouldn’t be exposed otherwise to these concepts
Incentive: Participating faculty members will receive $1000 upon completing the workshop to assist with subsequent course revisions. Faculty will also receive an additional $200 for attending a follow up Faculty Networking Event on Friday, November 4, 2016 to showcase their revised course material (note: revised courses do not need to be taught by November 4, 2016, however, course materials will need to be updated to include sustainability by this time).
Two spots are now available. Apply today.
Space is limited to 20 qualifying faculty members. Lecturers are encouraged to apply. The Sustainability Initiative Executive Committee will review applications on a rolling basis. Priority will be given to faculty members who teach students for whom climate and sustainability may not already be a focus of their academic studies.The workshop is hosted by the UCI Sustainability Initiative with funding from the Faculty Engagement and Education Working Group of the UC President’s Global Climate Leadership Council. Every UC campus is hosting a similar workshop in 2016 for their respective faculties. At UCI, faculty members Jessica Pratt and Miryha Runnerstrom are the workshop leaders. Read more about Jessica and Miryha below.
About the Workshop Leaders
Jessica Pratt
Jessica Pratt is an Assistant Teaching Professor in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at UC Irvine and teaches courses in the campus-wide minor in Global Sustainability. She is broadly interested in research and education in the applied fields of conservation biology and restoration ecology.
She has been a dedicated researcher and educator in the fields of ecology and conservation since 2003 and has been working and living in Southern California since 2005. She has conducted research on animal behavior, tropical bird foraging ecology, the conservation value of tropical agricultural ecosystems, the dynamics of butterfly species range shifts in response to climate change, and the effects of plant species responses to environmental change on associated animal communities. Her teaching experience spans middle school up to the university level and she has taught courses ranging from genetics to conservation biology.
Miryha Runnerstrom
Miryha Runnerstrom is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Program of Public Health at UC Irvine. She teaches courses on principles of public health (PH1), case studies in public health (PH2), writing for public health (PH195W), environmental quality and health (PH60), health and global environmental change (PH173), and public health and wellness (PH150). She also teaches the public health honors thesis course (PH H192). Her research interests include behavioral and environmental influences on health and well-being, as well as how rapid global environmental changes are affecting the health of the world’s populations.