What is the Planetary Thinking Workshop?
Planetary Thinking is a workshop led by and designed for USU faculty. It brings people together to engage in shared inquiry to creatively incorporate issues of sustainability into their teaching. The workshop also counts toward the ETE 10 Sustainable Teaching Pathway, which creates other opportunities to get involved, including learning circles and sparkshops.
Goals
- Empower faculty to connect their teaching to one or more UN Sustainable Development Goals.
- Integrate critical problem solving and application through the UN Sustainable Development Goals in student education and beyond.
- Become an engaged member of a cross-disciplinary community of learning focused on sustainability.
- Encourage interdepartmental networking between faculty in different disciplines.
Workshop Timeline
- Our 2022 workshop has ended. Stay tuned for updates to our 2023 workshop and future programming.
- Applications for each workshop open in the Spring semester. To be alerted, sign-up for faculty updates for announcements and reminders.
- The workshop is typically held the Tuesday and Wednesday after graduation.
Additional resources
Why does USU have Planetary Thinking?
"We believe colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their communities and throughout society by providing the knowledge, research, practice, and informed graduates to create a positive and sustainable future."
A piece in the Huffington post by Drew Faust, Harvard University President, and John L. Hennesey, Stanford University President, begins:
This week's UN Climate Summit calls upon people and institutions around the world to consider how they can become active leaders in combating climate change. What is the role of our colleges and universities in this effort? Those of us in the academy should be asking ourselves what more can we do to confront one of the most urgent and consequential challenges facing our civilization.
Issues of our sustainability amidst fast-approaching planetary boundaries demand our attention, inquiry, creativity, and innovation—across all disciplines. Clearly, a central part of our university’s mission is to educate informed, effective citizens of the world, and today's students will lead our society in what will be a critical era for humanity’s adaptation and societal health. How can we do more to prepare them to meet these challenges effectively? Considering that question leads back to the core of what we offer—class content and curriculum.