Towards a Sustainable Future
(grade 12 university)
Late in the spring of 2002 the Ministry of Education and Training released a new curriculum document for Interdisciplinary Studies. The focus of Interdisciplinary Studies is to study the connections and relationships between two or more traditional disciplines. This opened the door for bringing high school studies into a realm previously available only at post-secondary institutions.
It is with great enthusiasm that the Denison Geography Department announces the grade 12 university course called Towards a Sustainable Future. More and more leaders in government, business, environmental & social organizations are recognizing the interconnections within the realms of economics, the environment, and healthy social conditions. They are now understanding that an integrated approach to decision-making is essential if all three of these areas are to be sustainable, that the health of each is dependent on the health of the other two.
Students in the Towards a Sustainable Future course will study traditional concepts and decision-making processes used by business, government and society to identify their shortcomings. They will analyse current methodologies for sustainable development in order to apply these techniques to their own particular area of study. The challenge will be to come up with independent and original solutions to unsustainable situations at the local, regional or global level.
Due to the timing of the release of the Interdisciplinary Studies document there will not be many, if any, other courses running in the 2002-3 school year. As well, the flexibility of the document with respect to it application means that Denison's Towards a Sustainable Future course is a one-of-a-kind opportunity for the our students. A search of the internet sites of a number of universities reveals, that we are in good company in offering a course with a sustainability focus. Many of these courses are offered by the Business Departments of these universities.
Towards a Sustainable Future will have the following unique features:
There will only be a few, if any, Interdisciplinary Studies courses running this year
As far as we can tell it is the only secondary school course built on the sustainability theme
In keeping with the sustainability theme, this course will be as paperless as possible
This course will have a strong technology focus, developing skills for future studies as well as the workplace
This course will deal exclusively with current issues such as the Kyoto agreement
This course will emphasize lateral and divergent thinking skills