Curriculum for Applied Sustainability Major

Your career in applied sustainability begins now with Champlain’s Upside-Down Curriculum. Discover the difference that doing on day one has on your success.

Applied Sustainability Curriculum

Start developing your save-the-world skills right away.

In our Upside-Down Curriculum, you’ll start taking Applied Sustainability courses in your first semester. That means you get four full years to explore different areas of interest, hone specific skills, build an impressive résumé, and make your mark on the world.

First Year
Fall Semester
Spring Semester
Second Year
Fall Semester
Spring Semester
Third Year
Fall Semester
- ASU 310 Equity, Justice, and Sustainability
- SCI 2XX Climate & Energy Science
- XXX Concentration Course
- COR 301 Core Foundations: Connecting Place and Identity
- COR 302 Field Methods
Spring Semester
- ASU 290 Campus and Community as a Living Lab —OR— ASU 390 Professional Skills In Sustainability Practice
- ASU 300 Placed-Based Sustainability
- XXX Concentration Course
- COR 303 Core Foundations: Connecting Past and Present
- COR 304 Digital Methods
Fourth Year
Fall Semester
- ASU 410 Ecological Economics
- ASU 450 Decision-Making for Sustainability
- EHS 410 Capstone Design
- XXX Concentration Course
- XXX Concentration or Elective Course
- XXX Concentration or Elective Course
Spring Semester
- ASU 490 Sustainability Applications (Internship)
- CCC 410 College Capstone
- XXX Concentration Course
- XXX Concentration Course

Students will study the multidisciplinary approaches necessary for successful investigation of environmental, social and economic issues and how they pertain to sustainability. Topics such as food systems, energy, water use and community management of resources are explored and evaluated through social and natural sciences Students will discuss and investigate past and current efforts aimed at addressing complex problems to examine potential solutions. Students will explore systems thinking and develop their own personal credo of sustainable living.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Every professional needs to be able to communicate effectively and analyze the communication of others. In this course, you will enhance your own skills in these areas by learning successful strategies for overcoming communication barriers in interpersonal, small group, public speaking, and computer-mediated settings. You will also apply basic communication theories to improve your ability to get your message across, persuade others and improve work and personal relationships.

Prerequisites	You may not enroll in this course if you have already taken COM-130.
Credits	3

Students will meet together in an interdisciplinary, seminar-style setting to build a foundational understanding of integrative thinking and learning and to begin to make connections among the various elements of the Champlain College student-experiences and competencies. Students will take part in a real-world community awareness or service experience as a class and then examine the experience from the perspectives of social work, criminal justice, the law, environmental policy, education, and psychology.

Prerequisites
Credits	1

A survey of the science of psychology, including an overview of human behavior in various areas such as physiopsychology, development, learning social psychology, personality and abnormal behavior.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Why go to college? What does it mean to be educated? In this course you'll begin to answer these questions. We'll explore the academic expectations of higher education, college as a diverse community, and the significance of education around the world. By examining how these issues are negotiated and implemented at Champlain and elsewhere, you'll gain perspective on your own education and a deeper understanding of the ways that the college experience can be both liberating and transformative.

Prerequisites	Take Cor-102 concurrently.
Credits	3

Inquiry is about learning how to ask the right kinds of questions, and figuring out how to answer those questions through discussion and reflection. This course introduces you to the types of inquiry necessary to succeed at Champlain and beyond. You will explore the intersections of reading, writing, and thinking by focusing on a specific topic or theme. You will approach that focus through the interrogation of relevant texts and analysis that draws upon multiple analytical frameworks. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-one

Prerequisites	Take COR-101 concurrently.
Credits	3

Students will explore the complex and evolving historical relationship between humans and their surroundings, beginning with the earliest hunter/gathers and continuing through the Agricultural, Industrial, and Communications Revolutions. They will use the tools of environmental history to deepen their understanding of sustainability to explore lessons for human civilization and consider future possibilities for environmental, social and economic thriving in the 21st century and beyond.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Teaches a statistical approach to decision making under uncertainty. Topics are descriptive statistics, probability distributions, inferential statistics, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, linear regression and correlation.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Introduces the student to the main elements of the earth systems, and analyzes the effects of human interactions with these systems. Emphasis will be given to surface phenomena and to the application of the scientific method to current environmental issues. Course includes two laboratory hours per week.

Prerequisites
Credits	4

What makes an argument good or bad? What counts as evidence in our post-truth world? How can you understand and assess the truth value of a claim when you're not an expert? In this course you'll learn rhetorical strategies about how to examine arguments and types of evidence in different disciplines and fields of study. To help learn these strategies, you will do close readings of texts from a variety of disciplines in the liberal arts and sciences, popular culture, and social media.

Prerequisites	Take COR-104 concurrently.
Credits	3

This course introduces you to interdisciplinary inquiry using applied, project-based, and/or experiential methods. Regardless of the specific course focus, you'll have opportunities for making and doing interdisciplinary knowledge creation through a variety of approaches and activities. You will collaborate with other students, iterate on ideas, and work to develop a project. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-one

Prerequisites	Take Cor-103 concurrently.
Credits	3

Students will examine how the political vision developed by our forefathers, based on maximum exploitation of seemingly unlimited natural resources, has shaped policy and management and has led to current pressing environmental, economic and social issues. Students will explore the history of US environmental policy and its role in forming domestic and international policies and laws. The evolution of the concept of sustainability and how that is shaping natural resource policy and management both nationally and globally will be considered in-depth.

Prerequisites	ASU/ENP 100 level course
Credits	3

This hybrid course introduces the wide variety of methods and applied skills required for social science and humanities fieldwork. Students will develop practical skills in grounded theory, analog/digital tools for ethnography, data analysis, and mapping. The complementarities of quantitative and qualitative methods will be explored via naturalistic research design. Class members will develop and carry out a set of mini-research projects related to one of the specific locations of Champlain College (on or near the Burlington, Montreal, or Dublin campuses).

Prerequisites	Take DDL-110 or by permission of instructor.
Credits	3

Students examine the processes influencing the distribution and abundance of organisms, the interactions among organisms, and the interactions between organisms and the transformation and flux of energy and matter through the lens of the local bioregion. Students explore the six ecological levels and analyze the effect of human interactions with these systems. Emphasis will be placed on interdependent relationships between and within ecological communities. This course includes two laboratory hours per week.

Prerequisites	SCI-150
Credits	4

Science holds an elevated place in society. The knowledge and meaning that science makes are seen as having a particular and special value. This course explores knowledge and meaning making in order to allow a thoughtful analysis of, and then engagement with, science as a way of knowing, and then engages with the methods and theories of the sciences themselves, to understand the analytical, creative, and generative possibilities of science.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

While each section of COR 202 addresses a different problem, issue, or topic, they all focus on interdisciplinary research. You will collect, analyze, and assess information from different disciplines in order to recognize patterns, contextualize arguments and synthesize ideas while collaborating on a project. Emphasis will be placed on helping you translate and apply what you learn about interdisciplinary research to other professional contexts. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-two

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Prerequisites
Credits	3

A non-mathematical introduction to the basic principles of macroeconomics and microeconomics. These basics will be of value to students in understanding and formulating ideas relating to economic policy. The course will also work to clarify their economic relationship to our society and to the global community.

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Culture impacts everything we do, experience, and learn, but what is culture? Where does it come from, how does it form, and why does it have such a wide and deep impact on people's lives? This course explores culture as a system of meaning and meaning-making in order to allow for a more thoughtful analysis of, and then engagement with, cultural texts and media using different methodological approaches.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

In this course, you will go in depth about a theoretical perspective that asks you to interrogate systems of power and power relationships. You will learn about the history of that perspective, including how it too was shaped by multiple contexts and compares with other viewpoints. You will use that perspective to analyze a specific topic, collection of texts, or cultural phenomena. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-two

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104.
Credits	3

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Where we are shapes how we understand ourselves and each other. In this course, we will dig into the relationship between place and identity. We will learn how to think spatially, recognizing how one's identity is situated within and constructed through movement through different spaces--be they natural and built environments, rural and urban, or actual and virtual. COR 301 will help us understand the complex meanings of identity in a world defined by movement and change.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

Field methods are a collection of practices used in the sciences, arts, and humanities to understand phenomena in situ or as it is happening in a specific time and place. In this course, we will apply one or more field methods to research a topic, theme, or question that varies by section. We will learn practices associated with research in the field including but not limited to participant observation, data collection, and experimentation in order to navigate an uncontrolled environment. We will also examine the power dynamics between the researcher, informant, and subject matter to help us understand how, if not practiced ethically, field methods can create or reinforce biases rather than helping us learn with and make sense of the world around us. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-three

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

In this course the campus and greater community serve as a living laboratory for identifying, evaluating and assessing indicators of progress toward greater ecological, economic and social sustainability. Working in groups with community partners, students apply human-centered design thinking to improve the sustainability of campus or community operations, systems, and practices through applied projects. Students will provide critical capacity to support project sites in initiating or furthering sustainability efforts by partners.

Prerequisites	Take 30 credits
Credits	3

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Prerequisites
Credits	3

By learning from the past, we can make sense of the present and prepare for the future. In this course, we will learn how the 21st century has been and continues to be shaped by past social practices, ethical frameworks, power relations, and discourses. COR 303 is a course about how we know what we know about the past, and the ways different narratives about the past shape the present. Making connections between past and present will help us better understand how to live and make decisions in a globalized world defined by constant change.

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

Digital methods are widely used forms of inquiry that employ technological tools to interrogate research questions important to the humanities and sciences (including the social sciences). Some examples include digital archiving, data mining, and story mapping. In this course, we will use one or more digital methods or tools to research a topic, theme or question that varies by section, with the express purpose of critiquing and reflecting on its application. This includes an examination of the values, flaws, and impacts of the methods or tools we are using, paying particular attention to their ethical implications and power dynamics. For detailed descriptions of the individual sections of this course, cut and paste the following link into your browser: bit.ly/core-year-three

Prerequisites	Take COR-101, COR-102, COR-103, COR-104, COR-201, COR-202, COR-203, COR-204
Credits	3

Prerequisites
Credits	3

Prerequisites
Credits	3

In this senior-level seminar students will research, design and plan their capstone project. Upon completion of the course they will have a solid proposal that will enable them to launch their capstone project the following semester.

Prerequisites	Complete 60 credits.
Credits	1

Prerequisites
Credits	3

The college capstone is an opportunity for students to pursue a self-directed experience in their professional program that intentionally integrates their liberal learning in the Core curriculum with their program learning. In addition to the substantive professional-based hands-on project in this class, the capstone will include a professional ethics component and a self-evaluation/self-reflection component.

Prerequisites	Must complete COR-310, COR-320, and two sections of COR-330 All Game majors (EGPR.BS, GDES.BS, GART.BS must also complete EGD-320 with a minimum grade of C.
Credits	5

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