Celebrating Ten Years of Case Studies in the Environment in the Classroom
From the beginning, UC Press’s journal Case Studies in the Environment—launched ten years ago this year—made the case for case studies as a learning tool: “Case studies have been effectively used in environmental science and studies courses to help students grapple with the interdependence of societal, ethical, and environmental issues,” noted founding Editor Wil Burns.
The team of environmental case study heavyweights Cynthia Wei (then of SESYNC), Minna Brown (Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies Case Study Integration Initiative), and Meghan Wagner (Michigan Sustainability Cases) surveyed the educational landscape of environmental case study initiatives. In 2020, CSE author and Drexel University environmental sociologist Amanda McMillan Lequieu described for us how she organized her course around environmental case studies; and Penn State Harrisburg Public Policy and Administration faculty and CSE author Daniel Mallinson showed us how he teaches environmental policy by having students write their own case studies.
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Case Studies in the Environment has since become a trusted resource for classroom instruction: in a recent survey of CSE authors conducted by Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Bernstein, nearly 70% of respondents reported that their case study has been used in classroom or training settings by themselves or others—56% as a discussion case, 44% as an assigned reading, and 26% as a basis for an activity or simulation.
Digging deeper into how faculty are using environmental case studies in their classrooms, we learned that:
Seyed Armin Hashemi, who teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in remote sensing, GIS, and forest ecosystem management at Islamic Azad University (Iran), notes that “[s]tudents often see classification algorithms like SVM [Support Vector Machine classification] as abstract mathematics. A local, data‑driven case study shows them that satellite imagery and machine learning can quantify real deforestation and support policy—using free Landsat data and reproducible methods.” His CSE case study on this topic, “Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Shafarood Watershed, Northern Iran (2000–2020): A Case Study Using Landsat Imagery and Support Vector Machine Classification,” just published in the journal.
“Students who study art research and art histories usually learn how to think critically across the matrix of visual culture, politics, and history,” notes California State University, San Bernardino art historian Jane Chin Davidson. “As such, the primary reason I have included my article “Cherry River: Art, Music, and Indigenous Stakeholders of Water Advocacy in Montana“ in my art history course on Performance Art Activism is because I wanted my students to examine an explicit interdisciplinary art and science model of research. The pedagogical goal is to develop an interdisciplinary understanding of art and science through research methodologies for environmental activism.”
“The art and science contextualization is an important approach to studying environmental impacts because the issue of water access in Montana is an issue of present-day environmental justice. The artistic advocacy of Indigenous water rights is hardly ever examined in the context of scientific methodology—significant for assessing drought conditions in Montana. By extension, the expansion of the performance medium in the last forty or so years has functioned more saliently in cultural and political forms of activism. An art history that can recognize the detrimental outcomes of historical settler colonialism represents a dramatic change from aesthetic studies that usually never acknowledge the historical trajectory of broken treaties and the loss of ancestral water rights. In this way, the publication of my article in Case Studies in the Environment provided a bridge to art, culture, and science research for a historical understanding of the current stakes of environmental crisis. My students were able to grasp these complex issues through the article’s inclusion of different research methodologies.”
Alain Plante teaches the Case Studies in Environmental Sustainability seminar at the University of Pennsylvania. “The course is a Penn Global Seminar that consists of a semester-long course that incorporates an international travel component. In my case, we travel to Iceland for 9-10 days to experience in-person what was learned in-class. The course is part of our environmental studies major, and structured around the case study methodology. CSE has been central to the course pedagogy. I first teach about case study methodology using examples from CSE as models. Students then choose a topic of interest within the scope of environmental sustainability in Iceland and research it with the goal of creating their own case study. Students have several milestone assignments to complete during the semester, but the final deliverable is a manuscript written using the CSE template. In some cases, students who have completed exceptional case studies are interested in pursuing submission for publication, so once the semester is completed, I mentor them through revisions. To date, we have submitted two student-written case studies that have passed review and been published (Lojeski and Plante, 2021; Sorrell and Plante, 2021). The case study methodology and CSE are core to the student's learning about environmental issues in Iceland and beyond.”
Oyinlola Fasoro, of the University of Ibadan (Nigeria), and author of “Challenges and Potential Requirements for Green Spaces Integration into Urban Development in Oyo State, Nigeria,” notes that “[w]hile teaching students from different backgrounds and skill levels can be rewarding and challenging, it is crucial to create an inclusive environment that fosters harmony among them and improves their learning experience. Therefore, it is essential to provide practical, real-world applications. I use a variety of examples and discussion scenarios to make sure students understand fundamental concepts. This helps them understand not only the cases but also the underlying concepts.”
“To illustrate the benefits of urban green spaces, I have, for example, compared the University of Ibadan's green microclimate with the nearby Agbowo neighborhood, which is devoid of trees. Students visit both locations simultaneously, exchange their findings, and compare the conditions. In order to develop their critical thinking, wider views, and deeper comprehension of the course subject, follow-up individual or group assignments promote additional reading and internet research.”
As we reflect on our ten years and growing journey, we sincerely thank everyone who has contributed their work and time to the journal, and who have used Case Studies in the Environment as an important part of their classroom instruction!
Case Studies in the Environment is a journal of peer-reviewed case study articles and case study pedagogy articles. The journal informs faculty, students, researchers, educators, professionals, and policymakers on case studies and best practices in the environmental sciences and studies.
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