Course description for 2020/21
Sustainability in Practice
ECO2009
Course description for 2020/21

Sustainability in Practice

ECO2009
This course will give an insight into sustainability issues from different perspectives. The student works with a local real life case in an interdisciplinary team with students from different faculties and disciplines. The course gives an insight into sustainability issues from different perspectives. 

In this course the student will get a unique experience working practically and theoretically with sustainability and entrepreneurship, in an interdisciplinary team. To develop a more sustainable society is a complex task where we need to take into account the interplay between ecological, social, and economic conditions. Thus, there is a need to work interdisciplinary to address sustainable challenges both locally and globally.

This course will give an insight into sustainability issues from different perspectives. In addition, the student works with a local real life case in an interdisciplinary team with students from different faculties and disciplines. The team works with defining and understanding what the real problems related to a sustainability challenge are, and use tools of  entrepreneurial action to propose creative solutions for sustainable development.

General university admissions certification

Knowledge: 

After the course, the student should have:

  • knowledge about different perspectives on sustainability.
  • understanding of the complexity of sustainability challenges and be able to evaluate them in relation to different sustainability perspectives.
  • knowledge of how entrepreneurial action can contribute to a more sustainable society.
  • knowledge of communication and collaboration in multidisciplinary teams.

Skills:

After the course the student should

  • be able to identify problem areas for sustainable development. 
  • have developed entrepreneurial mindsets that make them competent to see opportunities and act actively to solve sustainable challenges.
  • be able to use their own professional background and experiences to address sustainable challenges in an interdisciplinary team.
  • have developed collaborative and communicative skills in interdisciplinary teams.

General competences:

After the course, the student should be able to:

  • act as a change agent to contribute to a more sustainable society.
  • understand interdisciplinary issues and contribute their expertise in discussions in complex issues.
  • collaborate with,and convey proposed solutions, to actors in the society that work with sustainability issues.
  • understand how to use own professional competence to solve problems in interdisciplinary teams.
  • reflect upon how a project process and a collaboration in an interdisciplinary team work. 
In addition to the tuition and the syllabus literature, it is a prerequisite that the student has a laptop.
Optional subject 

Compulsory participation because of team work. 

The course uses following teaching methods:

Project work in interdisciplinary team, case assignment from local problem owner, team exercises, reflection, dialogue, and lectures. 

Students from different faculties and disciplines work in interdisciplinary teams with real-time cases to propose solutions for sustainability challenges in the society. The students get the case assignment from a local problem owner.

During the course, the students deliver two written assignments that will be collected into a portfolio for evaluation: 1) a project assignment from the teamwork 2) a reflection note about the team work process.

Portfolio with a project assignment from the team and a reflection note (A-F). 

Compulsory participation, 80 % participation (Passed/Not passed, ).