The students in John Mlade’s class at Georgia Tech come from diverse majors, but they soon discover a shared purpose: applying what they learn to create positive change. 
Mlade designed the course “Learning from the Bioneers” to show students how to apply biological knowledge to solve complex social and environmental problems. He is among a growing number of educators who are bringing Bioneers into the classroom to inspire a new generation of sophisticated thinkers and doers equipped to create a more sustainable world.
In the Georgia Tech class, which is cross-listed in biology and architecture, students watch Bioneers Conference DVDs and take turns leading classroom discussions. The mid-term exam is a visioning exercise and the final is a service-learning project.
After watching a Bioneers Conference plenary talk by LaDonna Redmond, founder and president of the Institute for Community Resource Development in Chicago, Mlade’s students decided to take on Georgia Tech’s food system. They’re investigating everything from their peers’ preferences for organic food to the university’s contract with food service giant Sodexho. For their final project, they’ll make recommendations for bringing a sustainable food system to this campus of 15,000 students.
“What makes this course so powerful is the mix of students,” says Mlade, a sustainability researcher at the architecture firm Perkins+Will. “We’ve got engineers, business students, biologists, architects and urban planners. It’s the only interdisciplinary forum on campus where students can engage in meaningful discussion.”
Like Mlade, Jillian Buckholz was inspired to bring Bioneers into her classroom at Chico State in California after attending the conference in San Rafael. Last fall, Buckholz created a class in which students participated in the Bioneers conference and then brought a piece of it back to campus to share with their peers.
“I’ve always loved the conference and thought it would be an eye-opening experience for my students,” says Buckholz, sustainability coordinator at Chico State. “It is the only conference that covers the entire spectrum of social, environmental and economic issues and it’s important for students studying sustainability to be immersed in all three areas.”
Buckholz’s students created a range of projects based on their experiences at the 2006 Bioneers Conference. Several students set up mushroom composting projects inspired by mycologist Paul Stamets. After watching Maquilapolis at the Bioneers Moving Image Festival, another student brought the film and directors Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre to Chico State. Other students screened An Inconvenient Truth in residence halls and spoke about their Bioneers experiences on local radio programs. “I was surprised by how engaged my students became at the conference,” Buckholz says. “I saw a lot of them blossom over the weekend and I hope the class can grow.”
Other educators have developed curricula to teach sustainability in high schools. Earth Care International, a nonprofit in Santa Fe that educates and empowers youth for a more sustainable world, has created Ecology and Community, a yearlong course for students in grades 10-12. Students examine the environment, social justice and economics through the operating systems of water, waste, energy and food. They apply theory and readings at their school throughout the year and in a final project.
“High school is often the last chance for kids to explore and study, because many of them don’t go to college,” says Christina Selby, an environmental educator who co-founded Earth Care International in 2001 with her husband Taylor. “We can help kids connect whatever they’re passionate about with sustainability,” she says.
So far, about a half-dozen public and private high schools in New Mexico have offered Ecology and Community—all with extraordinary results. Through the course, students have created school gardens, organized a concert with music addressing social justice and ecological issues and published a ’zine that examines the connections between ecological, social and environmental issues. One year, students converted a city bus to run on vegetable oil, refurbished the interior with sustainable materials and drove it to the Bioneers Conference in San Rafael.
The opportunity to apply classroom lessons in the community generates a ripple effect, Selby says. “When adults see young people engaged in community issues, it sparks a new level of interest and respect for youth.”
Bioneers was key to Earth Care International’s development says Selby. She and Taylor traveled the country in 2001 to meet with leading thinkers about creating an environmental education program. A light bulb went off when they found their way to the Bioneers Conference.
“As an environmental educator, I came from the perspective of presenting the doom-and-gloom facts,” she says. “Going to the Bioneers Conference helped us to focus our classes on solutions, inspiration and hope, rather than the problems.”
How to Bring Bioneers to Your School
- Syllabi and Bioneers Teaching Guides: Click Teaching Tools on this Web site
- Books: Ecological Literacy: Educating Our Children for a Sustainable World, edited by Michael K. Stone and Zenobia Barlow (Sierra Club Books, 2005)
- High school curricula: Earth Care International provides resources and ideas
- Organizations: The Center for Ecoliteracy offers many guides and programs
Kim Ridley is Bioneers editor-at-large
