Libby Megna
Assistant Professor of Biology
School of Health & Natural Sciences
Union College
lmegna@unionky.edu
Read profile here.
A multi-disciplinary course in which basic ecological principles are developed and used to show human impact on natural ecosystems. Topics include endangered species, impact of population growth, land use and management problems, and food production and demands.
Union College
School of Health & Natural Sciences
Recycling availability, food waste, water quality of local pond, litter, food access
I have not. I do incorporate a lot of problem-based learning in my courses, among other active learning strategies, and I think social action is the logical next step! I am involved with the Justice Leaders on Union's campus, and we do various social justice activities. So I've been on the participation end of social action, but I haven't taught it.
In my course as it exists now, I do a lot of problem-based learning where students imagine how to solve complex, real-world problems as if they had the power of senators or Supreme Court justices. Actually empowering students to make change in their community would be an awesome reworking and improvement of the course. I definitely don't have the skills to do such a reworking on my own, so I am extremely excited about the prospect of this workshop and revamping my course. The course that I would rework is for non-science majors, and I think a social action-based course would be very appealing to them.
colleague forwarded a post about it on ACA's discussion boards
Spring 2025, NOT!
May, 2024: I think I will wait a year to implement social action, so Spring 2026. I ended up with a lot on my plate for this summer, and won’t have as much time as I need to prep. Thanks!