Course Connections

Office of Sustainability staff teach a variety of courses in the Core Curriculum and the Environmental Studies Program at Butler University that focus upon key topics in sustainability framed in the three pillars of sustainability: environment, equity, and economics. Many of these courses also have ICR (Indianapolis Community Requirement)-accreditation.

Fall semester:

PWB115-BI – Cultivating Well Being                          

Instructor: Mr. Tim Dorsey

This hands-on gardening course will empower students to make healthy food choices while learning how gardening can improve well-being. Students will be challenged to think about where food comes from, how to grow healthy foods at home, and the role gardening can play in a lifetime of well being.

ENV405 (ICR-designated): Food Systems and Metabolic Rift                                

Instructor: Dr. Julia Angstmann

This course explores multiple pathways of food production and distribution in the United States including growing, harvesting, processing, storage, packaging, transporting, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food to feed a growing global population. These concepts will be theoretically framed by the concept of metabolic rift, which more broadly encompasses fractures in the ecological sustainability of food production and consumption, social disruptions and inequalities resulting from the commodification of land and labor, and the alienation of humans from labor and nature. Field trips and service learning experiences highlight the ecological, social, and individual politics of the local food system and pushes students to design solutions for local food system challenges using their classroom knowledge and service learning experiences.

ENV340 (SJD-designated): Food (In)justice

This course examines the role of governments and large corporations in food (in)justice, specifically if these entities should have legal avenues to patent and own food plant species or if food is a right of all humans. Local and global examples of food (in)justice are analyzed including: owning the rights to seeds and the food they produce, use of toxic chemicals in agriculture at the cost of the consumer, farmworker rights, and the commodification of our food. Using a systems thinking lens, recommend leverage points will be analyzed to intervene in the current system, prioritizing sustainability over profit.

Spring semester:

ENV400 (ICR-designated): Sustainability Practicum on Food Waste

This course focuses on the unsustainability of the current food system through the issue of food waste. We will examine environmental degradation, human inequity, and economic losses throughout the food system including: production, distribution, and consumption. Through the utilization of a systems thinking perspective and insight gleaned from ICR food organization partner(s), students will identify issues in the current food system and recommend strategies to reduce food waste and create a sustainable food system.

The overall goal of the ALFS Minor and Concentration (for ENV) is to create a truly cross-disciplinary program where students, instructors, community internship host sites, and community members learn through collaboration. As a cohort, ALFS students apply their learnings to creating innovative solutions to local food system challenges by improving equity, environmental function and ecosystem services, and economic viability and contributing to the enhancement and construction of resiliency and equity within the larger global food system.

Students completing this minor will

1. Describe, critically analyze, and evaluate historical, current, and potential future factors, themes, and concepts related to the social, political, economic, environmental, and cultural issues of local and global food systems.
2. Analyze and critically assess relationships between place, culture, and food systems to elucidate issues of power and social justice that drive food inequities.
3. Identify, question, and take responsibility for their personal and professional roles in the local, regional, and global food systems.
4. Apply conceptual, theoretical, and applied food systems concepts and knowledge to designing solutions to real-world local food system challenges in Indianapolis.
5. Develop and practice workforce skills such as oral and written communication, working with diverse groups of people, team work, project management, leadership, etc.
6. Create a vocational identity which will help shape their personal and professional sense of self.

More information about the Applied Local Food System Minor (ALFS) including course requirements.

In addition to Office of Sustainability staff-taught courses, the Office of Sustainability has been integral to testing the efficacy and student learning outcomes of implementing farm- and food-situated course content across the liberal arts curricula, leading the way to innovative uses of campus infrastructure and breaking down disciplinary silos.

In 2016, the Office of Sustainability and the STEM Education Innovation and Research Institute (SEIRI) at Indiana University–Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) received nearly $300,000 from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education program at the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop, implement, and assess a cohesive program of place-based experiential research modules centered upon the theme of sustainable agriculture in four Butler undergraduate physical and natural science courses. In 2019, the Office of Sustainability received an additional $600,000 from the NSF to further research the efficacy and impact of farm-situated place-based experiential learning across Butler’s curriculum—expanding the project beyond STEM-only disciplines to five additional professional disciplines: pharmacy and health sciences, pre-service teacher education, business marketing, communications, and religious studies. SEIRI is conducting research on the impacts of this program to student learning outcomes including environmental science literacy, scientific reasoning, civic mindedness, and the attachment and meanings students subscribe to the campus farm as well as the impact to faculty support networks. Both of these grant-funded projects, collectively titled: Cultivating Scientific Literacy and Action through Place: Using a Campus Farm as an Interdisciplinary Learning Hub, are innovating the way campus spaces are used for place-based, community-engaged civic education.

Participating courses to date include:

1. BI230 – Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Professor Travis Ryan,Module Title: Soil Respiration, Arthropod Biodiversity, and the Analysis of Variance
2. BI408 – Topics in Biology, Advanced Ecology, Professor Sean Berthrong, Module Title: Bringing Microbes and Carbon Cycling Down to Earth
3. ENV200 – Intro to Environmental Studies, Professor Jesse Van Gerven, Module Title: Diverse Indianapolis Urban Farmer Perspectives on Food Systems
4. CH465 – Environmental Chemistry, Professor Elizabeth Davis, Module Title: Urban Agriculture and Environmental Health: Characterizing Risks of Soil Contamination
5. NW207, Ecology and the Natural Environment, Professor Travis Ryan, Module Title: TBD
6. RL384, Ecotheology, Professor Brent Hege, Module Title: Employing the “Loving Eye” in Nature Journals
7. ED317/ED418, Teaching Science and Social Studies Methods for Middle School Childhood, Professor Catherine Pangan, Module Title: Exploring Scientific & Historical Gardening Contributions with Young Learners
8. MG480, Strategy Capstone, Professor Lawrence Lad, Module Title: Challenges to Fundamental Economics Theory in Food Value Chains
9. ORG358, Social Responsibility and Community, Professor Lindsay Ems, Module Title: Using Digital Media to Empower Marginalized Populations
10. RX499, Sustainable Healthy Nutrition, Professor Jane Gervasio, Module title: Sustainable Healthy Nutrition

The Sustainability Leadership Cohort (SLC) is an intentional internship model that focuses on peer-to-peer mentorship and community building while providing experiential research opportunities for Butler students to practice real-world problem solving and learn tangible skills for professional development and career preparedness. Students in the SLC work on a variety of urban ecology and sustainability research projects across campus and the community. SLC students and advisors meet weekly as a cohort to support one another, co-develop ideas, and engage as a community that works to solve complex sustainability challenges.

The Office of Sustainability and The Farm at Butler has long been a resource to Butler courses by providing class tours and facilitating student projects. Some of our past and present course collaborations include:

College of Communication

ORG 358 – Social Responsibility and Community

Instructor: Lindsay Ems

Student groups in this class work with a local non-profit to solve a communication problem identified by the organization host. In past semesters, the Office of Sustainability has worked with students in this course over multiple semesters to develop 1) a winter social media campaign for The Farm at Butler focusing upon the farm’s core values: caring for the earth, caring for community, and caring for our bodies, 2) strategies to market the merging of the Center for Urban Ecology and Butler Sustainability into the Center for Urban Ecology and Sustainability (Office of Sustainability), and 3) students are assessing the Office of Sustainability’s social media presence and making recommendations on what platforms we should be using, as well as the frequency and types of posts needed to elevate our image for particular audiences. This is a continuing collaboration.

ORG 351 – Social Media Storytelling

Instructor: Lindsay Ems

Students in this class learned about The Farm and Butler University and presented social media campaigns to tell the farm’s story and elevate messaging around The Farm’s values to spur additional product sales.

STR251 – Design and Production for Strategic Communication

Instructor: Armando Pellerano

In this course, students toured The Farm at Butler and studied the Office of Sustainability logo to determine an impactful complementary logo for The Farm at Butler.

Andre B. Lacy School of Business

MK385 – Marketing Research                                    

Instructor: Professor Daniel McQuiston

A student group from this class conducted market research for the CUE Farm to determine ways to increase awareness, traffic, and revenue at the CUE Farm’s weekly farm stand.

MBA522 – Business Practicum                                           

Instructor: Professor James Simmons

The course participated in tours to local food producers and distributors and hosted a farm-to-table panel as part of this intensive course. Students then provided The Farm with recommendations for improving business and marketing aspects of The Farm. This collaboration extended over five semesters.

Ball State University, College of Architecture and Planning

The Office of Sustainability is proud to have had a long working relationship with Ball State Architecture to design and build green infrastructure at The Farm at Butler.

Fourth-Year Architecture Practicum    

Instructor: Professor Timothy Gray

Fourth-year architecture majors at Ball State University have worked with The Farm at Butler on a number of sustainable design-build projects including a classroom space and a mobile greenhouse. The mobile greenhouse project was featured in over ten media outlets and won a 2016 Merit Award for Design Excellence from the American Institute of Architecture (AIA) Indiana.