University of Iowa
ER-12: Sustainability Immersive Experience

Introduction to Sustainability (3 credit hours). This course is interdisciplinary, offered each academic year, open to any undergraduate student, up to 81 students. The content focuses on sustainability with an emphasis on skills and habits as a means to shape one's vision of a sustainable citizen. The course emphasizes the basic skills of literacy, applied math and finding information as students explore sustainability knowledge areas via increasing levels of democratic dialoguing and with attention to increasingly larger system sizes. Students are required to get involved off-campus in the local community to practice these skills.

The India Winterim program allows students to explore their interests in art and architecture, biodiversity and sustainability, education, entrepreneurship, housing, performing arts, physical therapy, renewable energy, social work, water resources, or other development issues in India. Specific courses vary each year. In 2012-2013, 141 students participated in 9 different courses. Each section is led by UI faculty and has its own disciplinary perspective. Students work with non-governmental organizations in India employing a diverse variety of techniques to address social issues.

School of Urban and Regional Planning Dubuque Initiative (graduate student program): The School of Urban and Regional Planning partnered with the City of Dubuque, Iowa to complete 10 sustainability projects for the city over the course of two academic years. During the 2011-2012 academic year, 35 graduate students were involved in the efforts and presented their reports to the city. The group worked on the following topics:
1. Identify indicators and indicator measurements for the city’s 11 sustainability principles
2. Map renewable energy assets city-wide
3. Create an accurate portrait of poverty in Dubuque
4. Promote local foods and local institutions
5. Design a Green and Healthy Homes program
In the fall of 2012, a new group of graduate students continued the work with the city of Dubuque. This group focused on the following topics:
1. Identify a set of indicators called Dubuque County Smarter Planning
2. Accelerate sustainable transportation planning through the use of “smart” data
3. Determine real housing needs with special attention to residential and commercial development in the Washington Neighborhood
4. Develop successful neighborhood school strategies
5. Conduct a survey of best practices for general plans for development of port areas

For more information regarding the India Winterim program, please see:
http://study-abroad.uiowa.edu/programs/details/index.php?crse=197