2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

An integrated systems thinking graduate course that prepares students to solve the complex problems of the food-energy-water nexus

Presented at Graduate Studies Division (GSD) Technical Session 7: Developing Graduate Students' Competencies and Identities

Current and future global challenges, such as creating more resilient and sustainable communities; developing renewable energy; improving public health; and addressing climate change present complex scientific, technological, and societal problems. Thus, to tackle these global challenges and for the United States’ economic and technological competitiveness, there is a need for systems thinkers. Recent efforts to prepare graduate students to use systems thinking to address these problems are promising. This paper will detail the graduate-level, interdisciplinary Integrated Systems course structure that can be beneficial to the implementation of teaching systems thinking framework at the graduate level and the development of systems thinkers in STEM disciplines.
The NRT Integrated FEW Systems course is a 1-credit course, and part of the NSF Research Traineeship (NRT) at our university. The NRT prepares master’s students and doctoral students from STEM disciplines to address the grand challenges of creating food, energy, and water systems in semi-arid regions that are more resilient. Solutions to resiliency problems often require systems-thinking frameworks. Systems thinking provides concepts and tools to understand complex problems that link society, economy, and the environment at multiple scales.
The NRT Integrated FEW Systems course is a cross-listed course. Faculty from the College of Engineering, the College of Agriculture, and the College of Arts and Sciences have co-taught this class annually in the fall since 2019. This course is an introduction to systems thinking, with specific application to the food-energy-water (FEW) nexus. The course explores two basic types of systems and their interactions: natural-environmental systems and human-social systems. The course emphasizes the importance of systems thinking in developing effective policy to enhance resilience in FEW systems.
This paper will discuss course format, content team teaching strategies, grading structures, evaluation, and lesson learned from teaching the course four years. The course lectures combine theory and practice, and design to establish knowledge base in system thinking concepts and tools, and focus on the unique challenges for management, governance, communication, and policy in the FEW nexus. Course grading includes reflections and analyses, creating system component maps with Loopy (a free online tool for thinking in systems), and a final project, an integrated system map. All assignments are individual assignments. The NRT external evaluator designed an annual NRT survey that assesses the NRT program at our university, including the impacts of the NRT Integrated FEW Systems course. Student ratings about their perceived ability to perform interdisciplinary systems tasks improved from the beginning to the end of the course, from ‘somewhat able’ to ‘very able.’ Students rated most course activities as “very useful”.

Authors

Mrs. Mirit Shamir Kansas State University [biography]

Mirit Shamir is the Academic Services Coordinator for the Rural Resource Resiliency NSF Research Traineeship housed in the Alan Levin Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Kansas State University. She holds an M.S. in Environmental Policy fr
Prof. Matthew R. Sanderson [biography]

Matthew R. Sanderson is the Randall C. Hill Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work and Professor of Geography and Geospatial Sciences at Kansas State University. Currently, he is working on several projects that examine co-evo
Rebecca Cors University of Wisconsin - Madison [biography]

Rebecca Cors is a social scientist and evaluator at WCER who studies how people learn about, and co-exist with, science and nature. She is fascinated with how people and organizations learn and develop in ways that enable them to thrive. Rebecca’s career began in environmental education and outreach at places like the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and at a university in China, where her primary assignment as a Peace Corps Volunteer was environmental education. In 2009, she went on to work with the Institute of Environmental Decisions at ETH Zurich and, then, to earn her PhD at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, studying out-of-classroom science education. In 2017, she joined the Wisconsin Evaluation Collaborative, where she continues to support education programs through research and evaluation. She has published and presented research about out-of-school learning, science and nature education, and about collaborations to promote natural resources management. In addition, Rebecca is a Wisconsin Master Naturalist, and enjoys hiking, reading, connecting with others, and learning languages.
Nathan P. Hendricks Kansas State University
Dr. Stacy L. Hutchinson Kansas State University
Dr. Prathap Parameswaran Kansas State University [biography]

Prathap Parameswaran is currently an Associate Professor and the Fornelli Engineering professorship holder at the Civil Engineering department, Kansas State University. Parameswaran’s research interests pertain to all aspects of biological wastewater treatment and sustainable resource recovery from wastes using novel environmental biotechnology platforms. He is an international expert in the implementation and long term operation of Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors (AnMBRs) and currently operates a pilot scale system at K-State’s north agronomy farm to treat swine lagoon wastewater, with efforts currently supported by the DoE’s IEDO office. His research interests also include: anaerobic digestion, pretreatment technologies for bioprocessing of wastes and biomass, microbial electrochemical cells for valuable products generation (electric power, hydrogen gas and advanced oxidation products such as hydrogen peroxide), downstream resource capture from photosynthetic microalgae through novel environmental biotechnology for a sustainable and green biorefinery. Dr. Parameswaran also has active research grants through the NSF and industry partners.
Prathap Parameswaran is currently an Associate Professor and the Fornelli Engineering professorship holder at the Civil Engineering department, Kansas State University. Parameswaran’s research interests pertain to all aspects of biological wastewater treatment and sustainable resource recovery from wastes using novel environmental biotechnology platforms. He is an international expert in the implementation and long term operation of Anaerobic Membrane Bioreactors (AnMBRs) and currently operates a pilot scale system at K-State’s north agronomy farm to treat swine lagoon wastewater, with efforts currently supported by the DoE’s IEDO office. His research interests also include: anaerobic digestion, pretreatment technologies for bioprocessing of wastes and biomass, microbial electrochemical cells for valuable products generation (electric power, hydrogen gas and advanced oxidation products such as hydrogen peroxide), downstream resource capture from photosynthetic microalgae through novel environmental biotechnology for a sustainable and green biorefinery. Dr. Parameswaran also has active research grants through the NSF and industry partners.
Dr. Melanie Derby Kansas State University [biography]

Dr. Melanie Derby graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. in 2008, M.S. in 2010, and Ph.D. in 2013. In 2013, she joined Kansas State University where she studies multi-phase flows and heat transfer in the food, energy, and water nexus;

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