2023

Sustainability: a transdisciplinary approach

Name: Sustainability: a transdisciplinary approach
Code: PAO10040O
6 ECTS
Duration: 15 weeks/156 hours
Scientific Area: Environment and Ecology Sciences

Teaching languages: Portuguese
Languages of tutoring support: Portuguese, English
Regime de Frequência: E-learning

Presentation

This course is the basic curricular unit of the course regarding the sustainability component. It addresses the various dimensions of sustainability from a transdisciplinary perspective, proposing a reflection on the difficulties of the concept, its contradictions and practical obstacles.

Sustainable Development Goals

Learning Goals

This course's main objective is the acquisition, bye-students, of concepts and knowledge leading to the development of a culture of sustainability.

The construction of relevant knowledge by the e-students will lead to the development and enhancement of their taste for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge, sensibility and critical thinking.

The skills for self-training and self-formation throughout a life span will be developed. In this sense the course will provide experience which will be relevant for that competence. The e-student must be able: 1) to search, to select and to compile information important for the proposed situations of problem-solving: 2) to design the different phases of working resulting in a written document on any proposed subjects: 3) to work individually and in a team.

Contents

1.Introduction to sustainability
Sustainable development and sustainability: a complex issue
Introduction to the thought of complexity from the mechanistic approaches to systemic approaches
Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinary - the transdisciplinary approach
The paradigm of sustainable development - causes and landmarks
Criticisms of the concept of sustainable development

2.Dimensions of the problem
Environmental degradation, loss of biodiversity and natural ecosystems
Depletion/over-exploitation of resources
Consumerism and life artificialization

3.Territory, landscape and sustainability
Socio-economy - transformations for a sustainable future
Farming, food and waste management
Energy and sustainability - Green Physics
Chemistry and sustainability - Green Chemistry
ICT,Design, Architecture and sustainability
Green technologies

4.Future prospects
Other sustainability’s. A new attitude towards the world
Other habits, another daily routine - lifestyle changes

Teaching Methods

The teaching of this course is developed entirely online and using constructivist teaching methodologies that place great emphasis on the collaborative construction of knowledge.
E-student evaluation will be continuous, and within cach module there will be mandatory reading and video viewing
A discussion forum will be implemented, enabling e-students to develop their ideas about the concepts under study. Each topic will be used as a starting point for developments of group projects. At the end of each topic there will be a formative assessment and summative assessment.
The end result (100%) of the course will be the average of the grades obtained by the e-student on each topic.