Circularity and Sustainability: A Course that Advances Critical Thinking and Teamwork via Art, Community, and Policy

An opportunity exists for circular resource use, decreasing environmental impact and economic risk and at the same time enhancing biodiversity and global standards of living. When viewed from the perspective of an engineering student, technology is the solution. When viewed from the perspective of a policy student, policy is the way to solve these problems. The public, culture, and the social side of circularity? This is typically not considered in the education of our future science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and policy professionals. To truly create circular systems, however, we need a different approach. We need the combined effort of scientists, engineers, cultural leaders, policy makers, industry, communities, and artists. We need circularity professionals, regardless of discipline, to have observation, teamwork, creative thinking, perspective-taking, and critical analysis skills. As part of a University of Minnesota National Science Foundation-funded Research Traineeship (NRT) program, we have developed a three-credit course to fill these needs: A Circularity Revolution: Working to Close the Loop on Global Issues. The course is cotaught by a consulting artist and an environmental engineering professor and brings critical analysis tools to bear on technological and policy topics. Focusing on biases, varied perspectives, case-based learning, and shared mental models, this approach encourages cross-disciplinary dialogue. Here we present the learning objectives, approach, course structure, and outcomes of this course with the goal of providing information to facilitate the teaching of similar courses at peer institutions.