PROV 110: Global Thinking Workshop

Fall 2014: Global Thinking Workshop (1.0 credit)

Meets 3 Saturdays (all 9:30am-3-pm with 30 minute lunch break)

September 6, September 20 and October 18

This one credit, 3-part workshop challenges students to develop habits of mind, action, and attitude that support effective and responsible citizenship. It engages participants in real-world, complex issues such as climate change rapid population growth, resource depletion, increased economic disparities, war, and failing states by challenging them to think critically and act creatively!

You will come away with new friends, ideas, insights, plans, and a new, richer sense of global responsibility.

Course Outline

  • Who we are & where we are.  A brief version of Big History, our amazing 14 billion year story;
  • What’s happening to Earth.  A survey of what humans are doing to Earth;
  • “Plan A”.  Humans’ current global plan and its implications for life on Earth;
  • “Plan Bs”.  Alternative global plans being proposed by scholars, activists, universities, & others;
  • The ultimate challenge. How do we – 7 billion of us –agree on a “Plan B”;
  • Your Plan B.  With classmates, decide how you want to manage the future when it is your turn to lead!

Taught by Professor Vivek Prasad, Environmental Science and Policy