Here we feature several assignments used in the environmental courses mainly from the Greening Project. These assignments help students integrate the principles learned and engage them in decision making at various levels. We believe that these assignments or their core idea can be adapted to a variety of courses.

These examples encourage students to exercise concepts of systems thinking, life cycles and self-agency, the overarching principles of the Greening project to enhance environmental literacy.

In a study done in the late 1990’s we showed that student learning of concepts is significantly enhanced in assignments that ask students to put themselves in a decision making role, especially if these are projects in nature, with real data collection, or with background research, with the work being done over time and in teams.