Courses

We are committed to addressing education and training the workforce of the future. Our efforts are focused on creating effective learning environments with these programs:

• Research at Pathfinder Center.  Undergraduates of any major and any year can participate in our research program in visual perception through the courses, HON 294, HON 394 and Honors Thesis.  The research program is performed entirely by undergraduates. The major question we explore is how humans succeed in a complex world with limited visual perception resources. We seek the answer to this question in learning (how we improve in visual tasks), and in automaticity (how we perform a visual task with reduced attention). Each student designs their own visual task, creates an experiment to test performance, gathers data, and tests learning and automaticity for that task as well as how improvement in one task transfers to another task.
• Sustainability Science, Technology, and Society (SCN 401) explores the challenges of sustaining human health and wellbeing on Earth due to human exploitation of natural resources. This course is designed to introduce sustainability to those who plan to work in nonprofit or government organizations, private educational or recreational settings, or as entrepreneurs in various fields.
• Integrating Sustainability Science into the Classroom (PD 101) aims to cultivate the skills and strategies necessary for incorporating sustainability science topics across common kindergarten through twelfth grade curricula. The goal is to create crosswalk opportunities for making sustainability science relevant in subjects such as English language arts, literacy, history, social studies, science, art, drama, and mathematics. Educators will have the opportunity to connect state standards to big sustainability ideas while creating tangible materials that fit individual classroom needs.
• Values Thinking (PD 102) fosters leadership skills that promote an inclusive and kinder world. Values thinking answers the question, “Where do we want to go?” Through a self-assessment process, you will capture your personal values, then learn about values thinking, and how to use it. The course offers a case study exercise that challenges you to reflect on your personal values and consider how they differ from others. The course concludes with a final self-assessment and a quick toolkit for your use in any future scenarios that call for values thinking.
• Values Thinking for Educators (PD 103) guides you through a self-assessment process, where you will capture your personal values, then learn about values thinking, and how to use it. The course offers a case study exercise that challenges you to reflect on your personal values and consider how they differ from others. The course concludes with a final self-assessment and a quick toolkit for your use in any future scenarios that call for values thinking.
• Preparing Global Collaborators (PD 104) offers exercises to foster connections that grow educators’ and students’ understanding and place in the world and build networks that help us see new places, people and ideas. Learners will watch 10 minutes of digital stories with detailed descriptions on global collaboration, read and explore curated resources on global collaboration, and develop a feasible global collaboration project with room to expand..
• Blended Learning (PD 105) unpacks how we can make learning more about the student’s individual needs, wants, interests and goals through blended learning. Blended learning is the strategic combination of online and in-person instruction. During this learning session, we study the foundations of blended learning. We will explore what blended learning is and get started on blended learning creations. Learners will explore the rationale behind blended learning and ask the question, “why blend?” Discuss how data practices and blended learning courses improve the mastery of content.
• What is Science (PD 106) asks students to explore what science is and learn from authentic and engaging conversations with real scientists at Arizona State University.. In this master class, we explore how scientists see the world, how scientific research comes into being, and try our hand at the process of discovery. Learners will explore the ways scientists come up with research questions, how scientists look for answers, and what goes into determining if they are on the right track. Unpack how the different approaches to creating scientific knowledge are developed, as well as how the faces of science have changed over time. Discuss what factors steer the path that science follows, and how science also shapes the world we live in today.
• Digital Storytelling (PD 107) leverages the power of story and narrative for story creators to convey difficult topics in a more approachable way. Digital stories fuse together the use of recorded narration, video, illustrations, and audio/visual effects to produce a documentary-style digital narrative. To produce this type of content, this course explores steps involved in making multimedia, hybrid, and flipped content come to life. We address ways to build engaging content through story/narrative including storyboarding, image selection, voice, and scriptwriting. Simple tips and tricks that transform a learning outcome into a successful narrative are shared.
• Sustainability, Science and Society (SOS 294) takes students on a virtual tour of the world through various engaging digital stories. This undergraduate course in the School of Sustainability at ASU explores global and local sustainability topics. From Phoenix to Bali case studies, this course uncovers diverse approaches used by scientists, scholars, and practitioners to study and assess human-environment interactions pertaining to sustainability challenges and solutions. Students will learn critical thinking skills that will foster better engagement with the world around them through the lens of sustainability.
• Middle school teacher workshops. We conduct short workshops with middle school teachers to provide them the experience of “doing” science in the classroom.  With a series of online experiments exploring human vision, teachers learn that questions can be more engaging than answers.  Teachers are encouraged to modify their own answer-based lessons into question-based explorations.