Community Engaged Learning at MacEwan University is a project-based, teaching-learning strategy that connects classroom theory to challenges experienced in the “real world” by our Community Partners.

Are you interested in contributing more to areas like gender equity, environmental sustainability, and cultural vitality but don’t know where to start? Do you have an idea on how your organization can contribute to a sustainable future but can’t find enough time to get started?

Sustainability 301 is a unique interdisciplinary course that allows students from different backgrounds and areas of study to learn about sustainability challenges. Students in Sustainability 301 are developing their skills of systems thinking, project planning, evaluation, and communication as they relate to sustainability challenges. In order to expand their experience, we are looking for community partners who are interested in engaging with sustainability and specifically contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but are either unsure of where to start or have limited capacity to get their actions started.

To learn more about the UN SDGs, please check out the short video An Introduction to the UN SDGs (1:57) If your project/organization is selected, the students will work to provide you with: ● A project or proposal for your organization to implement to contribute to at least one SDG. Please note, that while general budgets will be considered and documented where possible, the course does not equip students to develop detailed budget plans.

Challenge statement 

The major learning outcomes of this project include(course learning outcomes translated to plain/business language) :

● Apply systems thinking to identify all areas of a sustainability topic including cultural vitality, social equity, economic integrity, and environmental responsibility.

● Discuss controversial and sensitive historic, social, cultural, political, and economic factors that influence sustainability challenges.

● Integrate alternate perspectives into a new coherent and more inclusive framework with which to analyze a topic.

● Collaborate effectively to develop a plan to address a complex sustainability challenge.