Browse our tools by Category, Type, Big Ideas, and/or Time Commitment, for example, or simply feel free to explore the options below. We also invite you to contribute by adding your own tools that you’ve successfully tried in your classrooms.
Multi-Criteria Decision Matrix Exercise
In preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games in London, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) faced an unprecedented design challenge: create an 80,000 capacity stadium with the…
In this case study, gas and electric utility holding company Southern Company has embarked on an ambitious experiment to learn more about energy usage at a household level, as well as community-scale microgrids. Every minute, sixty-two homes in…
This tool is developed from ideas used by Yelena Rivera-Vale and Kristina Chatfield in their GT 1000 courses. Students are invited to tour the Georgia Tech Invention Studio and to then consider how the projects they would like to create in the Studio…
It's one thing to be able to articulate what sustainability means, and it's another thing to be able to communicate your ideas through visual design, but this poster design tool does both. Through this tool, students use poster campaigns to raise…
This presentation tool, based on a lesson created by Yelena Rivera-Vale and Kristina Chatfield for their GT 1000 course, introduces first year students to community organizations working on initiatives in the local Atlanta area. Interviewing members,…
The annotated case studies included in this tool are well-suited to business courses across the College of Engineering. Review the options available for your class, and don’t hesitate to recommend a new case study to SLS! …
This tool provides a series of definitions, videos, and other resources for faculty and students who wish to learn more about Environmental Justice. This is an evolving resource, so please feel free to make recommendations!
The annotated case studies below are well-suited to Design courses across the College of Design. Review the options available for your class, and don’t hesitate to recommend a new case study to SLS! Let…
The Center for Serve-Learn-Sustain aims to help students create sustainable communities, where humans and nature flourish in the present and future. One SLS Priority area concerning sustainable communities is information about the United Nations…
This tool, intended to be used towards the beginning of the semester, helps instructors frame their course to students in relation to SLS and our mission of educating students to help “create sustainable communities.” It also prompts students to begin…
This activity, adapted from D.M. Stringer and P.A. Cassidy’s 52 Activities for Improving Cross-Cultural Communication, introduces students to three primary patterns of communication pacing. These patterns can vary in different cultural groups…
The following rubric assesses SLO 1: Students will be able to identify relationships among ecological, social, and economic systems. The goal of this SLO is for students to develop a baseline schema to identify both existing and novel examples of…
The following rubric assesses SLO 2: Students will be able to demonstrate skills needed to work effectively in different types of communities. The goal of this SLO is for students to develop skills (e.g., communication, observation, interview,…
The following rubric assesses SLO 3: Students will be able to evaluate how decisions impact the sustainability of communities. Students who rank highly on this rubric are able to evaluate how a variety of decisions that occur within and outside of…
The goal of this rubric is to assess the ways that students understand, apply, and communicate how their discipline can inform others to enhance community sustainability.
This tool provides instructors with a focused reflective activity that asks students to make connections between their course and a co-curricular activity. Reflection related to co-curricular activities gives students time and space to critically…
This tool provides an overview of concept maps, and how to use them. Concept maps (CMaps) are diagrams that represent organized knowledge. They are a useful tool for assessing student knowledge over the course of a project, module, or course. You can…
This is a collection of assignments about public transportation in Atlanta. The assignments are designed to 1) develop mapping and data analysis skills, 2) form an understanding of how MARTA is used today and how the system evolved to be in its…
Over the past decade public institutions have put considerable resources towards improving the quality and availability of civic data, such as budget and expenditure information, building permits, air quality readings, police incidents, and property…
Starting a community garden in an abandoned vacant lot is a good way to address blight in a neighborhood. This project builds on the dataset of Westside Atlanta property surveys and walks the students through the process of starting a community garden…
This is a collection of assignments around the problem of rodent infestation in cities, which has become a pressing problem following the mild winters in 2015-16. The assignments are designed to 1) develop mapping and data analysis skills, 2) give…
This is a collection of assignments about public transportation in Atlanta. The assignments are designed to 1) develop mapping and data analysis skills, 2) form an understanding of how MARTA is used today and how the system evolved to be in its…
The goal of the Map Room project is to develop local spaces for grassroots map-making, where people can creatively and collaboratively explore data. Conventional digital maps help people see rapid, large-scale social and environmental changes as they…
The University Barbershop stands at the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and James P Brawley Drive in Atlanta, GA. Established in 1956, it is one of the oldest barbershops in America. Today, it remains an important center where local boys…
The annotated case studies below are well-suited to courses across Georgia Tech that hope to engage their students in sustainability. Review the options available for your class, and don’t hesitate to recommend a new case study to SLS! …