Experience with on the ground environmental projects is a powerful approach for students to build the skills needed as environmental professionals. Frequently, however, undergraduate students struggle to address complex projects, instead tending to “jump in” and wanting to do “do stuff”. Design thinking is a systems approach which can be applied to environmental projects, providing a project flow beginning with first understanding both the ecology of a system and stakeholder needs and values, then defining the project goal through preliminary exploration, testing ideas, assessing outcomes, then repeating the cycle using empathy with stakeholders as a guide. The 4DEE framework for ecology education complements the Design Thinking model by identifying knowledge and skills that contribute to the Design Thinking process. We applied Design Thinking to teach the project- based senior seminar, Environmental Assessment and Project Development, to Environmental Studies students at Elon University. Student teams addressed projects which were community based to include stakeholders and a range of environmental systems. Each project lasted one semester of 3 ½ months. We compared a Design Thinking approach to a traditional linear model of project management, where students were assessed for their ability to shape and manage the project and project outcomes.
Results/Conclusions
This class has been team taught by the same two faculty, an ecologist and an English professor, for the past 9 years. Students taking the class in fall 2016, 2017 and 2018 (86 students, 17 projects) were compared with students taking the class in fall 2013, 2014 and 2015 (95 students, 22 projects). The earlier cohort of students developed community based environmental projects using similar techniques, but a more linear approach based only on development of a project management plan and traditional literature reviews. Students were assessed on ability to work closely with stakeholders, clear identification of the project goals, development of appropriate project management plans, use of research and relevant literature, documentation, use of adaptive management, and project outcomes. These assessments were tied to the 4DEE compartments of ecology concepts, ecology practices and human-environment interactions. Students using the Design Thinking approach scored higher on all assessment criteria. We propose that as we prepare undergraduate students to serve as professional environmental practitioners, Design Thinking provides a teaching approach that can build skills and ways to approaching projects needed in the ecological professions.