CAPPL 3150 Politics and Climate Change: Learning through Games
This course has an interdisciplinary focus on environmental science, international politics, and learning through games. Through a series of complex and immersive role-playing games, students will develop a set of critical thinking skills around the topics of climate change and environmental degradation, with a focus on applying ethical reasoning and global perspectives to the complex process of negotiating multinational treaties aimed at mitigating the impact of climate change. This course requires students to engage with multiple perspectives on environmental science, including those opposed to international treaties and those who cast doubt on the science grounding the policy efforts. It addresses the science behind global environmental problems; environmental justice and its relationship to histories of imperialism, colonialism, and oppressive non-development; and the political realities of negotiating international treaties. At the end of the course, students will develop their own educational game focused on an environmental problem of their choice.
This is an Applications course that fulfills the Applications Course General Education requirement. It aligns with the Foundational Outcomes of Quantitative Reasoning; Communication; and Collaboration; as well as the main block outcomes of Ethical Reasoning, Social Action and Civic Engagement; and Human Relationships to the Natural and Physical World.