GRASP: Testing an Integrated Approach to Sustainability Education

In this paper, we introduce and present a preliminary case study of the Guided Research Applied Sustainability Project (GRASP) model for sustainability education, which was designed to integrate campus research, engagement, and operations into curriculum in a way that can be carried out in a large public university setting. Universities have access to a variety of sources of capital in the drive towards sustainability – engaged students with the desire to both learn and serve, faculty experts with existing research lines, external partnerships in the local and global community, and an entire campus system (e.g. water, energy, food, buildings, grounds) available for educational and research experimentation (Cantor, 1995). Service-learning models, for example, integrate the engagement and curriculum domains (AASHE, 2010; Barth & Tim, 2011), the model of the ‘campus as living laboratory’ integrates research and operations (Orr, 2011; Seif Hattan, Feder, Naik. et al., 2010), independent study models integrate the research and curriculum domains (Buckholz, 2013) and campus greening initiatives integrate operations and engagement (Beringer and Adombent, 2008). Service learning, for example, matches local community needs with student learning to achieve mutual benefit (Hayes & King, 2006).