CIE 359LEC—Sustainability in Latin America: A Case Study in Costa Rica

CIE 359 is designed to expose students to sustainability issues that are under-appreciated or not relevant in the US, including eco-tourism, monoculture (e.g., coffee, bananas, pineapples), renewable energy (e.g., hydroelectric, wind, geothermal), and societal issues (e.g., social healthcare, immigration). Student participants will be tasked with considering the full life-cycle impacts of each component of the trip. Daily group reflections and personal journals will provide the wider context of the experiences and encourage students to approach sustainability with an open mind. The program provides students an opportunity to directly engage with real-world examples of sustainability, simultaneously teaching them to be comfortable in unfamiliar (and potentially uncomfortable!) situations abroad. Themed around agriculture, energy, and eco-tourism, topics particularly unique to Costa Rica, students will participate in regionally specific tours, lectures, workshops, discussions, outdoor activities, assignments, and reflections intended to highlight sustainability in practice. By getting out of the classroom and engaging with science and engineering practitioners (displaying both good and bad examples of sustainability), the trip will foster a deeper understanding of the oft-discussed but rarely understood concept. Students are challenged to engage with the local culture and economy while considering what it truly means to be sustainable.