Inside ARTS 390: The Wicked Problem with Climate Change

UW strives on innovation, so much so that they held first place for the most innovative university in Maclean’s 2022 ranking. The university is no stranger to initiatives that introduce complexity to the learning environment. Take the Teaching Innovation Incubator (TII), for example. It is a new unit with one of its first projects to give PhD candidates a chance to collaborate with different candidates from other faculties to design a course. The Wicked Problem with Climate Change (ARTS 390) is the most recent course introduced by the TII, available for students in 3A or higher. It is on its third iteration. Kyle Scholz, interim managing director for the TII said, “Each iteration is new in the way it is designed, in the sense that there is always a group of interdisciplinary PhD candidates who come together and must design the course from the ground up because of who they are.”  

Each run of this course provides a new perspective to students as it is taught by different PhD candidates with differing fields. There are three PhD candidates chosen to develop and teach the most recent iteration of this course: Tara Chen, Timothy Shardlow, and Fatima Suleiman. Tara Chen is a PhD candidate in geographies of health in place, planning and public health lab at the department of geography and environment management in the faculty of environment. Her research is about “nature-based social prescribing, climate-health impacts, health literacy, and cross-sectoral collaborations.” Timothy Shardlow is a PhD candidate in the Müller Lab from the biology department. His research is about “cyanobacteria within drinking water reservoirs impacted by climate change, which can cause challenge to drinking water treatment.” Fatima Suleiman is a PhD candidate in the department of mechanical and mechatronics engineering. Her research is about “improving temperature measurement for advanced high-strength steels, helping the automotive industry provide lighter, more fuel-efficient vehicles that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” 

What are these three PhD candidates’ visions for the Wicked Problem with Climate Change? This course explores climate change from multiple perspectives. Thanks to the three instructors, students can learn about climate change from the view of the environment, health, society, culture, humanities, technology, and economies. Not to mention the many sciences involved like applied, social, and health sciences. Students will be given the chance to develop various solutions to the many aspects of climate change. Climate change is an issue that not only impacts the environment but tangles many parts of society in its effects. This is something that interests Suleiman: “I think up until now, as an undergrad student, they are probably used to taking information in silence, but helping them connect how things play into one another, I think it’s something they haven’t thought about. Helping them get tons of moments where they see why climate change is indeed a wicked problem and how an interdisciplinary lens will be required to come up with mitigation and adaptation pathways.” This gives reason for the name of the course being The Wicked Problem of Climate Change, as the course overview explains “wicked problems resist definition, are mixed up with other problems, and cannot be solved in a way that is simple or final.” This course is also a blended course (BLND) which involves both online and in-class learning.  

Until now, I’m sure many students have taken most of their classes strictly within their faculty, surrounded by other students in the same faculty. This course is open to students of all faculties, which is something that is quite exciting for the instructors and beneficial to students. “We had maybe a couple of courses that you could meet other students, but nothing like this, so it’s unique and I think that really shows that reality of what’s going to happen after you graduate. If you want to work in this climate change space, you need to be able to work across faculty and it’s so important to have,” Chen said. 

For each class, there will be more than one instructor present. Sometimes it will be two or three, but never one by themselves, as Shardlow outlines, “The idea right now is that for each class, one of us might be the lead while the second instructor or third instructor might be there as support or to help facilitate whatever we’re going through that day.” Furthermore, Chen adds, “We know that sometimes when there’s multiple instructors, we don’t want students to feel that the cohesiveness disappears and so we make sure that content — that cohesiveness — is really integrated in, so the students don’t feel detached from seeing one instructor one week and then never seeing somebody else in another week.”  

Special thanks from the instructors for their support throughout this process goes to Jerika Sanderson, another PhD candidate and past instructor in English language and literature and Monika Soczenwinski, education developer with the Centre for Teaching Excellence. 

If you miss the opportunity to add the course during course selection, the drop/add period begins on July 18 until July 24 for new students. For all undergraduate students, the swap/add period begins on July 24 until September 17.