InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Major Storms and Community Resilience > Instructor Stories > Patricia Stapleton
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Initial Publication Date: July 26, 2017

Patricia Stapleton: Using Major Storms and Community Resilience in American Public Policy at Worcester Polytechnic Institute


About this Course

An introductory course for all majors; often taken to fulfill general social science requirement.

39
students

Two 110 minute lecture sessions
per week for 7 weeks

American Public Policy Syllabus (Acrobat (PDF) 74kB Jun21 16)

A Success Story in Building Student Engagement

Students often take my public policy class to fulfill a basic social science requirement at our science and engineering institution. As a result, I wanted to provide my science and engineering majors with content that would engage them and demonstrate the links between policy and their other studies. The Major Storms and Community Resilience module provided the opportunity to bring geoscience data into my social science classroom, with an interdisciplinary approach.



The students responded positively to the module, especially the town hall debate. Although they were initially reluctant about the debate format - mostly worried about speaking in front of their classmates - the teams did an excellent job of representing their interests and negotiating with other groups to come to shared recommendations.
The final papers demonstrated that students had worked hard to craft thoughtful policy recommendations in a community context.

My Experience Teaching with InTeGrate Materials

The original materials had too many activities for our intended timeline of 3 weeks. Due to time constraints, I did not implement the Coastal Erosion Activity or the Debris Removal Activity.

Relationship of InTeGrate Materials to my Course

My course runs for a 7-week term (~1/2 a traditional semester). The module was implemented in the 2nd Spring term at WPI (March-May 2016). The first half of the course focused on establishing the basic theories and concepts of American public policy. The module was incorporated as an in-depth case study to demonstrate theoretical and conceptual application. The course also focused on the role of scientific experts in public policymaking and the importance of risk assessment, risk management, and resilience in policy processes. Thus, the module gave students the opportunity to explore policymaking approaches in a real-world policy issue area.

Assessments

The town hall debate and final policy paper were an excellent assessment of students' gains over the course of the term. They brought together the three interdisciplinary strands (geoscience, public policy, and emergency management), and showed students how natural hazard risk assessment and management is a collection of many stakeholders and positions. Students enjoyed talking through their ideas in the town hall format. Moving forward, I will use the Talking Points assignment as scaffolding to help students develop their positions for the debate and final paper.

Outcomes

The goal of using this module in my American Public Policy class was to provide a policy issue area that students could explore in-depth. In addition, I wanted something to demonstrate the role of scientific expertise in public policymaking, and the role of politics even in an issue area that seems non-contentious (like weather). The students' final papers went beyond expectations: incorporating data, showing evidence-based support, and considering policymaking from a holistic perspective.

Classroom Context

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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »