International Symposium on Sustainable Systems & Technologies (ISSST)

June 16, 2020

Presenter: Don Sweet, CEO, Sustainable Intelligence LLC, [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Creating a New Educational Paradigm: Where students drive their own acquisition of embodied cognition and agencies for self-determining their own wellbeing in the world and their “intention-mediated attention,” a component of both theories of agency and action, is essential and demonstrated in their entrepreneurial artifacts.

The increasingly complex and rapidly evolving interdependencies of Sociological, Ecological, and Technological Systems (SETS) that characterize post-industrial societies pose tremendous challenges to current educational institutions. Many of today’s students graduate into a “gig” economy that our current education systems have failed to prepare them for. What these students need are the adaptive and entrepreneurial skills necessary to function in a global marketplace for labor, where they will be required to innovate, adapt, and accept responsibility for sometimes chaotic, non-linear, or disrupted career and life trajectories.

While their parents could be successful as lifelong learners, today’s students must become lifelong innovators. While the current educational paradigm emphasizes efficient knowledge transfer from experts to pupils through silos, the increasing complexity of today’s problems require students to respond more quickly by mastering the constant transdisciplinary knowledge transformation – including knowledge co-creation, innovation, and embodiment in action. Although these are rarely incorporated into public school education, each of these dynamic knowledge paradigms share characteristics with processes in Nature and can be taught through collaborative entrepreneurship experiences.

By incorporating principles, experiences, and mastery of the skills of sustainability entrepreneurship education, graduates become part of, and shape, school, family, community, business, and global socio-techno cognitive infrastructures. Fostering the development of such a STEM ecosystem that unities communities will drive continuous knowledge-creation, adaptive-innovation, and resiliency-building at personal, social and SETS levels. Such students have both academic and complementary entrepreneurship skills that add value to their own lives and others.

Sustainable Intelligence and Rochester Roots are expanding the educational paradigm from teacher knowledge-transfer to student-driven acquisition of agencies for constant transdisciplinary knowledge transformation – including knowledge co-creation, innovation, and embodiment in action through implementation of entrepreneurial products, services and businesses that “Add Value to Life:”

This workshop invites your critique of three learning processes frameworks, embedded in an online learning system, SEEKRSTM, that make this new educational paradigm more resilient. We will be focusing prototypically on students in grades three to six and that are extensible to teachers, communities, and businesses.

1. Co-Evolving Learning Processes: Model-Based Inquiry and Project-Based Learning

2. Adaptive & Reflective Learning Processes: Emergent curriculum and Socratic questions

3. Outcomes Focused Learning Processes: Real-time assessment, Transparent rubrics, and Career Micro-Credentials, eResume and ePortfolio:

Note: Student embodied agency outcomes can be seen in artifact examples at: https://www.rochesterroots.org/see-entrepreneurs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUn0XIl-2DM

ISSST 2020 Video Presentation

2015 & 2018

The ISSST is the premier conference for research related to the sustainability of science and technology systems. The program covers the spectrum of issues for assessing and managing products and services across their life cycle, and the design, management and policy implications of sustainable engineered systems and technologies. 

Jan McDonald, Executive Director's abstract submission was accepted for a Presentation and Poster session focused on "Bringing Science to Life:" A Collaborative Approach to Sustainability Education in Montessori Grades Pre-K--6 Where Students, Teachers, Citizens, College Students, PhDs and Businesses Learn Together.

Don Sweet, CEO, Sustainable Intelligence, LLC was accepted for the ISSST 2018 Poster Session and Presentation focused on: Sustainability Education & Entrepreneurship (SEE). A new-knowledge process in the face of complexity and accelerating change for children in grades PreK – 6.

March 2016

WiSE Professionals: Collaborative model of sustainability education, SUNY Environmental Science & Forestry.

July 2011

Growing together with the three sisters, ROOTS led conference featuring author Lynne Cherry, Marcia Eames-Sheavly and Jan McDonald.