The Ross Institute is developing an innovative sustainability curriculum based on the Ross Learning System and the Circles of Social Life approach.
Project Circles Sustainability Interactive
The Project Circles website/app guides students in collaboratively assessing the sustainability of a selected location. It can be used for either for the contemporary period or for chosen historical periods. Through research, investigation, and fieldwork, students determine how the chosen location rates in terms of sustainable culture, politics, ecology, and economics. They note how they arrived at the ratings and generate a profile circle as a visual representation of their findings, including the connections among the four areas assessed. The final part involves engaging in systems-based activism aimed at change in an area marked by a critically low level of sustainability.
Click here for an example of a sustainability assessment done by Ross School students of their town, East Hampton, New York, USA. Other assessments are being done of contemporary Zavora, Mozambique; Whangarei, New Zealand: and the Aztec Empire, Mexico, in the fifteenth century.
The Ross Learning System
The Ross Learning System is a comprehensive, interdisciplinary curriculum system for all grades to Year Twelve. The system includes teacher and student materials, assessments, and professional development curriculum. With a focus on sustainability and a systems-thinking perspective, the Ross Learning System is designed to prepare learners to address the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly complex, globally connected future. The curriculum is based on over two decades of educational research and practical implementation. The Ross Learning System offers courses across eight integrated disciplines. Each course includes learning experiences, assessments, integrated projects, and all student and teacher resources necessary to teach the Ross Spiral Curriculum.
The Ross Institute aspires to make the Ross Learning System available to students across the globe. The Sustainability curricular thread and interactive tools are accessible to all at no cost, serving as a call to action for teachers and students worldwide.
RLS Sustainability Interactive
Ross Learning System website
Ross Institute website