Our students have a privileged position in history. Our society has an unprecedented concentration of material and informational wealth. Our economy and military power dominate the planet. Hence the consequences of our actions, as informed by our values and beliefs, will ramify extensively. Among our first messages to the students is a statement of mutual responsibility, first, for their semester experience, and subsequently, for Earth's future.
Skills are more important than facts.
Managing and adapting to team dynamics are essential for a successful project. Hierarchy Theory provides a mode to describe complex systems in useful ways. I use a simplified approach to describe our Earth Semester Sense of Place module. The phenomenon is a created experience that transforms students' perceptions and abilities. Feedback occurs via student evaluations, responses from their home institutions, and ultimately from student recruitment and tuition revenue.