Sustainability in the Curriculum

While sustainability shows up in all classes and in all departments at Darrow, it does not appear the same in each of these venues. For some departments, integration of sustainability is environmental, while other classes explore it in a political, economic, or social context. Some classes look at global issues, while others consider local issues. The combination of views offers students and teachers the opportunity to make sustainability real and sensible.

In non-classroom settings, sustainability takes many forms. A strong recycling program in classrooms, offices, and dorms is managed by a Hands-to-Work crew, as is a composting program that takes food scraps from the dining room and creates organic fertilizer that is used in the School's gardens. Concerned students sponsor energy competitions between dorms to see which group can reduce their energy consumption the most.

A food waste study conducted by a math class, offers students opportunities to use real-world data for their schoolwork. They then create displays and communicate their analyses to the rest of the Darrow community.

An interdisciplinary project following the devastation of the Tsunami in Indonesia and Southeast Asia provided the opportunity for students in Land Use Management, Ethics, and College Math to prepare and present a program to the entire school on the scientific, social, economic, and ethical aspects of the event, reflecting the multiple prongs of the sustainability paradigm.