Developed Summer 2021 by faculty Dr. Erin Kitt-Lewis, Assistant Research Professor, School of Nursing and Dr. William Doan, Professor of Theatre
Domains:
Health and Wellness (GHW), Social and Behavioral Sciences (GS)
The Reflection Themes Incorporated:
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- Personal and communal identity
- Creating and receiving empathy
- Recognizing the importance of telling one’s story and the stories of others
- Preparing students for global citizenship
Course Objectives
Understand the influence of performing arts to evoke feelings of empathy, inspiration, and motivation to shape change focused on climate change and environmental sustainability.
Explore the scientific evidence on the basic principles of climate change and environmental sustainability.
Explore the scientific evidence impact climate change and environmental sustainability have on physical and mental health.
Explore other sources of literature (e.g., popular media sources, gray literature, videos/ audio recordings, songs, poems) focused on individuals or a group of people who have been impacted by climate change or environmental health issues.
Translate climate change and environmental health issues into meaningful stories to invoke feelings of empathy, inspiration, or motivation for change.
Create visual media (e.g., poster, art piece, photograph) to promote sustainability efforts and empower the community to take action.
Disseminate an informational message using audio recording with the objective of raising awareness, changing public attitudes or behaviors toward climate change or environmental sustainability issues.
Evaluate personal experiences of efforts taken to have a positive impact on climate change and environmental sustainability
Create a mixed media product (short story, essay, monologue, skit) highlighting utopia or dystopia of what the world would be if the issues actions were taken to correct the issue or not taken and the issue continued.
Course Summary
Climate change (CC) is the greatest health crisis of the 21st century and requires collective action. The performing arts have the ability to elicit emotion to command attention and motivate the “We are” community to engage in climate action. This course highlights the importance of storytelling and provoking empathy for a relatable character, stimulate discourse, and uplift the voices from the local and global community. Students and community members hear the narratives of individuals struggling with the health impacts of global CC, which promote empathy and perception of a higher risk. General topics include but are not limited to: harmful environmental exposure and environmental hazards, natural disasters impact on health, vulnerable populations and environmental justice, physical and mental health effects, and food and water insecurities.
Course Overview
Climate change (CC), the greatest health crisis of the 21st century, threatens basic access to clean air, water, and food, yet it is often perceived as a distant threat, leading to despair. The intersection of CC and health is often overlooked. CC is the defining issue of our generation and requires collective action. Art speaks a universal language: promotes insights into the complex nature of the crisis, makes it more personal, and leads to increased preventive and restorative action. The performing arts have the ability to elicit emotion to command attention and motivate the “We are” community to engage in climate action. Climate Change and Story Telling was developed in collaboration between the Penn State Colleges of Nursing and Medicine.
This course highlights the importance of storytelling and provoking empathy for a relatable character, stimulate discourse, and uplift the voices from the local and global community. Students and community members hear the narratives of individuals struggling with the health impacts of global CC, which promotes empathy and perception of a higher risk. Climate Change and Story Telling uses several methods of learning to meet the course objectives. Students explore the scientific literature to gain an understanding of the basic principles of climate change and environmental sustainability and the impact these have on physical and mental health. General topics include but are not limited to: harmful environmental exposure and environmental hazards, natural disasters impact on health, vulnerable populations and environmental justice, physical and mental health effects, and food and water insecurities. Students identify and examine other sources, including but not limited to popular media sources, the gray literature, videos, and audio recordings, blogs, personal testimonials posted in on-line bulletin boards, songs, and poems, to learn about the experiences of individuals or groups affected by climate change and environmental health issues.
Outcomes include a writing assignment that summarizes the scientific evidence, popular opinions, and action taken around one climate change/environmental sustainable topic. The following resources are used to assist with the implementation of this assignment: instructor expertise, guest lecture and one-on-one consultation from Penn State Nursing and Allied Health Librarian, and guest lecture from a member of the Penn State Sustainability Institute. To gain an understanding of the influence performing arts can have on evoking feelings of empathy, inspiration, and motivation, the following resources will be used scientific evidence to support this notion; the expertise of Bill Doan, artist in residence in the College of Nursing serves as a co-instructor for the course; and exposure to performing arts opportunities, such as Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) and Small Islands Big Song. Dr. Doan holds mini-workshops on storytelling, autoethnography and ethnographic interviewing, monologue development, and scriptwriting. Outcomes include a writing assignment examining the scientific evidence to support the use of performing arts and two reflection essays describing their experience with a performing arts opportunity.
Students identify one environmental health issue and translate their knowledge to create a meaningful story(ies) to invoke feelings of empathy, inspiration, or motivation for change. Outcomes include a scripted narrative (story) that has been expressed as a monologue, brief play or short film that is meant to create empathy, inspiration or motivation from the audience. Students create an advertisement to promote their story or raise awareness of their environmental health issues. As part of their course work, students conduct weekly self-evaluations to capture their personal experiences as part of this course.
Students are asked to select one environmental health issue that they have reflected upon for the semester and submit an essay to WPSU, “This I Believe” Series. This project is not only informational but also provide an opportunity to raise awareness and change public attitudes or behaviors toward climate change or environmental sustainability issues. Finally, students create a mixed-media product describing a world that has resolved (utopia) or ignored (dystopia), their environmental health issues.
“In Humanities fields, students focus on exploring important works of literature, history, religion, philosophy, and other closely related forms of cultural expression, thereby broadening their understanding of diverse ways of seeing, thinking about, and experiencing the self and society. Students expand their knowledge of the world through encountering humanistic representations of both lived experiences and imaginative or speculative constructions, past or present. Students thus become increasingly prepared to live as thoughtfully engaged members of multiple communities, whether local, regional, or global.
Upon successful completion of the General Education Humanities (GH) requirement, students will have increased their abilities to: 1) Expand their knowledge of the variety of human experiences, specifically, recognizing the importance of storytelling as a time-honored, valuable tool that accommodates diverse voices and perspectives, can be presented in a variety of formats, share information, and provoke emotions or reactions to motivate change and creating and receiving empathy for those who are suffering from physical and mental health effects of climate change; recognizing the importance of telling stories of others; 2) Develop their competency in interpreting and critically evaluating diverse ways of life, traditions, and shared or individual values and identities, including their own; 3) Critically evaluate texts in the humanities– whether verbal, visual, or digital– and identify and explain moral or ethical dimensions within the disciplines of the humanities; 4) Demonstrate knowledge of major cultural currents, issues, and developments through time, including evidence of exposure to unfamiliar material that challenges their curiosity and stretches their intellectual range.
In Health and Wellness (HW) fields, students focus on the physical and psychosocial well-being of individuals and communities. They expand their theoretical and practical knowledge about HW—concepts that are multidimensional and culturally defined. Upon successful completion of the General Education Health and Wellness (GHW) requirement, students should have increased their abilities to: 1) Describe multiple perceptions and dimensions of HW (emotional, spiritual, environmental, physical, social, intellectual, and occupational); 2) Identify and explain ways individuals and/or communities can achieve and maintain HW; 3) Describe health-related risk factors and explain changes in knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, activities or skills that have the potential of improving HW, specifically, recognizing the physical and mental health effects of climate change for individuals and local/global community; 4) Disseminate knowledge about HW through storytelling and demonstrate behavioral practices needed to engage in healthy living across the lifespan in preparing students for global citizenship.
In Natural Science fields, students develop the skills necessary to make informed judgments about scientific information and arguments. Along with building knowledge of foundational scientific principles, students expand their understanding of how and why science works, why it is an effective tool for knowledge generation, and how it can address contemporary questions and challenges. Upon successful completion of the General Education (GN) requirement, students should have increased their abilities to: 1) Explain the methods of inquiry in the natural science fields and describe how the contributions of these fields complement inquiry in other areas, including learning the scientific processes behind climate change and their health effects, translating those outcomes into stories and storytelling to create/receive empathy for others, and sample some of the ways in which science offers an additional lens through which to view the human condition including personal and community identity and their emotions; 2) Identify societal or philosophical implications of discoveries in the natural sciences, as well as their potential to address contemporary problems and prepare students for global citizenship.
In Social and Behavioral Science fields, students focus on analyzing the forces that influence behaviors, values, habits, attitudes, and institutions. GS courses allow students to explore multiple perspectives and methodologies useful in analyzing and addressing complex social issues. Upon successful completion of the General Education Social and Behavioral Sciences (GS) requirement, students should have increased their abilities to: 1) Explore the interrelationships of the many factors that shape behavior including personal and community identity and connecting with others based on storytelling and evoking empathy to empower change; 2) Expand their understanding of and recognize how social, political, and economic influences and trends affect individual, group, organizational, local, national, and global contexts.
Activities
Climate Change and Story Telling provides opportunities that allow for engagement with the Center for Performing Arts and visiting artists both through performance and class engagement. Depending on the semester, students will be required to attend the performances offered by the visiting artists, such as Fandango for Butterflies (and Coyotes) performed by En Garde Arts or Marvelous Order, Small Islands Big Song Performance, or additional performances. Assignments related to these performances and include scientific writing, essays, journaling, and scripted storytelling or performance pieces, such as a monologue, short play or film, and audio recorded informational essay. These outcomes are meant to create empathy, inspiration or motivation from the audience.
While several mediums are used for Climate Change and Story Telling, storytelling is the underlying theme. This course highlights the importance of storytelling and provoke empathy, inspiration, and motivation. Stories are particularly valuable because they are accessible, enlightening, versatile, and effective. Everyone has a story, and stories about the impact of climate change are becoming increasingly important. Storytelling is a time-honored way of sharing information and knowledge, and it is a potent means of knowing. Stories can be told in a number of ways and presented in a variety of formats. They accommodate diverse voices and perspectives. Stories are more likely than other forms of information to be remembered, provoke emotions or reactions, and motivate action. Storytelling allows students to create relatable characters, stimulate discourse, create narrative scripts, and uplift the voices from the local and global community. Through storytelling, the “audience” hears patients struggling with the health impacts of global CC, which promotes empathy and perception of a higher risk.
In addition, videos and audio recordings, songs, and poems are used to help students build a foundation of knowledge of what individuals experience related to CC and environmental health issues. Students create an advertisement to promote their story or environmental health cause. If available, visiting artists are invited into the classroom to serve as an audience and evaluate/critique the student performances (storytelling).