All FEWS trainees must take five FEWS courses as an interdisciplinary cohort (7 credits total) to complement their disciplinary training. The core courses are all designed to support online delivery and participation and once completed a FEWS certificate will be awarded from the USF graduate school.  Trainees from different disciplines will interact with each other on a regular    basis, building  greater understanding of each other’s viewpoints while at the same time striving towards integrated, real-world approaches to FEWS challenges with the potential for long-term success.

Systems Thinking & Practices (0 cr, required by all trainees)

The NRT trainees will be required to take the free open, 8 hour course titled “Systems thinking and practices” offered through the Open University before the course “FEWS Global” proposed in the proposal. This online course will focus on different types of thinking, the problems of defining a system, key concepts involved in systems thinking such as feedback. The course will prepare trainees in qualitative aspect of system modeling. Trainees will not receive credit for this course and will be encouraged to take it during the Christmas break prior to the “FEWS Global” course.

Systems Thinking at the Food Energy Water Nexus (3 credits, CGN6933 & ANG 5937, required by all trainees)

Students will be trained to use a transdisciplinary approach to define food, water, and energy systems using a community engaged perspective while also applying systems thinking to describe the interdependencies of such systems and identify different leverage points associated with technology, sociopolitical relations, and organizations.  A semester project requires students to engage with context-specific food-energy-water community-driven research focused on a particular field site. Topics include exploration of global food-energy-water research in multiple disciplines, social science methods and effective community engagement, and systems approaches, resulting in a systems model that integrates sociocultural, biophysical, and technological factors through research design and community engagement.

After studying this course, a should be able to:

• display confidence in using systems concepts and language
• describe accurately the set of key systems concepts
• understand what is distinctive about systems thinking as opposed to other forms of thinking
• understand how systems thinking is useful in analysing and improving situations
• understand the notion of a system as a creation of the observer, i.e. as an intellectual construct, as opposed to using the term system in other ways, i.e. as entities that exist ‘out there’.

System Modeling of the Environment (3 credits, required by engineering trainees)

The course will be a 2-week intensive summer class including lectures, labs and group projects. The course will provide trainees with knowledge and practical skills to systematically analyze environmental, social, and economic systems. The course will introduce trainees to system modeling software, such as Vensim (system dynamics modeling), help trainees understand how to model systems through case studies (e.g., the Mono Lake Case, Epidemic dynamics, the salmon case) and gain system modeling skills through labs and group projects. We expect to produce our own case studies from this NRT as time progresses. The trainees will gain familiarity with the modeling software and be able to build a working model related to their research. This will be a new course added to the curriculum to increase the quantitative computation-systems training component.

The NRT trainees will be provided the opportunities to participate in the 1-day modeling workshop before the annual International System Dynamics conference to get more exposure to modeling and have their models critiqued by the experts. Budget is included for trainees to attend conferences.

FEWS Global Field Study (Credits vary, required by all trainees)

A field component will be offered to trainees and other interested students through USF Education Abroad to train students to understand how culture and practice differ in an international setting and experience working in cross-cultural interdisciplinary teams.

The goal for the field study is to apply interdisciplinary and systems-based training to formulate research and identify solutions to complex ridge to reef FEWS problems by working with community partners to apply principles of engineering, science, and mathematics in an international location.

After taking this course a student should be able to:

• apply interdisciplinary and systems-based training in the international location
• identify context-appropriate methods (e.g. engineering, science, and mathematics) to conceptualize research and solutions to complex ridge to reef FEWS problems
• develop a conceptual systems model of the factors and dynamics of a FEWS problem and solution
• partner with community members in the international location to elicit feedback on the conceptual model to iterate and co-create a community-informed systems model.

Envision Sustainable Communities (3 credits, required by anthropology and marine science trainees).

One of the 14 grand challenges for engineering in the US is to “restore and improve urban infrastructure.” The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) says 3.6 trillion dollars is needed by 2020 to improve US infrastructure, currently graded as D+. Envision, a new sustainable infrastructure rating system that applies to project design, construction, and operation, is gaining use across the US for improved infrastructure, and the Inter American Development Bank has piloted application of the certification to some of its projects in the Caribbean and Latin America region. The criteria used—called “credits”—are arranged in five categories: Quality of Life, Leadership, Resource Allocation, Natural World, and Climate and Risk. The Goal of this course is to correctly apply the ENVISION rating system to infrastructure projects in partnership with community partners.

After taking this course a student should be able to:

• Obtain ENVISION certification
• Apply concepts of ENVISION to local case studies
• Engage with community partners to identify challenges and opportunities with the local case studies & make recommendations for improvement
• Discuss group projects with community partners & other audiences using appropriate communication pathways, including an online blog
• Create an e-portfolio that includes her/his CV, blog posts and inclusion of skills gained on a professional LinkedIn page.

Leadership Training (1 credit, required by all trainees). 

Leadership training that allows successful transitions and longevity within the professional career is a vital component of student training not often developed in traditional pedagogical models. In this new class, each participant will receive leadership and professional development training on how to support and use the network of other participants, creating a better prepared workforce and linked network of scientists and practitioners which can support innovative strategies towards systems-thinking and community engaged research of FEWS. A combination of Elinor Ostrom’s theory on governing the commons (McGinnis and Ostrom 2007) and a version of change theory focused on smaller social groups (Katz et al. 2004) will be used. Adaptive, transformational, and solidarity leadership will guide supportive connections between faculty, government, and NGO’S, private industry, and students within STRONG-CFEWS (Kan and Parry 2004; Sanders and Schyns 2006; Heifetz et al. 2009; Charbonnier-Voirin and Roussel 2012). Courses for the students and short course training modules for professional and academic partners will develop small networks of individuals, linked to the larger STRONG-CFEWS network. This approach is currently being implemented and tested at UVI towards broadening participation in the Geosciences through the NSF GOLD grant (Grant 1355437, 2016-2019, PI: Kirsch, Co-PI: Habtes).