EES Course Coordinator and Lecturer

Courses taught: Introduction to Earth & Environmental Sciences, Resources & Sustainability, Natural Heritage Interpretation

What motivates you to teach in the EES major at UCF?

Teaching at the UCF is not only passing on knowledge from lecturer to students. It also offers the opportunity to explore contemporary questions related to EES, together with students. The emphasis thereby does not lie in always finding the right answer or solution, but rather in how to approach questions and problems from different perspectives. Furthermore, I like to work with students from different nationalities and cultural backgrounds because their different viewpoints and perception of issues related to EES are a great asset when exploring contemporary environmental issues also in a global context.

Please describe briefly the subject you teach within EES.

The subjects I currently teach and will teach in the near future at the UCF deal with sustainability and life cycle assessments. I will also focus on topics such as renewable resources, energy conversion systems, waste management and vegetation mapping.

What about your course and your field of expertise do you consider particularly relevant to the vast field of EES?

I consider my background in biology with a focus on ecology and botany as a good basis to understand different environmental processes. Additionally, my PhD in the field of renewable energy systems reflects my broad and interdisciplinary knowledge, which can be of advantage when dealing with environmental issues also from different perspectives e.g. as an engineer or as an environmental scientist.

Do you have anything else to share about your course and studying EES?

I truly believe that a good basic knowledge in EES is important to understand different processes and topics in that field. However, I do not think that a focus only on EES-related content is always the key to success or to the best understanding of the field. In EES, so many topics are interrelated to other disciplines, including those offered at the UCF, e.g. by combining the natural sciences with the social sciences to focus on environmental governance. Since students not only learn content during their courses, but also how to critically reflect and question issues related to EES, they are provided with important knowledge and skills that are also transferrable, such as in interdisciplinary master programs and further career opportunities.

UCF Website: http://www.ucf.uni-freiburg.de/people/

University contact: sabine.sane[at]ucf.uni-freiburg.de