A new interdisciplinary elective at Drexel University is arming students with the information they need to become change agents in the fight against climate change. Offered for the first time in the 2021 winter term, the class, “Project Drawdown: Reversing Global Warming,” is led by Jason Baxter, PhD, professor of chemical and biological engineering, and focuses on Drawdown, a book and website that quantifies the potential impacts of the top 100 solutions to climate change, to help us understand where our actions have the most leverage.
“In a lot of ways, you don’t always know what you should be doing to fight climate change,” Baxter says. “Alternative fuels, solar panels, windmills – these are big picture solutions, but is there a set of instructions for the individual level? Project Drawdown explores both solutions that we can act on as individuals and solutions at the level of industry and government.”
The course is open to all majors and levels, including graduate students. The class participants are asked to think critically about the solutions proposed by the book and explain their evaluation of it to their peers. A significant portion of students’ grades is based on a final project, where participants pitch their own solutions for the environmental challenges to the class. When Baxter ran a pilot version of the class for students in Drexel’s Pennoni Honors College, final projects included community educational posters and an Instagram account that promoted vegan recipes.
“When students have some freedom to frame their own projects, they’re that much more passionate about them,” Baxter says. “I want them to leave this class as advocates.”