Abstract
An interdisciplinary course titled Issues in Ecology and Environment was developed and taught by an anthropologist and an oceanographer at Florida Gulf Coast University beginning spring 1998. Focusing on cognate interdisciplinary competencies rather than diverging disciplinary content, this collaboration also yielded working definitions of several integrating learning outcomes—an ecological perspective being chief among these. As part of the course development, authentic assessments, cooperative group activities, and opportunities for experi-ential learning using ecosystems located on campus were developed. Post-assessment debriefings were used to solicit student feedback as part of a continuous improvement model for the course. By structuring the course to target learning outcomes that transcended disciplinary traditions, the instructors were able to look beyond disciplinary barriers toward a point of convergence and benefit from the new perspective. STUDENT IN THE FIRST OFFERING of a team-taught course called Issues in Ecology and Environment wrote the following: I can't place myself nicely into the underlying values of either the western or deep ecology paradigms, my beliefs would overlap into both camps.. .. I'm blindly optimistic about our human ability to respond to crisis with technological solutions. I'm a capitalist in business and I promote a sense of community and country. On the other hand, in relation to the deep ecology paradigm, I am a deeply spiritual person who sees harmony with nature as an ideal.. .. I realize too that even seemingly blissful nature is riddled with killing and dominance