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Lecture
Are Humans Natural? Part 3: Nature Relatedness and the American Dream
Open Educational Resources
  • Nathan Ruhl, Rowan University
  • Taylor Dobson, Rowan University
Description

This learning module is part of a series of activities designed to encourage students to develop relational values with nature. In this activity, students reflect on their relationship with nature and consider the impact of their plans/goals for the future on the environment and the larger goal of sustainability. Students evaluate their relationship with nature through the Nature Relatedness (NR-6) Test (Nisbet and Zelenski, 2013), compare their NR-6 score to others, consider how their goals (“dreams”) are related to the American Dream, and speculate on the attainability of sustainability given our individually driven goals for the future. This activity challenges students to consider whether their individual dreams for the future are compatible with a sustainable interaction between humans and nature.

Publication Date
9-9-2019
Subject
Nature; Environmental ethics; Values;
Document Type
Curricular Materials
Disciplines
DOI
10.31986/issn.2689-0690_rdw.oer.1015
Comments

This learning module was developed as part of a 2018-2019 NEH Human Connections grant to Rowan University faculty titled Cultivating the Environmental Humanities. This content is copyright 2019 by the author and must be properly attributed (see Recommended Citation). Contact the author for reuse permission.

Creative Commons License
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
Citation Information
Nathan Ruhl and Taylor Dobson. "Are Humans Natural? Part 3: Nature Relatedness and the American Dream" (2019)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/nathan-ruhl/26/