Mathematics and statistics are crucial components when it comes to understanding sustainability. Whether it’s gender equality or biodiversity, these fields rely heavily on numerical data and analysis. Integrating assignments that involve mathematics and statistics can help students see the connections between sustainability and their field of study.

Instructional methods for classroom settings

• Using real-world case studies and simulators to gamify instructional methods.
• Engaging in collaborative projects, such as crafting action plans to mitigate climate change effects.
• Employing mathematical concepts, tools, and skills for analysis (performing and presenting it), including equation-based analysis and applied calculus.
• Incorporating online quizzes to foster civil discourse and enhance decision-making skills.
• Conducting data collection and subsequent analysis, such as examining historical carbon dioxide levels or measuring greenhouse gas emissions.

Resources

For specificity, several intriguing resources are available:

Visualize

Food and carbon footprint calculators offer insights into the environmental impact of daily activities. Students could discover that consuming one or two glasses of wine per week is comparable to emitting 24 kilograms of greenhouse gases annually, driving 100 kilometres by car, or heating a house for three days. They could delve deeper into analyzing the environmental impact and digital footprint of cryptocurrency.

Simulators like EN-ROADS allow interactive exploration of parameter changes and their effects on temperature rise. Visit the website and video demo for more information.

Discuss

Quiz projects like Drawdown rank solutions to climate change, facilitating discussions and providing hope amidst environmental challenges. Further reflection on the numbers and perhaps ensuing presentations are interesting instructional activities.

Map

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) provide visual data support for statistical analysis, ranging from local to global scales.

• ESRI Interactive geographical maps for public policy (USA): These maps offer visual support derived from the USA Census and can be utilized by anyone. They provide accurate and authoritative data on various aspects such as environment, infrastructure, social justice, health, economic opportunity, public safety, and natural resources. Students have the opportunity to visualize data that can be used for statistical analysis.
• Living Atlas offers global-scale data, not limited to the USA, including the Social Vulnerability Index. This resource allows users to map variables such as income, broadband internet access, and poverty status, among others.

Teach

Interdisciplinary Teaching about Earth for a Sustainable Future (InTeGrate) teaching materials offer peer-reviewed resources tailored to sustainability topics and academic subjects. It includes lesson plans for various disciplines but especially strong on geosciences and STEM. Teaching materials are available for Mathematics and for Statistics.

Moreover, examples of assignments, inspired by Paul Hawken’s (2017) Drawdown, and shared by Dr. Almomani, Associate Professor of Mathematics, Geneseo, NY, include:

• Group projects on fish sustainability and species extinction, utilizing differential equations for analysis. Students have to perform the requisite analysis of the equation and to properly convey technical information, or show Equilibrium Solutions.
• Assignments on compost investment and waste reduction strategies, employing applied calculus and data integration. After providing context to raise awareness, students will apply calculus to create a graph using curve fitting and trend line functions in Excel. They will utilize integration concepts to determine the total compost amount and gather data on CO2 emissions from tools such as watchmywaste.com. Subsequently, students will formulate recommendations for waste reduction on campus.
• Numerical analysis tasks, including Numerical Approximation, related to windmill electric power and solar collector design.
• Exploration of real-world applications of linear algebra.

Can numbers, algebra and trigonometry save the planet?

Experts speak about this:

• The mathematics of climate change. In this video segment, Dr. Budd, Gresham College, describes how  mathematical and physical models work and the assumptions that go into them. He will discuss how reliable our predictions of climate change are, and show how mathematicians can give us insights into both past and future.
• University of Waterloo’s Faculty of Mathematics, and their department of Applied Mathematics, is home to experts in climate change. Consult their website for more information and for finding like-minded peers.
• How mathematics can contribute to the climate change debate. In his 2021 article, University College London Professor Ted Johnson explains how a collaboration with Florida State University could help make climate change predictions cheaper and more widely accessible.
• Seven ways math can save the world. Blog post on a panel discussion hosted by the Grantham Institute, Imperial College London, in 2016.