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1. Math &
Sustainability
Fall 2019 Sabbatical
Caroline Goodman

2. Sabbatical Proposal
approved in Fall 2018
A collection of activities, connecting mathematics with
sustainability issues, will be created and stored
electronically in the JCCC Math Collaboratory for all
math faculty to access.
This sabbatical will be used to research, find and
evaluate available resources, and assemble
engaging and enriching activities for students in a
variety of courses.

3. Sabbatical Proposal
tasks to be completed
• Identify resources with Math and Sustainability connections
• Create mathematical activities (worksheets, projects, etc.) that
demonstrate a sustainability point of view
• Upload these activities electronically into the shared Math Dept
space
• Include a list of interesting websites for further exploration
• Share these with my math colleagues

4. Sabbatical Research during Fall 2019
Methods:
• Internet searches
• Email newsletters
• Inside Climate News
• Inside Clean Energy
• E&E News (Daily, Climatewire,
Greenwire, etc.)
• News features & articles
Questions:
• Could this be worked into a
math worksheet or a project?
• Is the math level appropriate for
community college students?
• Could this website be useful to
someone else?
• Is this just negative research?

5. Sustainability topics include
• Food waste
• Light bulbs
• Plastic shopping bags
• Doing laundry
• Fracking
• Solar panels
• Electric vehicles
• Flooding (what does 100-year flood mean mathematically?)

6. Sustainability & Math Results
part 1
• Over 30 Sustainability & Math activities were
produced.
• Some have a few questions. Some have many
questions and many parts.
• Each activity has a brief list of math topics.

7. Sample of worksheets/problems
1. Climate Change effects since 1992
Percent change, large numbers
2. Electric vehicles in Houston
Percent calculations
3. Electric vehicles predicted numbers
Linear models, exponential models, purchase options (Math 111 and 120),
systems (Math 116)
4. Fashion industry
Percent problems, proportions
5. Flood insurance
Linear models, exponential models, rate of change, extrapolation
6. Floods – 100 year
probability

8. Plastic shopping bags (#22)
Americans use an estimated 100 billion plastic bags per year. It requires 12 million barrels
of oil to produce this quantity. Reduce this ratio to describe how many bags are produced
with one barrel of oil.
The average US family takes home 1500 bags per year. Only 1% of these bags are recycled.
If this percent is accurate, how many bags per year does the average family recycle? How
many bags per family are NOT recycled?
The petroleum needed to produce 14 plastic bags is approximately equivalent to the fuel
needed to drive one mile. If the average US family takes home 1500 bags per year, what is
the equivalent number of miles?
As reported by NBC News, the average grocery store in Los Angeles went from using 2.2
million bags a year to using 125,000 a year, after the 10 cents-per-bag ordinance went into
effect in 2011. What percent decrease is this?

9. Sustainability & Math Results
part 2
• A list was compiled of more than 25 helpful websites
for additional resources, data, interactive maps,
graphs, calculus projects, etc.
• A brief description is provided with each website.

10. Sample of websites, part 1
Our World in Data – Renewable Energy
This is a great website to incorporate sustainability graphs and data into
your math classes with a computer demonstration (or maybe in the
computer lab). Each of the graphs and charts show extensive
data when the mouse is moved around.
Sample graphs: Hydropower ; Solar Power ; Wind Energy ;
Geothermal ; Renewable Energy patents ; Renewable Investment
compared to country’s GDP
https://ourworldindata.org/renewable-energy

11. Sample of websites, part 2
• Drawdown. Drawdown is a book, and the lead author came to JCCC
in September 2019. Sponsored by the Sustainability
group/department. See emails from Jay Antle and Kristy Howell.
https://www.drawdown.org/
• Sustainability Math—graphs and links to other websites
http://sustainabilitymath.org/
• Green and Growing “… write and inform the world about everything
green. We support the move to renewable energy as well as a
reduction of fossil fuel emissions. This site is a combination of
aggregated news stories and informative articles to help people
better understand their impact on our planet.”
https://www.greenandgrowing.org/

12. Sharing my Sabbatical Results
• Three faculty presentations were offered in January 2020; one
additional faculty presentation in December 2020, via Zoom.
• Information is located in the common area of our JCCC
Sharepoint math website.
• Fulltime and adjunct math faculty can easily access this spot,
and frequently do to check out course outlines, etc.
• At least six faculty members have already used or plan to use
this material.
• Material is meant to be adapted, personalized, etc. for
classroom use.

13. Future Research possibilities
• The list of websites allows other faculty to explore
and create individualized activities within a narrow
“tunnel” of interest.
• Each presentation to faculty included information
about the JCCC Center for Sustainability and the
extremely helpful faculty there.
• Sunflower Project is an excellent way to begin.

14. Summary of Sabbatical Results
• Over 30 worksheets/activities/projects were created.
• Over 25 websites were identified as useful.
• Results were shared at four faculty presentations.
• The activities/worksheets that were created are
appropriate for more than 7 different math courses as
identified, which is equivalent to more than 130
classes each semester.

15. Math &
Sustainability
Caroline
Goodman