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Front Matter, Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

Buffalo Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Question Of Textbooks In Academic Libraries: To Purchase Or Not? A Scoping Review, Jeanette Aprile, Danielle Aloia, Deborah A. Crooke, Marie T. Ascher

NYMC Faculty Publications

Objectives: Textbook costs have escalated for students and the library. The objective of this scoping review is to assist libraries in developing a collection policy for course-required textbooks informed by themes and outcomes recognized in the existing body of research.

Methods: The scoping review was conducted using Arksey and O’Malley’s framework and the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis. The team did an environmental scan, constructed a comprehensive search strategy in six databases, and conducted hand and cited-reference searching. Included papers were quantitative or qualitative studies with outcomes described and mapped to prevailing themes.

Results: Nine hundred twenty-three records were identified …

Item 2: Activity 1: Beyond Teaching A Man To Fish: Exploring The Pathways Of Public Service, Wendy Wagner

Wendy Wagner, Civic Leadership

This classroom activity uses the “teach a man to fish” proverb as a starting point to analyze assumptions about service and introduce students to a broader variety of activities for civic participation. Using the Pathways Model of Public Service and Civic Engagement as a foundation, students critically examine different approaches to civic participation and examine each pathway in terms of its benefits, limitations, and ethical considerations.

Item 1: Syllabus: Advocacy In Action: Civic Engagement Through Social Sciences, Natascia Boeri

Natascia Boeri, Advocacy in Action: Civic Engagement Through Social Sciences

This course introduces students to civic engagement and advocacy through a social sciences framework. Students will explore how social change occurs, analyze sociopolitical structures, and develop practical advocacy skills. A key component of the course is a hands-on social action project.

Item 5: Activity: Why Do We Engage In Politics?, Natascia Boeri

Natascia Boeri, Advocacy in Action: Civic Engagement Through Social Sciences

This discussion-based activity helps students explore definitions of civic engagement. It encourages them to consider how macro, demographic, social, and psychological factors influence participation. The activity also provides a framework for personal reflection on their own civic engagement and participation.

Item 2: Assignment: Advocacy Project, Natascia Boeri

Natascia Boeri, Advocacy in Action: Civic Engagement Through Social Sciences

This document outlines the key requirements for the advocacy project in the Advocacy in Action course, providing a structured approach with scaffolded assignments to keep students on track and ensure feedback.

Item 1: Syllabus: African American Women In Us History, Lisa Bratton

Lisa Bratton, African American Women in the United States

This course, African American Women in the United States, explores the complex and often painful lives and legacies of African American women in the United States. Though often relegated to the margins of history, African American women have been involved in every facet of life in America—from its very inception. In this course, we will examine their African origins, their survival of the terrorism of enslavement, the struggle for basic human and civil rights to the African American women of today. This course will be beneficial for both races and all genders as the story of African American women is …

Item 6: Activity: Information Literacy And Advocacy Groups, Natascia Boeri

Natascia Boeri, Advocacy in Action: Civic Engagement Through Social Sciences

This activity guides students in reviewing an advocacy organization. Using critical information literacy skills, students will evaluate the organization’s mission, activities, leadership, and funding, analyzing how it presents information. Students will also consider the role of power in shaping the information presented by the organization, examining how power dynamics may influence the framing of an issue and the strategies used for advocacy.

Item 4: Activity 3: Nurses Of World War Ii, Lisa Bratton

Lisa Bratton, African American Women in the United States

No abstract provided.

Item 3: Assignment: Advocacy Context Report, Natascia Boeri

Natascia Boeri, Advocacy in Action: Civic Engagement Through Social Sciences

This assignment is one component of the advocacy project and aims to help students develop foundational analysis skills, emphasizing the need for a thorough understanding of a topic before engaging in advocacy. Students will gather and synthesize information to inform their advocacy efforts.

Item 1: Syllabus: Global Citizenship: Culture And The Environment In Indonesia, Salah D. Hassan

Salah D. Hassan, Global Citizenship: Culture and Climate Justice in Indonesia

This hybrid course includes three weeks of online synchronous and asynchronous meetings and a three-week on-site education abroad program in Indonesia. The course is designed to deepen student understanding of global citizenship by immersing participants in the rich cultural tapestry and diverse environmental landscapes of this Southeast Asian archipelago. Course content, assignments, and activities focus on the concept of global citizenship in general and are specifically oriented around the intersection of Indonesia's vibrant cultures and pressing environmental challenges. The primary goal of the course is to foster an integrated understanding of global cultural formations and sustainable environmental practices. Course activities …

Item 6: Assignment 3: Peer Review Of Illustrated Experiential Learning Journal (Assignment 2), Salah D. Hassan

Salah D. Hassan, Global Citizenship: Culture and Climate Justice in Indonesia

The peer review assignment is intended to allow each student to engage with another classmate's experiential learning journal, offering constructive feedback on how the journal expresses increased self-awareness linked to participation in community activities. Students are asked to thoroughly read a peer's journal, offer specific comments on each of the four criteria in the rubric, and provide a general final assessment using clear, concise, and constructive language, and complete the peer review rubric.

Item 1: Introduction - Civic Engagement Stories, Brian Macharg

Brian MacHarg, Agree to Disagree: Thorny Questions and Civil Discourse

This one-page document describes this project. It introduces the idea of using stories, poems and other narrative sources as a way to help both curricular and co-curricular educators help students to think about their civic involvement. It introduces the three themes of the stories: Connecting & Avoiding, Helping, and Teaching in a Civic Context.

Item 2: Connecting And Avoiding, Brian Macharg

Brian MacHarg, Agree to Disagree: Thorny Questions and Civil Discourse

A collection of stories, poems and short films to help students think about the perplexities of community, associating, connecting, avoiding and civic life, along with associated discussion questions.

Item 3: Helping, Brian Macharg

Brian MacHarg, Agree to Disagree: Thorny Questions and Civil Discourse

A collection of stories, poems and short films to help students think about the perplexities of serving others, along with associated discussion questions.

Item 6: Service-Learning Assignment, Brian Macharg

Brian MacHarg, Agree to Disagree: Thorny Questions and Civil Discourse

Many of the stories included here take place outside of the United States. India, South Africa,Senegal, and Guatemala feature prominently while China, Cameroon, and Native lands are also referenced. Other stories take us to places that might be unfamiliar or forgotten: Middle school buses, rural back roads, New York subways, deep South barbershops, sunny Miami beaches, andlonely snowy roads on a winter night. Stories help us to not just enter into the lives of people but also their environments.

This service-learning project is designed not just to help students think about engaging in philanthropic work in a group context but …

Item 7: Syllabus, Brian Macharg

Brian MacHarg, Agree to Disagree: Thorny Questions and Civil Discourse

This course will invite students to engage in conversations about connecting (and avoiding), helping and learning in our civil society. We’ll think and talk about thorny questions of what it means to be a citizen of ASU, the High Country, the US, and the world. Through the reading of provocative texts and a few films, we’ll practice the habit of civil discourse and respectful argumentation as we engage in service activities. Basically, we’ll practice the habit of talking in community about our relationship to community. Students will participate in community-based service-learning to explore the themes of civic connecting, helping and …

Item 2: Activity 1: African American Literacy, Literature, And Voting Rights, Scott Hicks

Scott Hicks, African American Literature

This curricular unit, deliverable in person or online, seeks to introduce students to the arc of voting rights in and adjacent to African American literature, including the practices of African American literacy in claiming and exercising the right to vote, from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights Movement. G. Ellis Harris’s North Carolina Constitutional Reader (1903) represents a textual artifact of African American agitation for literacy and thus the exercise of the right to vote following the termination of Reconstruction, and Alice Walker’s Meridian (1976), contextualized by Orlando Bagwell et al.’s Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement (1987), roots …

Item 1: Syllabus: African American Literature, Scott Hicks

Scott Hicks, African American Literature

This syllabus surveys African American literature via the reading and discussion of canonical texts enriched by relevant documentaries. It is divided into a series of topics, organized thematically and roughly chronologically, that foreground consideration of core concepts (such as consciousness, freedom, love, and self-actualization) and tropes (such as tricksters, enslavement, vernacular, and double consciousness) and culminate in consideration of voting advocacy within the context of civil rights activism. Finally, the syllabus makes space for synchronous collaborative writing, in support of students’ development of skills of interpretation and critical thinking in relationship with each other.

Item 1: Syllabus: United States Government, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This is an adaptable syllabus for an introductory US Government and Politics course. It provides learning outcomes, an outline for seven 2-week modules, and the spacing of in-class activities and other assignments.

Item 2: Assignment 1: Polarization, Identity, And Democratic Voice, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This capstone assignment invites students to critically analyze the 2024 US election cycle using civic and policy lenses. Students examine voting outcomes, campaign strategies, demographic shifts, and broader public engagement trends. They submit recommendations for political parties and policymakers based on historical patterns, political behavior research, and public opinion data. Students may choose their output format (e.g., essay, infographic, podcast) and optionally use generative AI, accompanied by a structured AI Use & Reflection Report. The assignment is designed to integrate civic reasoning, historical context, and action-oriented political learning.

Item 4: Activity 1: The Relational Syllabus Gpt – A Faculty Tool For Inclusive Civic, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This faculty-facing GPT tool supports inclusive, equity-based course design by helping instructors create assignments and syllabi that engage students in civic learning, democratic reasoning, and ethical AI use. Drawing from Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT), and Action-Oriented Competency Didactics (AOCD), the GPT scaffolds syllabus revision, integration of civic learning outcomes, and multimodal assignment redesign. The tool includes templates for AI use and reflection, accessible tone adjustments, and civic-based learning progression. It is designed for faculty across general education, political science, and interdisciplinary humanities, and supports both AI-assisted and AI-free learning paths.

Item 5: Assignment 2: Integrated Final Assignment – Analyzing The 2024 Election Analysis Through A Civic Lens, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This assignment invites students to analyze the 2024 US election as a civic and political event. Students will use real-world data, media sources, and course concepts to evaluate election outcomes and their broader civic significance. The activity replaces a traditional final exam and centers evidence-based thinking, civic identity, and democratic reflection. It is designed for use in political science, civic engagement, or interdisciplinary general education courses.

Item 7: Activity 2: Civic Engagement Warm-Up Discussion: How Do You Show Up In Civic Life?, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This low-stakes discussion activity introduces students to the broad and inclusive concept of civic engagement. Before analyzing legal frameworks, case studies, or public policy, students begin with a personal lens. This activity helps them activate prior knowledge, identify with civic values, and recognize that engagement comes in many forms. It works well in the first 1–2 weeks of a course and is adaptable for online, hybrid, or in-person settings.

Item 8: Activity 3: Civic Engagement In The News – A Scaffolded, Multimodal Discussion Assignmen, Parakh Hoon

Parakh Hoon, United States Government

This civic inquiry activity invites students to select a recent news story and analyze how individuals or communities engaged civically in response. Students assess strategies, barriers, and power dynamics using a structured template. They may submit work in written, audio, or visual formats. Peer replies are scaffolded to support civic discourse and listening. Optional AI-supported paths allow students to brainstorm or organize their ideas using generative tools, followed by a required reflection on their AI use. Designed for asynchronous, hybrid, or in-person delivery, this assignment aligns with civic learning goals and general education outcomes.

Item 5: Activity 3: Incarceration, David Hubert

David Hubert, Introduction to U.S. Government & Politics

This is an activity that reinforces basic quantitative literacy in the context of politically-relevant data.

Item 6: Assignment 1: Book Review, David Hubert

David Hubert, Introduction to U.S. Government & Politics

This is a multi-step writing assignment designed to engage students with a substantive book about politics, political actors, or political issues. It helps them work with long-form writing and helps them practice their own formal writing.

Item 7: Assignment 2: Reactions To Constitution, David Hubert

David Hubert, Introduction to U.S. Government & Politics

This is a critical reading and reflection assignment designed to have students closely read politically-relevant documents, answer questions about arguments and evidence, and reflect on them.

Item 1: Syllabus: Civic Leadership: Theories And Action, Kara Dillard

Kara Dillard, Civic Leadership: Theories and Practice

Civic leadership involves students learning key skills to foster collaboration across differences, embracing complex decision-making in dialogue with others, and valuing pragmatic solutions that advance the common good. This class answers questions such as: “What are the essential traits, key skills and mindsets of a civic leader?” “How do history, legal frameworks, and socioeconomic theories shape the way civic leaders should approach solving wicked issues?” “How might civic leaders harness technology and design thinking to improve civic life?” “What are models of civic engagement that work and how can civic leaders implement them in real communities?” “How can James Madison’s …