The Water/Energy/Food Nexus: A Curriculum that Looks at the Whole

When developing curriculums for NEXT.cc, we want to encourage students of all backgrounds to think critically. We want to introduce them to design learning by looking at the whole picture. We developed both the online and printed journals of the WATER/ENERGY/FOOD nexus for that precise reason. Whether in traditional school, homeschooling, an enrichment program, an after-school club, or a public institution inviting the community into the curriculum, informal e-learning environment supports student-led inquiry.

Why WATER/ENERGY/FOOD? These topics are deeply interlinked, and when given the relational models to students, we arrive at some of the most creative solutions. Yes, schools can independently focus on discrete subjects. Yet once students graduate, they face real-world challenges requiring transdisciplinary responses. Systems thinking as a transdisciplinary approach prepares them for future complexity. The nexus of these three particular areas of study shared at the 2011 Stockholm Accord is a real-world challenge today. The full view cognition of NEXT.cc nexus thinking is a way to introduce and prepare our future leaders.

Explore the nexus thinking that inspired our eLearning resources here. When we conduct a workshop, we work with teens by collecting statistics data, focusing on growth mindset solutions, and the whole picture. For example, the girls in the water workshop explore the water cycle with water use and water equivalency games. Modeling watersheds, they track how, why, and where water evaporates, infiltrates, collects, or runs off. Students discuss sources of pollutants and think about how people, plants, and animals contribute to pollution in rivers. At each step of the workshop, students experience diverse art, science, ecology, and hydrological water careers.

E-learning supports digital fluency by introducing the current media tools for creating, communicating, and collaborating with sustainable practices. It initiates student-led inquiry with activities on the computer, in the home, the classroom, the schoolyard, and the community, introducing multiple ways of observing, understanding, and discovering. E-learning stimulates eco-literacy through cultural and environmental explorations with human and nonhuman life outside in nature. Finally, it expands research practices, iterative modeling, testing, and evaluation, sharing diverse approaches and practices to sustain life on earth. E-learning integrates systems’ connectivity with design thinking, research, and processes introducing multiple skills. E-learning moves inquiry between analog and digital, building frequency to fluency priming, deepening, and extending ‘need to know more’ learning. When developing curriculums for NEXT.cc, we want to encourage students of all backgrounds to think critically. We want to introduce them to design learning by looking at the whole picture. We developed both the online and printed workbooks of the Water, Energy, Food Nexus for that precise reason. Whether in traditional school, homeschooling, an enrichment program, an after-school club, or a public institution inviting the community into the curriculum, an informal e-learning environment supports student-led inquiry.

In the 4-12 water workshops, students from different schools test the Chicago River’s water quality, partnering with the Friends of the Chicago River, Chicago Line Cruises, and the Chicago Community Trust. As a result, students learn about the Great Lakes’ relationships to the world and US freshwater resources and appreciate freshwater in new ways. In addition, they realize they can check the quality of the water they drink from the tap and help maintain water quality by going out into the field to work with partners and organizations. NEXT.cc workshops empower students in learning and making an impact.

NEXT.cc water workshops put together and tested an experiential curriculum for students in schools, museums, and libraries to explore their communities’ water sources and resources. The nexus of energy and food became a natural next step for students to access via our online e-learning platform and our journals available for order. Why not empower the next generation with immersive learning practices? Open curiosity! Ignite compassion. Check out our connected curriculums and sustainability design-based activities!

In another sustainability workshop, NEXT.cc invited students to explore energy, architecture, and interior spatial use of the YOUmedia space on the first floor of the Harold Washington Public Library. Why? Learning about the infrastructure and energy usage in a building expands our criticality and response. Students realize the library space has heating, lighting, and acoustic problems and collaborate to create answers. Students use design thinking, data collection, collaboration, and conversations, empowered to arrive at strategic implementations to improve the room. They pitch potential solutions to their community and the building sustainability director. NEXT.cc’s e-learning curriculum seamlessly motivates inside and outside classroom connections, local and globally, in and out of school!!

Why not empower the next generation with immersive learning practices that will guide them to make more sustainable choices in the future?

Open curiosity! Check out our connected curriculums and design based activities!

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Machell, J., Prior, K., Allan, R., and Andresen, J. M. (2015). The water energy food nexus - challenges and emerging solutions. Environ. Sci. 1, 15–16. doi: 10.1039/C4EW90001D

Google Scholar Mohtar, R. H., and Daher, B. (2012). “Water, energy, and food: the ultimate nexus,” in Encyclopedia of Agricultural, Food, and Biological Engineering, 2nd Edn, eds D. R. Heldman and C. I. Moraru (Taylor & Francis). doi: 10.1081/E-EAFE2-120048376

CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Rasul, G., and Sharma, B. (2016). The nexus approach to water–energy–food security: an option for adaptation to climate change. Climate Policy 16, 682–702. doi: 10.1080/14693062.2015.1029865

Simpson, Garreth B. & Jewitt, GRaham P.W. The Development of the Water-Energy-Food Nexus as a Framework for Achieving Resource Security: A Review, 2019.

Google Scholar Scanlon, B. R., Ruddell, B. L., Reed, P. M., Hook, R. I., Zheng, C. M., Tidwell, V. C., et al. (2017). The food-energy-water nexus: transforming science for society. Water Resour. Res. 53, 3550–3556. doi: 10.1002/2017WR020889

Google Scholar Smajgl, A., Ward, J., and Pluschke, L. (2016). The water–food–energy Nexus – Realising a new paradigm. J. Hydrol. 533, 533–540. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.12.033

Isabelle Rizo, VCS March12, 2022, 2022
Visual and Critical Studies. Art Therapy Research. Pedagogy. Teaching Artist LinkedIN

Linda Keane, FAIA, Professor of Architecture and Environmental Design, NEXT.cc Creative Director LinkedIN