The Global Change faculty have created a curriculum that provides not only the tools, but also the people and perspectives that students can use to critically analyze the dynamic phenomena that affect the world in which we live. Whether learning about carbon cycles, CFC emissions, global warming, population trends, or any of a host of global change issues, the interdisciplinary nature of the Global Change curriculum helps students consider multiple aspects of a problem--the physical, chemical, biological, geological, and mathematical, as well as the human. They learn to think critically about these various, yet connected, issues from natural and social science professors who themselves are learning to make interdisciplinary connections. From their professors and graduate student instructors, they explore the connections between overpopulation and natural resource use, using modeling programs that demonstrate how emissions contribute to atmospheric changes like ozone depletion and biological effects like cancer. And they learn from their fellow students, who represent eclectic backgrounds and consider global change issues from such varied fields as zoology, engineering, medicine, or even art.

By embarking on and maintaining their vision of the value of interdisciplinarity, the U of M Global Change bricoleurs^a have learned that the nature of higher education culture and organization is not always conducive to interdisciplinary instruction. These faculty members constantly struggle to strike a balance between the amount of time they spend in their own departments, and the amount of time they spend with Global Change. Although this tension is likely to continue to characterize interdisciplinary efforts on into the future, the U of M faculty have dealt with it by sustaining grassroots determination and a steadfast belief that, as a result of their efforts, their Global Change students are leaving the U of M with much more than just another course, or minor, completed. They carry with them knowledge and habits of mind that will affect generations of posterity.