SBIO 1024 Systems Thinking in a Bioeconomy (a Pathways Concept #3 course)

This class will be offered in Summer 2026!
Feel free to reach out to the instructor any time if you have questions.

SBIO 1024: Systems Thinking in a Bioeconomy

This course invites you to see the world through a new lens—one that looks at the big picture and connects the dots between people, the planet, and the economy. From exploring how natural resources can be used, reused, and cycled through sustainable systems, to weighing the ethical trade-offs of different solutions, you’ll develop the mindset and tools needed to tackle today’s most pressing challenges.

Using case studies rooted in real-world problems, you’ll dive into topics like renewable energy, sustainable materials, and circular economies. Along the way, you’ll learn frameworks and methodologies that help you analyze interconnected systems—social, economic, and environmental—and discover how creative, systems-based thinking leads to smarter, more sustainable solutions.

Whether you’re passionate about sustainability, curious about global challenges, or eager to sharpen your problem-solving skills, this course will equip you to join the conversation (and action!) around building a bio-based economy. By the end, you’ll not only think differently—you’ll be ready to make a difference.

Once you successfully completed this course, you will be able to:

1. Explain the core principles of systems thinking and apply them to bioeconomy-related challenges.
2. Identify and analyze interconnections between social, economic, and environmental factors in complex systems.
3. Evaluate the life cycle of natural materials in industrial and natural environments, with emphasis on reuse, recycling, and sustainable resource management.
4. Apply systems frameworks and tools to assess conventional and alternative solutions to real-world problems.

Overall Pathways Mission

As a central component of the undergraduate experience at Virginia Tech, the Pathways curriculum will guide students to examine the world from multiple perspectives and integrate their knowledge across disciplines and domains of learning through a hands-on, minds-on approach.

The Pathways curriculum includes seven core learning concepts and two integrative learning concepts. The concepts reflect broad knowledge areas for study and are supported by student learning outcomes. These outcomes describe the observable behaviors that students will demonstrate as they pursue breadth and/or depth related to particular outcomes. 

SBIO 1024 is a Pathways Concept #3 Course

Concept 3: Reasoning in the Social Sciences - The learning outcomes of this concept are the utilization of quantitative and qualitative methods to explain the behavior and actions of individuals, groups, and institutions within larger social, economic, political, and geographic contexts. Courses that meet concept #3 will teach you the following:

1. Identify fundamental concepts of the social sciences.
2. Analyze human behavior, social institutions and/or patterns of culture using theories and methods of the social sciences.
3. Identify interconnections among and dierences between social institutions, groups, and individuals.
4. Analyze the ways in which values and beliefs relate to human behavior and social relationships