Adjunct Faculty: How Can We Thrive? Scientific Inquiry and the Future of Sustainability

About San Francisco Bay University

Have you ever wondered why higher education feels stuck? Or thought, what if we could rebuild it from the ground up? Imagine a university where disciplines don't dictate the subjects, where learning is transdisciplinary, open-ended, flexible, and deeply connected to real-world needs. A place where we learn across disciplinary boundaries, work through skills that matter, and turn critical ideas into real action.

If you've ever dreamed of tearing up the rulebook, of rethinking education in bold, creative, and disruptive ways, you might belong here. San Francisco Bay University is running a bold experiment in higher education, and we're looking for the people who will make it real.

San Francisco Bay University (SFBU), an innovative, nonprofit, WASC-accredited university situated in the heart of Silicon Valley in Fremont, California, seeks an adjunct faculty member to teach scientific inquiry and sustainability within our Agility Praxis Pathway (APP) Core Curriculum.

SFBU's mission is to offer inclusive, innovative, and inspirational education for lifelong careers and our vision is to set the standard as a national model of higher education in service of the common good. At SFBU, students come first. We prioritize students' needs by building meaningful relationships and personal engagement among students, faculty, mentors, industry leaders, and staff. We are committed to providing affordable, high-quality education with a deep commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice.

About the APP Core Curriculum

The APP Core Curriculum model, or Agility Praxis Pathway, is the transdisciplinary foundation of SFBU's undergraduate curriculum. It places students at the center of learning and draws on Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The model responds to the varied needs of students, employers, and communities. Students move through three connected stages: Think, Do, and Create. They build knowledge, practice skills, and use what they have learned to produce work that shows their progress.

Think

In the Think stage, students work with carefully selected texts and other resources that introduce different perspectives and raise questions about the subject. Materials may include guest-speaker presentations, videos, and readings. Students discuss and question these materials, use reflection and self-inquiry, and take an active role in making sense of what they learn.

Do

In the Do stage, students practice the skills and habits needed to meet the course learning outcomes. They use scientific concepts and methods to investigate questions and apply what they learn. Activities may include reflective writing, hands-on experiments, communication protocols, and iterative design. The emphasis is on repeated practice, feedback, and meaningful application.

Create

In the Create stage, students bring their knowledge and practiced skills together in projects, written work, presentations, and other tangible products. These products give students a way to demonstrate their progress and provide evidence of what they can do. They may also become part of a portfolio that shows their developing skills and readiness to address real-world problems.

Through the APP model, students prepare for academic work, professional life, and continued learning. The model is responsive, experiential, and designed to help students use knowledge in new situations.

We encourage candidates to learn more about SFBU's Agility Praxis Pathway Core Curriculum by visiting: https://www.sfbu.edu/learning-teaching/sfbu-core-curriculum.

Position Description

San Francisco Bay University (SFBU) invites applications for an adjunct faculty member to teach two sections of APP 301, How Can We Thrive? Scientific Inquiry and the Future of Sustainability, in the Agility Praxis Pathway (APP) Core Curriculum in Spring 2027.

We seek an interdisciplinary educator who can help students use scientific inquiry to understand sustainability challenges and ask what it means for people, communities, and ecosystems to thrive. The successful candidate will make scientific reasoning accessible to students from varied academic backgrounds and connect classroom learning to important questions about our shared future.

Students will examine climate, energy, food, water, biodiversity, and human well-being. They will formulate researchable questions, evaluate evidence, interpret data, and assess proposed solutions. The course will help students distinguish scientific findings from unsupported claims, understand uncertainty, and consider the social and ethical effects of scientific and technological decisions.

The ideal candidate will create an active classroom in which students investigate problems, test assumptions, work together, and communicate conclusions supported by evidence. We welcome applicants who connect the natural sciences with broader questions about sustainability, technology, and society.

Teaching Assignment and Compensation

Position type: Part-time adjunct faculty
Location: Fremont, California
Teaching assignment: Two 3-credit sections of APP 301, taught in person on the Fremont campus

Compensation is $152.10 per classroom hour, based on 70 compensated classroom hours per section and 140 total classroom hours for two sections. Total compensation for the semester is $21,294.00 ($10,647.00 per section).

How APP 301 Is Structured

APP 301 follows an established course design. Its structure, sequence, readings, and assessments were developed over roughly a year as part of SFBU's Agility Praxis Pathway Core Curriculum. The course is intentionally different from a conventional general education science course. We are not asking a new colleague to rebuild it, and we would not expect anyone to design a course of this scope while teaching it for the first time.

In the first semester, the appointed faculty member will co-teach one section with the course designer and work within the course design as it is delivered. They will teach a second section independently, bringing their own judgment and appropriate variations to the same overall structure.

The intellectual contribution of this role is to evaluate and improve the course as it is taught. An experienced educator will notice what works, what slows students down, and what should be reconsidered, and we expect them to share those observations. A strong first semester may lead to teaching APP 301 in subsequent semesters and participating in the continuous improvement of the course design.

Teaching Responsibilities

• Teach APP 301 in alignment with the approved course learning outcomes and SFBU's teaching vision, with attention to personalized, experiential, relational, and student-centered learning.
• Design engaging learning experiences using scientific investigation, discussion, collaborative projects, and practical applications.
• Create a supportive, engaging, and inclusive classroom for students with varied levels of scientific preparation.
• Maintain accessible course materials, assignments, assessments, and the Canvas course site.
• Provide timely, constructive feedback and support student learning through scheduled office hours.
• Collaborate with APP program leadership and faculty on course design, assessment, and continuous improvement.
• Participate in relevant CEPI-led faculty development workshops and trainings, applying insights to enhance teaching effectiveness.
• Other responsibilities and tasks related to the class may be assigned as needed.

Required Qualifications

• Experience teaching general education, interdisciplinary science, or sustainability courses.
• A doctorate in a natural science or a closely related discipline, such as physics, chemistry, ecology, biology, or environmental science.
• Experience teaching or working in sustainability or environmental science, including topics addressed directly or indirectly in APP 301.
• Demonstrated success teaching through student-centered methods.
• Ability to teach quantitative reasoning, unit conversion, and order-of-magnitude estimation to students who are not science majors.
• Experience using generative AI in teaching, with attention to source verification, scientific accuracy, and independent student reasoning. APP 301 includes a weekly AI-supported inquiry assignment that the instructor reviews, as well as in-class activities that use AI as a reasoning coach rather than an answer source.
• Authorization to work in the United States.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong grounding in scientific inquiry and the ability to teach evidence-based reasoning to undergraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds.
• Experience with project-based learning, field observation, community-based inquiry, or student research.

Application Instructions

Applicants should submit the following materials:

• A detailed cover letter describing your qualifications and interest in teaching APP 301. The letter should address your approach to teaching scientific inquiry and sustainability in a general education curriculum and explain how that approach aligns with SFBU's Personalized, Experiential, Relational, and Student-Centered (PERS) framework. Please also describe your commitment to improving your teaching, including your willingness to participate in faculty development focused on pedagogy, course content, and assessment.
• Curriculum Vitae (CV).
• One sample class plan or description of a single activity you have led, showing how you organize student work during a class session.

Applications will be reviewed immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Please address any questions regarding this position to Dr. Xuenan Cao at xuenan.cao@sfbu.edu.

This position description is not intended to cover or contain a comprehensive list of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required of the employee. Duties, responsibilities, and activities may change, or new ones may be assigned at any time, with or without notice.

SFBU is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer: SFBU is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all employees and applicants for employment. SFBU does not discriminate in employment opportunities or practices based on race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation or any other characteristic protected by law.

In accordance with federal and state disability laws, San Francisco Bay University provides reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities. If you require assistance during the application or interview process, please contact SFBU Human Resources at hrmgr@sfbu.edu.