The Office of Phosphorus

In 2024, I modified a research scavenger hunt activity to introduce a group of students to research on governance and phosphorus sustainability, while I was a postdoctoral researcher at the STEPS Center. I used ChatGPT to draft a fake Executive Order establishing a brand-new “office of phosphorus,” and cast the students as imaginary interns who were assigned to determine how this new office should be organized, what its responsibilities should be, and where it might overlap with existing regulatory regimes. Our team published an article in the Journal of Sustainability Education describing our method, approach, and limitations of this activity.