Student Sustainability Projects
Daniel Soto
24 July 2017
Introduction
Learning Objectives
- Participants recognize elements of successful student sustainability projects
- Participants brainstorm possible projects and participants for their own communities
Outline
- Motivation: Sustainability and Education
- Theory: Elements of Authentic Student Projects
- Application: Case Studies
Sustainability and You
- What does sustainability mean for you.
- How about your students?
- How about your institution?
Motivation
Why Education and Sustainability?
- Why should sustainability be a focus of the curriculum or co-curriculum?
- Schools prepare our next generations of citizens.
- Sustainability is an issue of intergenerational equity.
- Claim: It is natural for schools to practice and promote sustainability in the long-term interest of their students.
Multiple Institutional Missions
- Institutions often have multiple goals that could compete for time and attention.
- Examples:
- Providing disciplinary content and teaching soft skills
- Standardized testing and inquiry-based learning
- Do you have other examples?
The Sustainability Dual Mission
- As we consider sustainability at SSU we are considering the dual mission of
- Cultivating sustainability competencies in our students
- Lowering resource use on our campus
- How do we simultaneously meet both of these goals?
- Are they mutually exclusive?
Authentic Projects
- Claim: Authentic projects that use students to help meet local sustainability goals can simultaneously meet these two objectives.
- Authentic projects have sufficient relevance and tangible impact to motivate and engage students.
- The challenge is to define, create, and administer these projects within the constraints of your institution.
Elements of Authentic Projects
- A clear statement of the desired learning and institutional outcomes
- Clear roles for all participants (students, teachers, staff, administrators, community members)
- Adequate time, space, and resources for the participants
- Claim: Adding sustained workload to any participant is unsustainable.
Questions
- Do you see similar dual missions at your home institutions?
- Does your institution have sustainability as a value?
- Who are your likely participants in projects?
ETC Tour
Overview
- The ETC Building was funded through an NSF grant to create a classroom laboratory for green buildings.
- State of the art technologies were chosen as design elements.
- Our energy related classes use the building as a laboratory for classroom exercises on energy use.
Case Study: Student Energy Projects
Vision and Mission
- Vision: A world where resource abundance is created through the careful matching of supply and demand by thoughtful leaders
- Mission: Students using digital data from the campus on resource use identify and propose opportunities for efficiency and monitor the effectiveness of interventions
Participants and Contributions
- CSU provided grant for curriculum development and data-logging equipment
- One faculty member pursued and administered grant
- One faculty member developed curriculum and taught class
- One staff member coordinated the installation of equipment and the delivery of data
- The department counts this class toward the degree.
- Community volunteers provided coaching and expertise to students.
Outcomes
- A class was updated to better reflect the skills that students need to develop in computational literacy and energy efficiency.
- Students take class for credit where they investigate energy questions on campus.
- Students present their work at our spring campus research symposium.
- One student project quantifying energy savings from automatic light sensors was presented to our campus facilities leadership.
Difficulties
- I didn't anticipate the difficulty in coaching students to identify interesting research questions.
- Not all data sources were as available and organized as students hoped.
Questions
- What about this case study could be relevant at your institution?
Case Study: Garden Classroom
Vision and Mission
- Global Vision: A global agricultural system that simultaneously promotes universal human and environmental health.
- Local Mission: SSU students producing food and knowledge to address food equity issues in the surrounding community.
Participants and Contributions
- Students, student organizations, and service learning opportunities provide labor
- One faculty member provides coordination as part of university service
- One faculty member provides agro-ecological expertise as part of teaching
- SSU provides Instructionally Related Activities Grant to fund assistants and supplies
Outcomes
- The garden serves as a classroom for a 2-unit class during fall and spring.
- Student assistants harvest and deliver produce to a local food bank.
- Garden Classroom Webpage
Difficulties
- We have an expertise gap during the summer, since there are no classes or instructors.
- Coordinating sufficient student effort to maintain the garden is challenging.
- There are garden maintenance tasks which don't always have a clear owner.
Questions
- What about this case study could be relevant at your institution?
Brainstorming Potential Projects
Vision and Mission
- What sustainability values and visions exist in your education communities?
- How could these connect to authentic student projects?
Participants and Contributions?
- What participants are available in your institution and community?
- What resources are potentially available?
Outcomes
- What are the learning outcomes?
- What are the other tangible results?
Difficulties
- Do you anticipate any difficulties?
- Do all the participants have the time, space, resources, and energy to participate?