Workshops
Greening of the Campus IX: Building Pedagogy
March 18-21, 2012,
L.A. Pittenger Student Center, Ball State University, Muncie, IN
Workshops Announced
We are pleased to announce the workshops which will be available during the Greening of the Campus Conference IX. Following are brief narratives of each. The more detailed scheduling of these is forthcoming, but in the meantime colleagues might want to read through the options to begin to flag those gatherings of most interest.
Beyond the Factory Model of Education: Learning Our Way to Second-Order Change Harold Glasser, Matthew Hollander
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Lack of rapid and meaningful change on our campuses is frequently attributed to six common challenges to second-order change: burn-out, lack of top-level institutional support, apathy and lack of information, lack of resources, perceived lack of resources, and maladaptive institutional structures.
In an effort to better prepare change agents to cope with the scale and character of these challenges (and hopefully flourish), this workshop will begin with an overview of how these issues present themselves on our campuses. The second segment will consist of three discussions of "successes or messes"--how particular campus sustainability leaders have faced, responded, and coped with these challenges. The third segment will present a systems-based "trouble-shooting" guide, based on a best practice review and collaboration with the other presenters, to help speed up the response time between identification of challenges and execution of appropriate responses. In the fourth segment participants will break up into six groups to both critique and build on "trouble-shooting guide". Participants will be asked to assess the guide with respect to two criteria: the extent to which it reflects the unique challenges they face and the robustness of the suggested responses to these challenges. Where inadequacies are noted, participants will be asked to identify additional challenges and appropriate responses.
In the final segment, topic-based discussion members will each be asked to submit a key insight, in written form, from their group's discussion and present to the full group for discussion. These insights will be drawn randomly, and presented to the full group for discussion (the participant will be allowed to expand on their idea if clarification or additional detail is requested). Time permitting, a second insight will be drawn randomly and the same procedure will be repeated. The session will conclude with a short discussion of next steps.
The Campus as a Sustainability Laboratory: Interdisciplinary Curriculum Design Cindy Thomashow, Jerelyn Wilson
AASHE, Denver, CO
Building Green, Brattleboro, VT
Buildings are powerful teachers. In fact, the habit of “what we don’t know won’t hurt us…” is reinforced every day. That lesson runs counter to teaching sustainable practice. Institutions teach sustainability by how they treat their neighbors; how they invest their money; how they provision themselves with food, energy, materials, and water; how they transport people and things; how they interface with the outdoors. How can educators take full advantage of these opportunities?
This workshop will introduce several case studies of innovative campus-based curriculum using the infrastructure of a college/university as a living and learning laboratory. Participants will be introduced to the rich resources available at AASHE (
www.aashe.org) and Building Green (
www.buildinggreen.com). For nearly two decades, Building Green has provided objective and vetted educational leadership to architects and designers. The Building Green site offers ideas and resources to educators for the incorporation of sustainable practices into curriculum. The resources at AASHE will be linked to the case studies and will highlight the campus as the context for interdisciplinary curriculum design. This session will be interactive and solution-based, producing a template for using the campus as a sustainability laboratory across disciplines.
Designing Dynamic, Holistic Spaces Which Nurture Healthy, Engaged Communities Trung Le, Sarah Malin
Cannon Design, Chicago, IL
Robust campus communities demand place-making strategies which cultivate shared growth, foster inclusion, address the complexity and uncertainty of rule-breaking dialogue, and embrace the power of collective learning.
Through the exploration of the Adler School of Professional Psychology case study and an intensive charrette, we will explore the characteristics of a dynamic, holistic environment and examine research strategies for verifying outcomes in a campus scale. Central to the Adler School of Professional Psychology mission was building, empowering and reinforcing a connection between its students and the world in which they engage. In order to physically manifest a community-centered vision, our design team led a collaborative, consensus-driven process with students, faculty and staff that included more than 15 interviews, a 75-person visioning session, and numerous workshops. In these sessions and throughout the design process, the design team partnered with Adler to analyze how a commitment to community can define and reinforce a pedagogy focused on community.
Workshop participants can challenge this process to identify and execute the design drivers. What other methods of analysis foster clarity in our understanding of outcomes? Participants will help structure enhanced strategies for measuring the success of inclusion fostering, nimble placemaking in a campus context.
Energy Audit Roadshow Meghan Kearns
Alliance to Save Energy, Oakland, CA
Current research highlights the financial savings of renewables, but new technologies can be out of reach for those who cannot afford the upfront cost. This session offers energy auditing and energy efficiency as cost-effective solutions for our campus and community energy needs.
The Energy Audit Roadshow will teach beginners how to quantify energy use and identify low-cost and no-cost energy retrofits for small scale commercial buildings. The Roadshow includes a presentation which covers basic energy concepts, how to calculate energy use and savings, and the steps involved in a comprehensive energy audit. Following the presentation, participants will be able to practice their new skills while receiving a hands-on training of standard auditing tools.
This workshop was developed by the Alliance to Save Energy’s Green Campus Program as a way to teach auditing skills to college students from diverse educational backgrounds. Using auditory, visual, and kinesthetic pedagogy, this program is intended to educate not only tomorrow’s engineers, but also our future educators, activists, business people, etc. By offering all campus members the ability to quantify energy use in their personal and professional lives, the Energy Audit Roadshow just may be the vital link bridging current community needs and understandings with future visions.
Bridging the Economic and Climate Gap: A Workshop by Green for All College Ambassadors Janica Johnson and Brianna Ford, Clark Atlanta University
Miranda J. Garcia and Darius A. Stanton, Claflin University
This workshop uses popular education methodology to explore the reality of the climate and economic gaps, how they are related to one another, and how they manifest in the lives of people living in communities of color and/or low-income communities. Student leaders, also known as College Ambassadors in Green For All's College Ambassador Program, will facilitate this workshop as an interactive dialogue to look at the role of green-collar jobs in shaping an economy that is both just and sustainable.
Participants will leave this workshop with a better understanding of how green solutions to can simultaneously address poverty and climate change in the U.S., and have a great ability to explain these concepts to others.
This workshop is highly interactive and will give participants a chance to network with each other while sharing knowledge and experience.
The Power of Community Colleges to Build the Green Economy Julie Elzanati
Illinois Green Economy Network, Heartland Community College, Normal, IL
This presentation will offer a preview of IGEN’s progress toward increasing employment in the emerging green economy in Illinois by training workers in high-demand green industries.
The Illinois Green Economy Network (IGEN) is a president-led consortium providing a platform for collaboration among all Illinois community colleges and their partners to establish sustainable best practices, promote energy demand reduction projects, and drive growth in the green economy.
With a $2.5M FY12 grant from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, IGEN developed two complementary statewide energy initiatives. The Energy Equipment Group Purchasing Consortium funds up to 75% of project costs for energy saving measures implemented at multiple colleges. The Illinois Community College Targeted Energy Management Training program funds colleges to deliver or participate in energy efficiency and green technology job training opportunities through conferences, online and classroom workshops, and behavior change awareness campaigns for college staff, students and business members from all sectors.
This presentation will feature successes of these initiatives toward delivering a 10% reduction in electricity and 8% reduction in gas demand within three years for participating colleges.
USGBC Research to Practice: Data + Learning = Behavior Change Karol Kaiser, U.S. Green Building Council
Brian Dunbar - Institute for the Built Environment CSU
Stephanie Barr - Colorado State University
Ed Akins II- Southern Polytechnic State University
Kerry Dixon-Fox and Ulrike Passe - Iowa State University
Launched in fall 2011, the USGBC Research to Practice Program attracted teams from 35 higher education institutions representing over 300 individuals studying nearly 450 buildings.
Through this program, USGBC aims to engage multi-disciplinary teams in investigative green building research on their campuses or in their communities and transfer that knowledge by developing tangible pedagogical tools in the form of project-based learning. The resulting curriculum resources will be made available through the USGBC Center for Green Schools to grow the body of knowledge to advance green building.
Workshop participants will:
- Appreciate multi-disciplinary team approach to the research problems on campus
- Consider protocol, tools and lessons learned in capturing data, metrics, or stakeholder stories
- Share process for transferring research outcomes to effective project-based teaching tools relevant to practice
- Create their own “roadmap” through interactive modules to incorporate the Research to Practice Program into their coursework or campus greening initiatives
Student Climate Leadership Workshop Sarah Brylinsky, ACUPCC
Juliana Goodlaw-Morris, National Wildlife Federation
Acting as the grassroots agents for change, the innovators, and the hands-on capacity for creating and implementing climate action on campus, students are both the catalyst and the long-term voice of campus climate leadership.
In this workshop, Second Nature and the National Wildlife Federation will facilitate resources from the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment and Campus Ecology program to help students learn the history, strategies, and unique role they play in climate mitigation and adaptation on campus by creating new connections and strategies for climate action planning based on their geographic and institutional needs and stage of sustainability development.
Using the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment as a framework and tool for understanding national climate action, students will learn the fundamentals of the sustainability movement and where the climate leadership of higher education is headed (and how students are leading the way)!, create strategies for moving their campus forward on climate action, and long-term strategies for including student projects and voices in the implementation of the ACUPCC and strategic goals of the sustainability movement.
So What Now?: Next Steps After Climate Action and Sustainability Plans Panel Juliana Goodlaw-Morris
National Wildlife Federation, Campus Ecology
For many colleges and universities, climate action and sustainability plans have been developed over the course of the last couple years. This workshop will help you navigate the waters as you try and implement the plans on your campus.
The workshop will focus on sharing of best practices, highlighting key challenges and how schools overcame their challenges, and some of the successes that occurred from having a plan on campus.
Specifically, this workshop will highlight lessons learned from some of the early climate action and sustainability plans. In addition, the workshop plans to provide tangible action steps for colleges and universities to adopt as they move forward in implementing their plans.
This will be a workshop-style session; hence, conversation between participants will be key- as there will be significant chance for the participants to share successes and struggles.
Participants will leave this workshop with new ideas, strategies and goals to move their climate action or sustainability plan forward on their campus.
Supporting Pedagogy for Change—Core Competencies in Learning Sustainability Harold Glasser, Matthew Hollander
Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
Successful implementation of sustainability declarations and commitments such as the ACUPCC (particularly 1lc.iii: “Actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability as part of the curriculum and other educational experience for all students.”), the Talloires Declaration, the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development—and our ultimate goal of creating cultures of sustainability—will require a radical shift in the mission, purpose, and structure of higher education institutions. Change of such scale and character represents “second-order change”—change that requires fundamental reorganizing of the system structure because it cannot be simply accommodated within existing system structures. A better understanding of human capacities, capabilities, and competencies for facilitating this societal transformation towards sustainability along with an improved understanding of how we can promote their development through learning are both crucial to the success of this venture.
The workshop will begin by having participants take the Core Competencies in Learning for Sustainability Survey. The research team will then present on the literature review and the results of the expert's survey. During the fourth segment of the workshop participants will self-organize in small groups (≈8) to engage in topic-based discussions of key issues that were identified by the participants (issues might be identified by lack of consensus between surveys or because the surveys themselves missed key competencies, pedagogies, or practices that the group feels are critical to leveraging meaningful second-order change on campuses). In the final segment, topic-based discussion members will each be asked to submit a key insight, in written form, from their group's discussion (the participant will be allowed to expand on their idea if clarification or additional detail is requested). Time permitting, a second insight will be drawn randomly and the same procedure will be repeated. The session will conclude with a short discussion of next steps.
All insights from each participant of the topic-based discussion group will be collected, collated, and digitized. These insights will be presented online shortly after the meeting. It’s our hope that this discussion will continue, possibly through a Wiki or under the leadership and sponsorship of AASHE.
Building Pedagogy with STARS: A Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) Workshop Jillian Bucholz
Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Denver, CO
The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) will be hosting a pre-conference workshop focused on its Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS). This four-hour workshop will give an overview of the pedagogical dimensions of STARS and how STARS may be used as a teaching and learning tool on your campus. STARS Participant institutions will also share approaches to completing a STARS Report with a focus on pedagogy methods implemented during the process. The workshop will also include a group activity focused on using STARS to developing learning outcomes, build new course content, engage students, and create new and exciting educational tools. Ample time for Q&A, as well as networking among colleagues, will be available. This workshop is open to those new to STARS and those with advanced knowledge about the program. Although no expertise pertaining to the STARS Program is required, some knowledge of the program may be helpful.