Spring Break
Students greening campus
Alexia Lang
Issue date: 11/17/08 Section: News
Thanks to a new class in the Environmental Studies Program, students are learning to take a hands-on approach to sustainability.
Last spring, Geosciences Professor Caroline Davies and Urban Planning and Design Professor Michael Frisch teamed up to teach the cluster course Environmental Sustainability.
Frisch just returned from presenting a paper on implementing the course to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in Raleigh, N.C.
"Students were exposed to an amazing range of national level speakers, global and local issues," Davies said. "Sustainability requires community, so students were required to identify a community of their choice, develop a sustainability project and carry it out."
Some of the campus related projects the 80 students enrolled in the class completed include calculating the university's carbon footprint, evaluating dorm energy efficiency and recycling, building from dumpster waste and displaying art on sustainability.
Other off-campus projects included recycling in public schools, recycling in a prison, evaluating a commercial green roof, analysis of light rail for Kansas City, analysis of the municipal stream buffer policy and developing sustainable neighborhood designs.
Kaye Johnston, coordinator for Campus Facilities Management and director of the Sustainability Team, helped students with their projects and worked with a couple students on the campus carbon baseline study to determine the amount of carbon UMKC emits.
She said the practical application is huge in getting students engaged in sustainability efforts.
"Anytime you engage students and faculty with the many facets of campus life and the surrounding community, you have a heightened awareness of what is going on," Johnston said. "In that way, students can look at their daily decisions and see how they impact their quality of life and then apply that knowledge both on campus and in the community. When more individuals realize that their actions do matter, it is revolutionary."
Last spring, Geosciences Professor Caroline Davies and Urban Planning and Design Professor Michael Frisch teamed up to teach the cluster course Environmental Sustainability.
Frisch just returned from presenting a paper on implementing the course to the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) in Raleigh, N.C.
"Students were exposed to an amazing range of national level speakers, global and local issues," Davies said. "Sustainability requires community, so students were required to identify a community of their choice, develop a sustainability project and carry it out."
Some of the campus related projects the 80 students enrolled in the class completed include calculating the university's carbon footprint, evaluating dorm energy efficiency and recycling, building from dumpster waste and displaying art on sustainability.
Other off-campus projects included recycling in public schools, recycling in a prison, evaluating a commercial green roof, analysis of light rail for Kansas City, analysis of the municipal stream buffer policy and developing sustainable neighborhood designs.
Kaye Johnston, coordinator for Campus Facilities Management and director of the Sustainability Team, helped students with their projects and worked with a couple students on the campus carbon baseline study to determine the amount of carbon UMKC emits.
She said the practical application is huge in getting students engaged in sustainability efforts.
"Anytime you engage students and faculty with the many facets of campus life and the surrounding community, you have a heightened awareness of what is going on," Johnston said. "In that way, students can look at their daily decisions and see how they impact their quality of life and then apply that knowledge both on campus and in the community. When more individuals realize that their actions do matter, it is revolutionary."
Viewing Comments 1 - 2 of 2
Keye Johnston
posted 11/17/08 @ 2:02 PM CST
Great article emphasizing sustainability activities cross-campus. This is very exciting and have to commend Alexia and the staff of Unews for keeping this topic front and center in the discussions on campus. (Continued…)
Jessica S
posted 12/15/08 @ 3:29 PM CST
To all those interested in campus greening:
I am writing now as an informed student and active member of the global community. I say that I am concerned, because I have recently noticed some problems in the current policies present on my own college campus that I am certain are not exclusive from other colleges. (Continued…)
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