Environmental Assessment Course

This project works best as a term-long project. It can be done by an individual student or by groups of students working in teams.

The coure taught was a required course for environmental studies students. It was one credit, but the evaluations recommended having it as a three credit (typical course credit) course. The students were from several disciplines, but mostly all in their junior year of study.

• Brainstorm campus links to environmental issues on the campus:
• A simple exercise that works in both small and large classes is to have the instructor ask the students what the environmental issues are on campus.
• Usually students will come up with topics such as waste disposal, water use, energy use, transportation, landscaping.
• In another variation of this same brainstorming exercize, have the students brainstorm answers to the question, "What are the campus links to global environmental issues such as: global warming, biodiversity loss, acid rain, water pollution?"
• Have students pick topics or subtopics for individual or group research
• Have/Needs Assessment (Birnbaum, 2004): Have students discuss:
  • What they know about their topic?
  • What they need to know about their topic?
• Develop Research Plan
• Have students assign tasks to group members
• What are the intermediary steps of the project?
Include deadlines and timelines for project completion.
• Class check on progress . One half of the way through the course, have student report on their activities to date. For individual student projects, have students meet with faculty each week to report.
• Report of Findings Facilities management personnel was invited to the class presentations. If taught again, we would make sure that the class met at a time that decison-makers would attend. We would also have students write an executive summary to give to facilities management.

• Student Peer Assessment Rubric for Group Work (Microsoft Word 37kB May20 05) When students work in groups, use this seven item rubric to rate other team members on such items as work ethic, participation in discussion, and ability to meet deadlines (from Gallery Walk).
• Instructor Evaluation Rubric for Written Reports (Microsoft Word 40kB Jul5 07)an eleven part rubric for evaluating the quality of students' oral reports from (from Gallery Walk).
• Oral Report Evaluation Rubric (Microsoft Word 56kB Jul6 07)from (Gallery Walk)

The Enviromental Assessment Project includes a database of over 1000 environmental assessments at colleges and universities worldwide.

Penn State Environmental Indicators Report is an example of a large, comprehensive environmental assessment project.

Other useful references:

National Wildlife Federation's Campus Ecology Program offers technical assistance to campus students, staff and faculty on campus-based sustainability projects. They also have an extensive listing of projects at other colleges and universities.

University Leaders for a Sustainable Future (ULSF): assists colleges and universities with sustainability issues. ULSF the secretariat for the Tallois Declaration, a campus sustainability declaration signed by hundreds of college and university presidents.