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Sustainability Activities in Progress

These activities have been contributed by workshop participants and are in the process of editing. Participants may access the activities by clicking the links and signing into their SERC account.

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Results 1 - 20 of 24 matches

Where does your energy come from? Analyzing your energy bill
Mary Savina, Carleton College
Students use utility bills to determine the cost and sources of energy in their households.

Home Energy Audit/Retrofits
Barbara Whitten, Colorado College; Sally Meyer, Colorado College; Mark Morgenstern, Colorado College
Home energy audit/retrofits allow students to apply thermodynamic principles to planning and executing a retrofit to make an existing home more energy efficient.

Common Resource Experiment: Simulating Tragedy of the Commons in a Classroom
Dmytro Zhosan, Ripon College; Aaron Swoboda, Carleton College; Steve Holland, Luther College; David Hayes, Coe College
An in-class activity intended to introduce students to the Tragedy of the Commons, its causes and potential solutions.

Phenology Plot Project
Suzanne Savanick Hansen, Macalester College; Jim Farrell, St. Olaf College
Students pick one place in the Carleton Arboretum to spend at least 20 minutes observing the biodiversity in that one place at least six times during the term. Students must record observations visually and with the written word and share their final projects with the class.

Looking Back at History
Jim Farrell, St Olaf College
Students research an organism/commodity in the colonial period of American history, and write a first-person narrative/autobiography of its history as European settlers reshaped the environment (mental and physical) of North America.

Spinning wheels of the carbon cycle: Carbon from gasoline to plant material
Yaffa Grossman, Beloit College; Tim Tibbits, Monmouth College; Skip Wittler, Ripon College; george wittler, Ripon College
Students will determine the quantity of carbon dioxide released by driving a vehicle and the the amount of photosynthetic activity required during that time period to offset this carbon dioxide production.

Meal Satisfaction and Sustainability for Psychology
Lee, Jen, Coe College; Kent Simmonds, Luther College; Betsy Hutula, ACM; Jen Lee, Coe College

Experiencing Systemic Thinking
Craig Mosher, Luther College
This teaching activity will assist social work students to experience and understand social and natural systems through observing and writing about their observations.

Mineral Resources Museum
Mary Savina, Carleton College
Students trace the mineral/material sources of common objects in their dorm rooms and create a display of these objects with information about material sources, processing, and sinks.

Understanding and Analyzing an Environmental Controversy
Steve Martin, Ripon College
Students will write a paper that analyzes a particular controversy that is related to the environment or issues of sustainability. In so doing, they will discover the role discourse plays in resolving, or failing to resolve, the different goals of competing interests.

Legacies of Gandhian thought
Brian Caton, Luther College

1908 Conservation Conference
Jim Farrell, St. Olaf College
In groups, students research environmental activists of the early 20th century, and write and deliver a first-person speech expressing that person's concerns to the 1908 Conservation Conference.

My Environmental Histories
Jim Farrell, St Olaf College
In American Environmental History, we emphasize the idea that everybody makes history every day, and that ideas and institutions have long-term environmental impacts that are often unobserved in history or in life. This final exam allows students to integrate their learning, and personalize it, seeing how their own lives are historically constructed, and how they can make history by constructing their lives differently. The exam also allows me to read papers that are academic and practical and personal, and a lot more interesting than conventional test questions.

Structuring Auction Process
David Hayes, Coe; Aaron Swoboda, Carleton College; Dmytro Zhosan, Ripon; Steve Holland, Luther College
An experiment to help students understand the effect of different methods to allocate scarce resources.

Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Data Analysis
Brock Spencer, Beloit College; Marty St. Clair, Coe College; Brad Spturgeon, Monmouth College

Sustainability and Cultural Stories
Jon Jensen, Luther College

Whats for Dinner?: Purchasing and Preparing an Organic, locally grown Meal
Craig Watson, Monmouth College
Student groups of five plan, research, prepare and serve each other a meal using naturally grown ingredients, then review and reflect upon the meal and the experience.

Sustainability through Place
kathleen martinson, Luther College; Sonja Darlington, Beloit College

Global Economic Inequalities: Microcredit Lending
Jim Zaffiro, Central College; Ellen Du Pre, Central College
Making actual microcredit loans to individual potential borrowers, in the context of an introductory international politics course.

Gründliche Gründstücke
Amy Gates-Young, Central College; Keith Ratzlaff; Jim Farrell; Suzanne Savanick-Hansen