Sustainability Activities in Progress

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.

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.

Home Energy Audit/Retrofits
Barbara Whitten, 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.

Meal Satisfaction and Sustainability for Psychology
Lee, Jen (Coe College) With Contributions from Kent Simmonds (Luther College) and Betsy Hutula (ACM)

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.

Looking Back at History
Jim Farrell, Saint 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.

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

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.

1908 Conservation Conference
This page is authored by 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.

Spinning wheels of the carbon cycle: Carbon from gasoline to plant material
Yaffa Grossman, Beloit 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.

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

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.

Exploring in the Footsteps of Columbus: Letters Back Home
Nancy Gates-Madsen, Luther College; Anne-Marine Feat, Luther College
Students will write a letter back home describing a "pristine" wilderness scene of a Caribbean beach. They will compare their descriptions to Columbus's diary chronicling his first impressions of Hispaniola, paying attention to: 1. what is seen (and not seen) 2. the filter/frame of reference used to describe the landscape 3. the rhetoric of the letters.

Phenology Plot Project
Suzanne Savanick Hansen, Macalester 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.

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

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

Gründliche Gründstücke
Amy Gates-Young, Central College

Phenology Plot Project
Ruth Kath, Luther College
Phenology Plot Project--"In Honor Of" Tree Project Enhanced