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.
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.
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; 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.
Remembering the Model T
Jim Farrell, St Olaf College
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
Sustainability through Place
kathleen martinson, Luther College; Sonja Darlington, Beloit 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gründliche Gründstücke
Amy Gates-Young, Central College; Keith Ratzlaff; Jim Farrell; Suzanne Savanick-Hansen
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.
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.
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.
Phenology Plot Project
Ruth Kath, Luther College; Suzanne Hansen; Jim Farrell
Phenology Plot Project--"In Honor Of" Tree Project Enhanced