Making Vinyl Records Sustainably
Summary
The activity was focused on making vinyl records in a more sustainable way. The company was called "Witt World Records." The waste audit data were used as the basis of creating an internal memo and an external press release. The gallery tour was based on how to produce and distribute the records more consistent with a circular economy.
CollapseLearning Goals
Students should learn fundamental of a circular economy, basics of interpretation of quantitative data, along with written and verbal communication.
Context for Use
This activity is a follow-on to the Wicked Problem of an Equitable Zero-Waste Circular Economy module.
This class was open to freshman through senior and consisted of 25 students across all class year. It was an in-person class with about half of the work conducted during class. The students did not need any specialized technical skills outside of that provided by the circular economy overview to participate in the assignment. The assignment was situated at the end of the course. In retrospect it would have been better to have the assignment in the middle of the term. It would be relatively easy to adapt the activity to other settings.
Description and Teaching Materials
Each student provided waste audit data. The faculty member compiled the information and provided the summary data back to the teams. The teams needed to determine how much information and how to articulate that data for an external and an internal document.
Teaching Notes and Tips
It is helpful to reiterate to students that different audiences benefit from different levels of detail associated with data and quantitative results. The same effort might require different types of communication strategies and levels of detail.
Assessment
The provided a foundation for assessment. This was augmented by an assessment of accuracy of information, appropriateness of level of detail, and coherence of presentation.