Using the Project EDDIE Green Infrastructure/Green Roofs module in Envsci101

Elizabeth Farrell, Nassau Community College

Excess runoff often times carries with it pollutants and contaminants, and has proven to damage water quality. In this module students will explore green roofs as a potential solution to the environmental impacts of increased precipitation brought on by climate change. The module is designed to help students learn how to work with data tin order to help develop and improve their analytical and critical thinking skills.

Jump to: Course Context | Teaching Details | Student Outcomes

Relationship of EDDIE Module(s) to my Course

This module was taught towards the end of the course. Prior to working on this module,the students in the course covered related topics such as water pollution and how runoff plays a role in water contamination, climate change and shifting weather patterns, and energy use. Students completed textbook assignments and participated in discussion board posts to gain background knowledge necessary for achieving learning objectives.

Teaching Details

What key suggestions would you give to a colleague before they used the activity in their teaching?
Depending on student background knowledge of using excel or other graphing applications, review the steps needed for graphing data. Review the equation of a line and rate of change with class of necessary. Be sure to have the class share their rate of change from Part B, as some students select a year that reflects a slower rate of change and this can become confusing.

How did you address challenges in teaching with the module?
This module was used with students in a remote teaching methodology, so the biggest challenge was helping students with the graphing and using the modeling website without being there in person. Breakout rooms and screen sharing proved to be useful tools for trouble shooting issues.

Student Outcomes

Based on student feedback, after completing the module, they possessed a better understanding of how precipitation patterns have shifted in recent years. The module also helped them to make decisions based on the data in terms of formulating a green infrastructure plan for the targeted sub-watershed.

Based on student feedback, the graphing portion of this module helped them to visualize the temporal quantitative dataset and to quantify the shifting rates of change. By collecting their own data in the modeling website, it also allowed them to quantify the effectiveness of their green infrastructure plan in reducing runoff.