This document summarizes a case study conducted by students at Francis Marion University to increase recycling on campus. The students designed an experiment comparing recycling rates in student apartments that received recycling bins only, bins and recycling education, or no bins. Results showed apartments receiving bins recycled significantly more waste over time, diverting about 1/3 of the waste stream from landfills. While education did not statistically increase recycling amounts, the overall waste stream was reduced. Presenting results at conferences provided positive student feedback and recommendations to expand recycling university-wide. Challenges included bin contamination and limited physical plant support. Overall, the study demonstrated students will recycle given the opportunity.
A presentation to the Sustainability Across the Curriculum Workshop at Saint Mary's University, May 12, 2010
Prepared and Presented by: Dr. Cathy Conrad, Geography, Teaching Scholar 2010-2011
Advanced Learning on Integrating Climate Change in Education at Primary and S...UN CC:Learn
This resource guide contains a wealth of learning resources on integrating climate change in education at the primary and secondary level. It includes first guide which directs a user to specific learning materials and courses, as well as selected reference materials relevant for learning.
It can be considered a guided tour to existing climate change learning resources on integrating climate change in education at the primary and secondary level. It is written from the perspective of a learner seeking to obtain an understanding what learning materials are available for a specific learning topic.
Addressing The Challenges Of Climatic Change Through Environmental Education ...iosrjce
IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal edited by International Organization of Scientific Research (IOSR).The Journal provides a common forum where all aspects of humanities and social sciences are presented. IOSR-JHSS publishes original papers, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes etc.
A presentation to the Sustainability Across the Curriculum Workshop at Saint Mary's University, May 12, 2010
Prepared and Presented by: Dr. Cathy Conrad, Geography, Teaching Scholar 2010-2011
Advanced Learning on Integrating Climate Change in Education at Primary and S...UN CC:Learn
This resource guide contains a wealth of learning resources on integrating climate change in education at the primary and secondary level. It includes first guide which directs a user to specific learning materials and courses, as well as selected reference materials relevant for learning.
It can be considered a guided tour to existing climate change learning resources on integrating climate change in education at the primary and secondary level. It is written from the perspective of a learner seeking to obtain an understanding what learning materials are available for a specific learning topic.
Addressing The Challenges Of Climatic Change Through Environmental Education ...iosrjce
IOSR Journal of Humanities and Social Science is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal edited by International Organization of Scientific Research (IOSR).The Journal provides a common forum where all aspects of humanities and social sciences are presented. IOSR-JHSS publishes original papers, review papers, conceptual framework, analytical and simulation models, case studies, empirical research, technical notes etc.
Increasing students’ environmental attitude through Visual and Performance Ar...INNS PUBNET
Visual and performance arts are effective media of communicating environmental and ecological issues. The need for effective communication to increase collective action and environmental attitude of students is the most pressing in the context of deteriorating environment. To assess the effectiveness of visual and performance arts as media of increasing environmental attitude of students, this study was conducted. It employed experimental research design. The participants of the study were the randomly sampled college students taking up MAPEH courses in one campus of a state university in region 02, Philippines. Result of the study showed that employing visual and performance arts learning activities are interesting. Ultimately, the used of visual and performance arts learning activities significantly increased the environmental attitude of students along attitude towards nature enjoyment, support for conservation policies, human utilization of nature, and attitude towards personal conservation behavior. Allowing the students to be exposed to the different environmental-based visual and performance arts learning activities where their direct learning experience is involved significantly increased their environmental construct. Further, the results reveal that both visual and performance-based learning activities developed positive environmental attitudes, greater environmental awareness, increased knowledge and understanding of nature, and are more likely to participate in environmental stewardship activities.
Study Of Achievement in Environmental Studies, Family Environment and Learnin...paperpublications3
Abstract: Environment in developing countries like India have been threatened by problems like poverty, pollution, overpopulation, degradation and depletion of environment. As such, the environmental protection and preservation has been an urgent need of the hour. Realizing its importance, it has been enshrined in the Constitution of India, which requires both the state and the citizen to protect, preserve and improve the environment. Considering the seriousness of the problem only inclusion in Constitution will not help a lot in preserving our environment, but the issue should be initiated at the grass root level i.e. in family, school and society. In the changing scenario of our society attitude of an individual are greatly affected by family, teachers, school environment, teaching methods, learning styles and many other factors and they all have a great impact on the personality development of the child. It is well accepted fact that healthy family environment, co-operative learning and environmental education can help a lot in the development of positive desirable attitude towards environment among future citizens.
The realitiesof climate change are gradually dawning on everyone including children. The need for a
disaster reduction education requires the use of mobile technologies to identify some of the impact of
climate change within an environment and create awareness on the dangers associated with climate
change. Since the pre-service teachers will teach the primary school pupils, it is aptthat the use of mobile
technologies should constitute part of their preparation while in training. This paper examined pre-service
teachers’ perception of using mobile technologies in teaching climate change in the primary school. One
hundred and fifty (150) pre-service teachers in two Colleges of Education in the erosion disaster zones of
Anambra and Imo States in the south eastern state of Nigeria were used for the study. Three research
questions guided the study. The study utilized a survey approach to collect and analyze the data. The
results from the study show that the pre-service teachers were confident that the use of mobile devices will
createsignificant climate change awareness.However, the pre-service teachers saw the need for using
mobile devices fin their preparation.Suggestions were made towards ensuring the integration of mobile
technology literacy in the pre-service teacher education curriculum.
Differentiated instruction using tiered lessons in inorganic chemistryPremier Publishers
The paradigm shift in teaching and learning strategies has been a great challenge to every educator at present. The modern approach to teaching is utilized in order to prepare students to meet the needs of every industry in the global context. As a part of the change, this study utilizes Differentiated Instruction using the Tiered as a methodological approach to learning. It determined the performance of the students on several measures and tested for the significant difference between the scores of the two groups. The respondents of this study were BS in Fisheries students from Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University-South La Union Campus. Two groups were randomly chosen, assigned as experimental group (N=30) and control group (N=30), and were matched according to their IQ. Pre-test, posttest, chapter test, and rubric-assessed outputs were used to assess the respondents’ performance. Frequency count, percentage, mean and t-test were employed to treat the data. The findings of the study showed significant improvement on the performance of the two groups in their posttest, chapter test, and in the outputs. The experimental group, however, performed better than the control group in the different performance measure. This implies that Differentiated instruction using Tiered Learning is an effective approach in the teaching and learning of Chemistry.
Increasing students’ environmental attitude through Visual and Performance Ar...INNS PUBNET
Visual and performance arts are effective media of communicating environmental and ecological issues. The need for effective communication to increase collective action and environmental attitude of students is the most pressing in the context of deteriorating environment. To assess the effectiveness of visual and performance arts as media of increasing environmental attitude of students, this study was conducted. It employed experimental research design. The participants of the study were the randomly sampled college students taking up MAPEH courses in one campus of a state university in region 02, Philippines. Result of the study showed that employing visual and performance arts learning activities are interesting. Ultimately, the used of visual and performance arts learning activities significantly increased the environmental attitude of students along attitude towards nature enjoyment, support for conservation policies, human utilization of nature, and attitude towards personal conservation behavior. Allowing the students to be exposed to the different environmental-based visual and performance arts learning activities where their direct learning experience is involved significantly increased their environmental construct. Further, the results reveal that both visual and performance-based learning activities developed positive environmental attitudes, greater environmental awareness, increased knowledge and understanding of nature, and are more likely to participate in environmental stewardship activities.
Study Of Achievement in Environmental Studies, Family Environment and Learnin...paperpublications3
Abstract: Environment in developing countries like India have been threatened by problems like poverty, pollution, overpopulation, degradation and depletion of environment. As such, the environmental protection and preservation has been an urgent need of the hour. Realizing its importance, it has been enshrined in the Constitution of India, which requires both the state and the citizen to protect, preserve and improve the environment. Considering the seriousness of the problem only inclusion in Constitution will not help a lot in preserving our environment, but the issue should be initiated at the grass root level i.e. in family, school and society. In the changing scenario of our society attitude of an individual are greatly affected by family, teachers, school environment, teaching methods, learning styles and many other factors and they all have a great impact on the personality development of the child. It is well accepted fact that healthy family environment, co-operative learning and environmental education can help a lot in the development of positive desirable attitude towards environment among future citizens.
The realitiesof climate change are gradually dawning on everyone including children. The need for a
disaster reduction education requires the use of mobile technologies to identify some of the impact of
climate change within an environment and create awareness on the dangers associated with climate
change. Since the pre-service teachers will teach the primary school pupils, it is aptthat the use of mobile
technologies should constitute part of their preparation while in training. This paper examined pre-service
teachers’ perception of using mobile technologies in teaching climate change in the primary school. One
hundred and fifty (150) pre-service teachers in two Colleges of Education in the erosion disaster zones of
Anambra and Imo States in the south eastern state of Nigeria were used for the study. Three research
questions guided the study. The study utilized a survey approach to collect and analyze the data. The
results from the study show that the pre-service teachers were confident that the use of mobile devices will
createsignificant climate change awareness.However, the pre-service teachers saw the need for using
mobile devices fin their preparation.Suggestions were made towards ensuring the integration of mobile
technology literacy in the pre-service teacher education curriculum.
Differentiated instruction using tiered lessons in inorganic chemistryPremier Publishers
The paradigm shift in teaching and learning strategies has been a great challenge to every educator at present. The modern approach to teaching is utilized in order to prepare students to meet the needs of every industry in the global context. As a part of the change, this study utilizes Differentiated Instruction using the Tiered as a methodological approach to learning. It determined the performance of the students on several measures and tested for the significant difference between the scores of the two groups. The respondents of this study were BS in Fisheries students from Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University-South La Union Campus. Two groups were randomly chosen, assigned as experimental group (N=30) and control group (N=30), and were matched according to their IQ. Pre-test, posttest, chapter test, and rubric-assessed outputs were used to assess the respondents’ performance. Frequency count, percentage, mean and t-test were employed to treat the data. The findings of the study showed significant improvement on the performance of the two groups in their posttest, chapter test, and in the outputs. The experimental group, however, performed better than the control group in the different performance measure. This implies that Differentiated instruction using Tiered Learning is an effective approach in the teaching and learning of Chemistry.
School-Based Enterprises and Environmental Sustainability
`
For more information, Please see websites below:
`
Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children
http://scribd.com/doc/239851214
`
Double Food Production from your School Garden with Organic Tech
http://scribd.com/doc/239851079
`
Free School Gardening Art Posters
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159`
`
Companion Planting Increases Food Production from School Gardens
http://scribd.com/doc/239851159
`
Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success
http://scribd.com/doc/239851348
`
City Chickens for your Organic School Garden
http://scribd.com/doc/239850440
`
Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide
http://scribd.com/doc/239851110
Embracing Environmental Education: Promoting Sustainability in Schoolsmansurali2343
In an era marked by increasing environmental challenges, the role of education in fostering sustainability has never been more critical. This article explores the importance of environmental education in schools and how it can empower students to become stewards of the planet.
Challenges teachers face in the integration of Environmental Education into t...AJHSSR Journal
ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the integration of environmental education into other subjects in the
school curriculum. The study critically examine challenges faced by various subject teachers in the process of
teaching environmental education as an integrated component in their subject areas. The role of teachers in the
implementation of environmental education in developing an environmentally literate citizenry is of great
significance. It was recommended among others that, the government should develop curriculum with clear
goals and content with specific guideline which shall develop teachers’ capacity in the teaching of
environmental education. Successful implementation of any educational policy, largely depends on teacher’s
competencies. Therefore all necessary steps should be taken to address challenges confronting teachers in the
implementation of EE as an integrated component.
KEY TERMS: Environmental education, integration, curriculum
Environmental Education Inspiring a Generation of Eco-Conscious Citizens.pdfBirtikendrajit
Explore the transformative power of environmental education in shaping eco-conscious citizens. Discover effective strategies for integrating hands-on learning, fostering environmental literacy, and promoting action-oriented initiatives to inspire positive change for our planet.
Transformative Education: Towards a Relational, Justice-Oriented Approach to ...Zack Walsh
This paper aims to increase related knowledge across personal, social and ecological dimensions of sustainability and how it can be applied to support transformative learning. The paper provides a reflexive case study of the design, content and impact of a course on eco-justice that integrates relational learning with an equity and justice lens. The reflexive case study provides a critical, exploratory self-assessment, including interviews, group discussions and surveys with key stakeholders and course participants. The results show how relational approaches can support transformative learning for sustainability and provide concrete practices, pathways and recommendations for curricula development that other universities/training institutions could follow or learn from. Sustainability research, practice and education generally focuses on structural or systemic factors of transformation (e.g. technology, governance and policy) without due consideration as to how institutions and systems are shaping and shaped by the transformation of personal agency and subjectivity. This presents a vast untapped and under-studied potential for addressing deep leverage points for change by using a relational approach to link personal, societal and ecological transformations for sustainability.
Read| The latest issue of The Challenger is here! We are thrilled to announce that our school paper has qualified for the NATIONAL SCHOOLS PRESS CONFERENCE (NSPC) 2024. Thank you for your unwavering support and trust. Dive into the stories that made us stand out!
Acetabularia Information For Class 9 .docxvaibhavrinwa19
Acetabularia acetabulum is a single-celled green alga that in its vegetative state is morphologically differentiated into a basal rhizoid and an axially elongated stalk, which bears whorls of branching hairs. The single diploid nucleus resides in the rhizoid.
Embracing GenAI - A Strategic ImperativePeter Windle
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies such as Generative AI, Image Generators and Large Language Models have had a dramatic impact on teaching, learning and assessment over the past 18 months. The most immediate threat AI posed was to Academic Integrity with Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) focusing their efforts on combating the use of GenAI in assessment. Guidelines were developed for staff and students, policies put in place too. Innovative educators have forged paths in the use of Generative AI for teaching, learning and assessments leading to pockets of transformation springing up across HEIs, often with little or no top-down guidance, support or direction.
This Gasta posits a strategic approach to integrating AI into HEIs to prepare staff, students and the curriculum for an evolving world and workplace. We will highlight the advantages of working with these technologies beyond the realm of teaching, learning and assessment by considering prompt engineering skills, industry impact, curriculum changes, and the need for staff upskilling. In contrast, not engaging strategically with Generative AI poses risks, including falling behind peers, missed opportunities and failing to ensure our graduates remain employable. The rapid evolution of AI technologies necessitates a proactive and strategic approach if we are to remain relevant.
June 3, 2024 Anti-Semitism Letter Sent to MIT President Kornbluth and MIT Cor...Levi Shapiro
Letter from the Congress of the United States regarding Anti-Semitism sent June 3rd to MIT President Sally Kornbluth, MIT Corp Chair, Mark Gorenberg
Dear Dr. Kornbluth and Mr. Gorenberg,
The US House of Representatives is deeply concerned by ongoing and pervasive acts of antisemitic
harassment and intimidation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Failing to act decisively to ensure a safe learning environment for all students would be a grave dereliction of your responsibilities as President of MIT and Chair of the MIT Corporation.
This Congress will not stand idly by and allow an environment hostile to Jewish students to persist. The House believes that your institution is in violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, and the inability or
unwillingness to rectify this violation through action requires accountability.
Postsecondary education is a unique opportunity for students to learn and have their ideas and beliefs challenged. However, universities receiving hundreds of millions of federal funds annually have denied
students that opportunity and have been hijacked to become venues for the promotion of terrorism, antisemitic harassment and intimidation, unlawful encampments, and in some cases, assaults and riots.
The House of Representatives will not countenance the use of federal funds to indoctrinate students into hateful, antisemitic, anti-American supporters of terrorism. Investigations into campus antisemitism by the Committee on Education and the Workforce and the Committee on Ways and Means have been expanded into a Congress-wide probe across all relevant jurisdictions to address this national crisis. The undersigned Committees will conduct oversight into the use of federal funds at MIT and its learning environment under authorities granted to each Committee.
• The Committee on Education and the Workforce has been investigating your institution since December 7, 2023. The Committee has broad jurisdiction over postsecondary education, including its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, campus safety concerns over disruptions to the learning environment, and the awarding of federal student aid under the Higher Education Act.
• The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating the sources of funding and other support flowing to groups espousing pro-Hamas propaganda and engaged in antisemitic harassment and intimidation of students. The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the principal oversight committee of the US House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X.
• The Committee on Ways and Means has been investigating several universities since November 15, 2023, when the Committee held a hearing entitled From Ivory Towers to Dark Corners: Investigating the Nexus Between Antisemitism, Tax-Exempt Universities, and Terror Financing. The Committee followed the hearing with letters to those institutions on January 10, 202
Unit 8 - Information and Communication Technology (Paper I).pdfThiyagu K
This slides describes the basic concepts of ICT, basics of Email, Emerging Technology and Digital Initiatives in Education. This presentations aligns with the UGC Paper I syllabus.
Instructions for Submissions thorugh G- Classroom.pptxJheel Barad
This presentation provides a briefing on how to upload submissions and documents in Google Classroom. It was prepared as part of an orientation for new Sainik School in-service teacher trainees. As a training officer, my goal is to ensure that you are comfortable and proficient with this essential tool for managing assignments and fostering student engagement.
Palestine last event orientationfvgnh .pptxRaedMohamed3
An EFL lesson about the current events in Palestine. It is intended to be for intermediate students who wish to increase their listening skills through a short lesson in power point.
Operation “Blue Star” is the only event in the history of Independent India where the state went into war with its own people. Even after about 40 years it is not clear if it was culmination of states anger over people of the region, a political game of power or start of dictatorial chapter in the democratic setup.
The people of Punjab felt alienated from main stream due to denial of their just demands during a long democratic struggle since independence. As it happen all over the word, it led to militant struggle with great loss of lives of military, police and civilian personnel. Killing of Indira Gandhi and massacre of innocent Sikhs in Delhi and other India cities was also associated with this movement.
1. The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
IJSHE
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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1467-6370.htm
Science education and
sustainability initiatives
A campus recycling case study shows the
importance of opportunity
Lisa Pike, Tim Shannon, Kay Lawrimore, April McGee,
Martin Taylor and Gary Lamoreaux
Francis Marion University, Florence, South Carolina, USA
Keywords Case studies, Education, Problem-based learning, Recycling,
Sustainable development, Universities
Abstract Instructors at Francis Marion University developed a recycling course in an attempt to
satisfy the students’ goals of increasing campus awareness about sustainability and recycling, and the
teachers’ goals of using problem-based learning approaches in class. Students enrolled in the course
designed their own experiment, completed the experiment and presented the results at several national
meetings. The focal point of the experiment was student apartments, where some students were
provided with recycling bins, some were not, and some were provided with both bins and education
about the importance of recycling. Results show that students living in campus apartments
significantly reduced their waste stream when given recycling bins and some education about recycling.
Although ANOVA tests showed that while the presence of recycling education did not result in
significantly more recycling, students who received bins (opportunity) recycled more as time went on.
Positive student feedback indicated the success of using project-based learning to teach sustainability.
International Journal of Sustainability
in Higher Education
Vol. 4 No. 3, 2003
pp. 218-229
q MCB UP Limited
1467-6370
DOI 10.1108/14676370310485410
Background
If it is the role of colleges and universities to educate members of society,
including future leaders, then they must be at the forefront of the sustainability
movement, working to increase public awareness concerning environmental
issues and increasing the knowledge, the technology and the will to create a
sustainable future. However, simply teaching the required courses for an
environmentally literate citizenry is not enough. Many educators and
environmentalists emphasize that a university must act more responsibly
before its faculty can teach an ethic of responsibility (Allen, 1999; Creighton,
1998; Orr, 1992, 1994). This is also a tenet of the 1990 Talloires Declaration,
which encourages universities to engage in research and education towards a
sustainable future, and to set an example of environmental responsibility by
establishing programs of resource conservation recycling and waste reduction
at universities (University Leaders for a Sustainable Future, 1999).
David Orr (1994) states:
. . . students hear about global responsibility while being educated in institutions that often
spend their budgets and invest their endowments in the most irresponsible things. The lessons
being taught are of hypocrisy and ultimate despair. Students learn, without anyone ever
telling them, that they are helpless to overcome the frightening gap between ideals and reality.
2. Increasing emphasis on sustainability in practice, rather than solely in theory,
is the solution to this problem, and can often be a benefit to a university as well.
Colleges and universities which attempt to integrate sustainability into campus
operations often see positive effects: reducing ecological footprint, often
resulting in monetary savings for the institution, decreasing waste stream,
reducing pollution and energy, and developing a green campus can serve as a
model for other campuses or institutions (Eagan and Keniry, 1998; Filho, 2000;
Strauss, 1996).
At the same time that there is a need for infusing curriculum and campus
operations with sustainability, and teaching earth literacy in our students,
there is a need for national science education reform focusing on improving
the quality of teaching in higher education (Arambula-Greenfield, 1996;
Balsas, 2001; Friedler and Tamir, 1986; Gurwick and Krasny, 2001; Jorgensen,
2001; Laurillard, 1993). As education and sustainability are linked, reform
must take place if we hope to become a sustainable society. Though the use of
lectures has been the predominant way to instruct university students, there
has recently been a shift towards a more interactive, inquiry-based teaching
style. It is recognized that the way in which learning occurs is as important as
the content; courses taught as lecture courses tend to induce passivity
whereas in an active learning process such as laboratory, the old adage
“learning by doing” once again rings true (Ahern-Rindell, 1998; Orr, 1994;
Schamel and Ayres, 1992). Because students have little opportunity to design
and complete their own long-term experiments they lack an adequate
understanding of the scientific method. The National Research Council states
that a central strategy for teaching science must include active inquiry
beginning with a student’s question and followed by a student-designed
experiment (Martin-Hansen, 2002; National Research Council, 2000). Towards
this end, problem-based learning methods are becoming more popular and are
resulting in better student learning (Adey and Shayer, 1990;
Arambula-Greenfield, 1996; Boersma et al., 2000; Darling, 2001; Gerber et al.,
2001; Grant and Vatnick, 1998; Gurwick and Krasny, 2001; Laurillard, 1993;
Marek and Cavallo, 1997; Whyte, 1999;).
Student-led research can not only improve learning subject by subject, but
can help students think logically and in a “big picture” kind of way,
incorporating knowledge from a variety of backgrounds and coordinating it
into a cohesive whole. David Orr (1994) includes among the failings of today’s
educational systems the lack of connectedness – without interdisciplinary
learning, students won’t learn to think in whole systems and will fail to
recognize our dependence on natural systems. “All education is environmental
education”, Orr (1994) says, and points out that our system of teaching, with
each discipline separated from the rest, only leads to the misconception that one
discipline has nothing to do with another. Finding the key to living sustainably
requires interdisciplinary cooperation (Jenks-Jay, 1995). Integrating service and
Campus
recycling case
study
219
3. IJSHE
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learning by solving problems as part of the curriculum can improve education
as well as make education more relevant and more interdisciplinary (Orr, 1994).
Problem-based courses, similar to service learning, focus on a specific problem,
promote interdisciplinary learning and faculty cooperation, clarify information
learned in lecture, and teach critical thinking while actively engaging the
student (Ahern-Rindell, 1998; Balsas, 2001; Cortese, 1992; Leroy et al., 2001). In
teaching science and the scientific method especially, problem-based projects
need to involve students at each step of the research; students should start with
defining a research question and proceed through carrying out experiments
and analyzing/interpreting data, raise new questions based on their results
and, just as important as the research itself, present/publish the results
(Breyman, 1999; Clugston and Calder, 1999; Darling, 2001; Gurwick and
Krasny, 2001; Whyte, 1999). These projects and case studies, unlike standard
cookbook laboratories, often last several weeks, draw upon a variety of
resources, and often have no pre-ordained answer.
In addition, teaching environmental science using problem-based methods
can result in a high level of student engagement as students learn to put their
ideas about sustainability into action. The process of campus greening raises
student consciousness, gives the student a sense of excitement and
connectedness to the campus, and allow students to develop a greater
attachment to the discipline because of their positive research experience
(Chaplin et al., 1998).
With this in mind, and at the request of several biology majors, professors at
Francis Marion University in Florence S.C. designed an honors biology course
with two goals:
(1) to reinforce the scientific method using a project-based learning
approach; and
(2) to teach sustainability using campus operations, particularly recycling,
as a focus.
Three students signed up for the course: two biology majors and one business
major.
Francis Marion University (FMU) is one of South Carolina’s 12 public,
co-educational liberal arts universities. It is also a Phase II school in the
Sustainable Universities Initiative (SUI), a joint effort by Clemson University,
the Medical University of South Carolina, and the University of South Carolina
to educate our students for a complex future and to provide models for
sustainable design and operations within each school. Francis Marion
University realizes that practices at the classroom and academic office level on
college and university campuses offer many opportunities for environmental
action. These opportunities are also a way to teach by example and, when
students are actively involved in the greening initiative, these opportunities can
be used as a case-study method of teaching as well.
4. The sustainability initiative
The campus recycling effort, spurred by the voluntary efforts of the Ecology
Club in 1995, and by results from an environmental science laboratory that
documented the campus waste stream was initiated in 1995. This increased
awareness and effort was also partly due to a state mandate by the South
Carolina Legislature for the reduction of solid wastes produced by state offices
(including state educational facilities) by 30 percent.
In addition to the state mandate, there was already some evidence that
officials at Francis Marion University were interested in sustainability: a new
energy efficient lighting system the gymnasium, fairly active paper recycling
program in the academic buildings, use of some native plants in landscaping,
and a revitalized nature trail. But an area of major concern to the students was
the lack of recycling in student housing, a service which was discontinued in
1996 because of too much contamination in the recycling bins which didn’t have
secure lids with the can/bottle opening and which weren’t adequately labeled.
During 2001, three professors, at the request of several students, developed
the honors biology course. They agreed to initiate and design a scientific
recycling study, use student workers and use the campus as a laboratory. Two
biology professors and a business/marketing professor worked together to
create the course and obtain funding. Several grants from the Sustainable
Universities Initiative (SUI) were used for student travel, publicity/recycling
education, and to purchase equipment.
Recycling is a popular area in campus environmental reform, and is often
targeted first by groups interested in campus greening. With this recycling
project we hoped to instruct all members of the campus community about the
amount of recyclable trash they discard and the cost savings benefits of recycling.
The project was designed to answer the questions: Will students at FMU recycle
given the opportunity, and will recycling education increase recycling at FMU?
In an attempt to encourage fellow students to recycle, an experiment was
designed to test whether education about recycling and opportunities for
recycling had an impact on student participation in the campus recycling effort.
The project involved research, experimental design, data collection and
interpretation, marketing the recycling concept, presentation of results at
national conferences, and a term paper. Goals of the project included:
.
to expand the recycling program into student areas, such as the dorms
and apartments;
.
to show the university administration that students want recycling, and
will recycle, given the opportunity;
.
to create greater awareness about recycling and other sustainability
issues facing our campus; and
.
to create a Web page and an orientation brochure to be given to incoming
students on the “whys and how-tos” of recycling at FMU.
Campus
recycling case
study
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Project design
The project design involved 13 apartment blocks, with eight four-person
apartments in each. The buildings were divided into three groups. Group A
(four blocks) received weekly education about recycling as well as individual
recycling bins. Group B (four blocks) received the bins only and group C (five
blocks) received no recycling equipment. All groups received an introductory
notice explaining the experiment and detailing what items the FMU campus
was equipped to recycle. Recycling bins were purchased at area stores and
consisted of ten-gallon rectangular plastic storage bins with a recycle logo
spray-painted on the sides and a videotape-sized hole cut in the lid. Trash and
recycled items were collected weekly, on Mondays and Thursdays between
4.00 pm and 6.00 pm and weighed using a standard bathroom scale. Trash and
recycled items were weighed separately, and the trash thrown out and the
recyclables placed in the campus recycling dumpster. Group A also received
student-designed weekly education marketing the concept and stressing the
importance of recycling. This education consisted of several flyers indicating
reasons to recycle, Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC)
recycling posters, a pizza party/informational session, and a “10 ways to save
the Earth” bookmark.
Results
Results show that students living in campus apartments can and will
significantly reduce their waste stream when given recycling bins. The total
waste stream for the study was 2,841 kilograms (Figure 1); there were eleven
collections in a seven-week period, excluding spring break week and the days
students were out of state presenting preliminary results at meetings. The total
recyclable material for groups A and B was 661 kilograms. Group A had 382
kilograms of recyclables and B had 279 kilograms of recyclables: almost 1/3 of
the waste stream was diverted. Group A began the study with 35 per cent of the
waste classified as recyclable and group B had 25 per cent thus classified
(Figure 2). By weight, glass had the most impact in the recycling material
followed by plastic and paper (Figure 3).
The statistical technique, analysis of variance, is the preferred method to test
whether there is a significant difference among means of two or more
independent samples. The results showed that the waste stream of the three
groups did differ (F ¼ 9:8, p ¼ 0:001; see Figure 4). However, the test did not
support the hypothesis of a difference between the means of recyclables for
group A and group B ( p ¼ 0.25 see Figure 5). There was, however, a significant
change in the percentage of recyclable material from the start of the study until
the completion (from 25 percent to 32 percent) for groups A and B.
Although the statistical analysis did not allow the conclusion that education
increases the amount of recycling, we are confident that the presence of
education and bins did significantly reduce the waste stream. And, we are
6. Campus
recycling case
study
223
Figure 1.
Total waste (trash and
recyclabels)total
recyclabes for study vs
total recyclables for
study period
Figure 2.
Recyclabes (glass,
aluminum, plastic, paper)
as a percentage of the
waste stream
8. Campus
recycling case
study
225
Figure 5.
Total recyclabes for each
collection (glass,
aluminum, plastic, paper)
confident that the students changed their behavior over time (from a low of 25
percent waste reduction to a high of 59 percent the week following spring
break).
The students also made the following recommendations regarding
university recycling policy. These included:
.
Recycling bins should be placed next to trash cans in order to create an
option for students. This should increase the amount recycled.
.
Creating a new full time staff position (recycling coordinator).
.
Recycling at campus functions (such as orientation, sorority, fraternity
and sporting events, school dances, and the annual Arts Alive Festival).
Media exposure was an added bonus as students were interviewed by the press
and presented their research at the district Tri-Beta meeting in New Orleans,
the National Collegiate Honors Conference in Nashville, and the South Carolina
Academy of Sciences in Conway.
Challenges
There were several major hurdles during the course of the semester. The first
was the contamination problem – what to do with bins that had non-recyclable
items in them; despite our notice about what could and could not go in the bins,
we had a lot of styrofoam, plastic wrap, paper cups and plastic bags included.
In the end, we decided that we didn’t have the time to go through the bins and
9. IJSHE
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226
sort out the trash, if a bin was badly contaminated, the whole thing was
recorded as trash.
Getting the physical plant, already overworked and understaffed, to support
the recycling initiative was also a challenge. They were helpful in letting us
borrow a truck and unlocking closed roads between the dorms, making
collections easier. It was a bit harder to coordinate storage and pickup of
recyclables. It was made very clear that the university couldn’t afford to
increase the workload of the custodial staff, and it was also fairly clear that the
university was quite happy with the local waste hauler. At FMU, the local
waste hauler is paid per trip to campus, not per pound of trash collected. Most
recycling programs can document monetary savings in that less trash
(poundage) is shipped out when recycling takes place, so they pay less for
hauling waste. As the physical plant was reluctant to have the waste haulers
reduce the number of trips they made to campus to empty trash dumpsters,
FMU actually pays more when the recycling program is operational.
Continuing the sustainability initiative
Education of both custodial staff and the housing office are the next steps. We
need to ensure that the recycling bins are placed on the room inventories, both
so that there will be a charge, and replacement funds, if a bin gets stolen, lost, or
damaged, and so the bins won’t need to be collected at the end of the term. At
present, students may request a recycling bin; we hope that in the future bins
will become a standard piece of “furniture” included in all student rooms. The
biology department will continue to support the Housing Office in encouraging
students to recycle, the Physical Plant is working on putting together a
recycling committee, the director of custodial services has agreed to let the
recycling committee address the custodians, and a Web page and a brochure
describing Francis Marion University’s recycling program have just been
completed and will be a part of this year’s new student orientation program.
Conclusions
Visible and enforceable, recycling is one of the easiest and most
environmentally sound practices a college or university can undertake in the
greening process (Ching and Gogan, 1992). And because it is also measurable,
the recycling effort lends itself well to scientific study. The results of our study
further indicate the willingness of students to recycle when given the
opportunity (bins); an additional focus on education about the importance of
recycling was not necessary. The impact of the student effort becomes
significant when faced with a state mandated 30 percent reduction of waste
stream.
It is also clear that interdisciplinary collaboration is an essential ingredient
to living sustainably. Due to the complexity of environmental issues, students
involved in a project such as ours learn more than just science: students learn
10. that ethical, social, political, economical and international relations are key
factors in the success of their project (Clugston and Calder, 1999). They learn
that environmental issues often involve moral choices and that to make
informed decisions, they must learn the skills necessary to deal with real-life
problems. In addition, they must learn to interact with and understand people
with different backgrounds and viewpoints (Flint, 2000). During the course of
study the students learned that there are many countries around the world
where active recycling programs are found, and, in fact, a few countries with
more aggressive recycling policies than the USA. Recycling becomes not just a
state-wide or nation-wide issue, but a global problem to tackle. Studying the
European Union’s legislation, directives and initiatives concerning solid waste
disposal and recycling, or Germany’s “Green Dot” system (licensed in nine
European countries), which places the responsibility for minimizing waste on
the manufacturers, or Canada’s deposit system and push for greater producer
responsibility, can illustrate to our students the variety of ways that waste can
be reduced as well as give local and worldwide examples of good recycling
programs (Lund, 2001).
The economics of recycling including markets, decreasing landfill space and
rising waste disposal costs, and concerns about incineration combine well with
politics – most states as well as the European Union have mandatory recycling
legislation – and psychology – attitudes are important in getting high
participation rates. The European union, for example, requires that countries
“recover” a minimum of 50 percent of their used packaging with material
recycling at 25 percent minimum (Lund, 2001). Economic and political
decisions have resulted in the United States and 15 other countries enacting
laws to require the take-back of certain kinds of batteries, and many countries
are placing the responsibility for collecting recyclables back on the companies
that made the product (Lund, 2001). These visible relationships help show
students that environmental problems are interdisciplinary and international.
Campus greening projects are often a student’s first experience with social
change, promoting greater consciousness and awareness (Breyman, 1999).
Working with the intent that the policies and procedures created would
actually be implemented and translated into an upgrade of the university
recycling gave the students a sense that their voices mattered and that they
actually made a difference. Curriculum greening teaches students the means to
help society become sustainable and how science, especially that which
involves active learning, can be used as a tool to teach environmental
responsibility (Breyman, 1999; Pace, 2000). Student feedback on the course was
positive and coupled with requests for a variety of similar courses and
amazement that the students themselves were able to reduce the waste stream
by 30 percent.
Information from this course has been incorporated into introductory
biology classes and has helped enlighten the entire campus community about
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227
11. IJSHE
4,3
problems and controversy surrounding waste management. It was an excellent
experiential learning opportunity for the students to become familiar with a
universal problem and understand it in a way that lecturing in the classroom
could not have achieved.
228
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