{"id":508,"date":"2022-04-06T14:18:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T19:18:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/cital-blog\/?p=508"},"modified":"2022-04-06T14:18:39","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T19:18:39","slug":"the-green-campus-and-eco-pedagogy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/the-green-campus-and-eco-pedagogy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Green Campus and Eco-Pedagogy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">By Cynthia Rutz, Director, Valparaiso Institute for Teaching and Learning (CITAL)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Would you like to see VU become more sustainable? Then read on to learn about some green initiatives on campus. Alberto L\u00f3pez Mart\u00edn (WLC), VU\u2019s first Faculty Development Fellow, has spent the last year working on eco-pedagogy with a faculty learning community co-led by Giosu\u00e8 Alagna.\u00a0 Alberto and Danielle Orozco-Nunnelly (Biology) told me what this group has been doing.\u00a0 Then Julie Whitaker, VU\u2019s <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Energy and Sustainability Coordinator, talks about the many green projects she has on campus, including a waste audit, campus community garden, and Earth Day events.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><b>Alberto L\u00f3pez Mart\u00edn: Why Eco-Pedagogy?<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What is eco-pedagogy? Alberto explains that it is a relatively young field that has become prominent due to the immense ecological challenges we are facing. Educators who follow this approach ask themselves what skills students will require to thrive in a shifting and endangered world. How can we develop new, more sustainable ways to inhabit the planet?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some of the most common principles and goals of eco-pedagogy are:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Raising awareness of the interconnectedness and interdependence between humans and nonhumans<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Fostering creativity and systems-thinking to try to solve environmental issues<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Helping students connect with their surroundings by using nature and place-based learning<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learning about non-Western sustainable knowledge and practices\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Raising ecological awareness from a position of hope and understanding, not despair\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alberto\u2019s interest in environmental issues goes back to his doctoral years when he was a student of the poet and ecological activist Juan Carlos Galeano.\u00a0 There he studied ecocriticism, which analyzes how the natural world is represented in art, literature, and other cultural manifestations.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In his Spanish classes, Alberto uses images, videos, and\u00a0 texts\u00a0 that not only foster a better relationship between us and our environment, but that also include perspectives that try to give voice to nonhuman Others. For example, he has his students read various opinions about bullfighting&#8211;including poems that defend and poems that question the practice&#8211;to ultimately reflect on animal cruelty and its role in shaping the Spanish national identity and economy. In his \u201cSpanish for Business\u201d class, his students read and discuss texts that question the typical economic model of endless growth and expansion, given our planet\u2019s finite resources.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Alberto hopes that the Faculty Learning Community he co-led this year with Giosu\u00e8 Alagna will contribute to the ongoing green shift in VU\u2019s curriculum, providing faculty from different disciplines with yet another opportunity to find principles and eco-pedagogies that they can apply to their courses. The FLC chose an overall theme of plastic pollution and then smaller groups have been creating classroom activities related to that theme, which they will share with the campus at the end of the semester.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><b>Danielle Orozco-Nunnelly: Interdisciplinary Eco-Pedagogy<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Danielle joined the eco-pedagogy FLC because her biology class \u201cDiversity of Life\u201d addresses human-driven global change and conservation biology. Although her students read about and discuss these issues theoretically, she wanted to participate in coming up with some hands-on activities that would encourage her students to think more deeply about sustainable living.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She was pleased at how interdisciplinary the group was and with the unique perspectives that were brought to the table. They began by reading the first chapter of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">EarthEd: Rethinking Education on a Changing Planet<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> by Eric Assadourian. This piece challenged the group to consider including<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> sustainability or environmental justice in their courses and presented some practical ways to do this.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the second semester, the group split into teams. Each team was charged with creating a classroom activity on the topic of plastic pollution. The activity of Danielle\u2019s group involves students first learning about plastic pollution, then taking on different roles of those affected by it (including non-human roles such as a rock, a bird, or Lake Michigan), doing research on their specific roles, and then participating in a summit to share those different perspectives. For the final part of the activity, students are supposed to create a public artifact, such as a presentation, bulletin, performance, or art installation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Danielle wanted to close by encouraging faculty to attend the FLC\u2019s April 29 workshop. (See the flier in this issue.) She went on to describe the three main presentations:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The main speaker, Laurie Eberhardt (Biology), has done a lot of work with her students on understanding the impact of microplastic pollution on the behavior of aquatic organisms, especially mollusks. Laurie\u2019s talk will focus on teaching hope and showing students what can be done about these issues rather than just despairing about the current state of the planet.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The second speaker is a local farmer, Dan Perkins, who runs <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/perkinsgoodearthfarm.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Perkins&#8217; Good Earth Farm<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">,\u00a0 an organic vegetable farm, CSA, and Airbnb near DeMotte. Dan will talk about sustainable farming as well as sustainable eating practices.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, all four of the FLC teams will report on their eco-pedagogy projects, giving faculty some ideas on how to incorporate environmental issues in the classroom. The workshop will end with an audience-driven Q&amp;A session.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><b>Julie Whitaker, VU\u2019s Energy &amp; Sustainability Coordinator<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Julie Whitaker began her work on sustainability at VU <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">four years ago.\u00a0 Before that she was the first hire for Indiana State University&#8217;s office of sustainability as a student intern.\u00a0 She is thrilled to be doing this work because she has a passion for environmental stewardship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">She spent her first two years at VU doing an energy audit of every building on campus. Then she used that data to implement such conservation measures as installing LED lighting and occupancy sensors, and improving building control operations.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Julie\u2019s office has a number of exciting initiatives such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/facilities-management\/sustainability\/green-your-campus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Green Your Campus<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (includes Green Your Office, Dorm Room, or Event)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/facilities-management\/sustainability\/get-involved\/green-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>Green Learning<\/b> <\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Student \u201cEco-reps\u201d help create a culture of sustainability on campus through activism, research, and projects)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/facilities-management\/sustainability\/upcoming-events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Earth Day<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/facilities-management\/sustainability\/get-involved\/campus-gardens\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Campus Community Gardens<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Herbal Medicine Garden (new)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her door is always open and she would love to work with faculty on incorporating green projects in their classes or department. For example, she was contacted by Julie Peller, who wanted to help reduce plastic waste on campus. So she worked with Julie and two student interns to start a waste audit of the campus that will include 22 buildings. The student interns are paid by Porter County Waste Reduction. They will use the audit results to educate the community on how to reduce plastic waste.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Julie is currently finalizing plans for Earth Day (April 22).\u00a0 Events will include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A month-long campus conservation competition in the dorms to save energy<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A plastic bag drop off at the student mail center (bags will be made into benches)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A talk by a Parkhurst Dining nutritionist on the benefits of a plant-based diet<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A presentation on how to recycle<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Student interns presenting on their waste audit and plastic initiatives<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Community Garden Tours<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Her green dreams for campus include a campus-wide commitment to lowering carbon emissions.\u00a0 Many schools have already done this. In fact, VU recently became a member of the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability In Higher Education (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aashe.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>AASHE<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">). One advantage of this membership is having access to the campus sustainability hub, which has several resources for sustainability in higher education. Over 1,000 universities are members.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><b>SAVE THE DATE FOR THESE THREE GREEN CAMPUS EVENTS:<\/b><\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/facilities-management\/sustainability\/upcoming-events\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Earth Day<\/strong><\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Friday, April 22.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>\u00a0Teaching Resilience and Sustainability: An Interdisciplinary Eco-pedagogy Workshop.\u00a0 <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Friday, April 29, 4;00-6:00 p.m. (For details, see the flier in this issue of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teaching Tip Tuesday<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><b>\u00a0All Faculty Workshop on the Green Campus<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Monday, May 16, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. (See upcoming emails from the provost\u2019s office for more details.)<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Cynthia Rutz, Director, Valparaiso Institute for Teaching and Learning (CITAL) &nbsp; Would you like to see VU become more sustainable? Then read on to learn about some green initiatives on campus. Alberto L\u00f3pez Mart\u00edn (WLC), VU\u2019s first Faculty Development Fellow, has spent the last year working on eco-pedagogy with a faculty learning community co-led&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[76,82,95,102,138],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-37","tag-curriculum","tag-faculty-development","tag-green-campus","tag-instructional-design","tag-sustainability"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"kim.pomeroy@valpo.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/kim-pomeroyvalpo-edu\/"},"featured_img":null,"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"Profile":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"kim.pomeroy@valpo.edu","author_link":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/author\/kim-pomeroyvalpo-edu\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Cynthia Rutz, Director, Valparaiso Institute for Teaching and Learning (CITAL) &nbsp; Would you like to see VU become more sustainable? Then read on to learn about some green initiatives on campus. Alberto L\u00f3pez Mart\u00edn (WLC), VU\u2019s first Faculty Development Fellow, has spent the last year working on eco-pedagogy with a faculty learning community co-led&hellip;","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/category\/2022\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">2022<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">2022<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["<a href=\"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/category\/2022\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Curriculum<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/category\/2022\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">faculty development<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/category\/2022\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">green campus<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/category\/2022\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">instructional design<\/a>","<a href=\"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/category\/2022\/\" class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">sustainability<\/a>"],"unlinked":["<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">Curriculum<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">faculty development<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">green campus<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">instructional design<\/span>","<span class=\"advgb-post-tax-term\">sustainability<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on April 6, 2022","modified":"Updated on April 6, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on April 6, 2022 2:18 pm","modified":"Updated on April 6, 2022 2:18 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intra.valpo.edu\/cital\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}