3 Sustainable Campus Learning Landscapes: Helping students enact sustainability through adaptive-co-management

“Learning landscapes provide opportunities to directly incorporate students in the design and planning process, providing insight on what the campus community may need, and furthering student knowledge of sustainability in practice”

(Gomez & Derr, 2021[1])

Background

Through this project I sought to combine sustainability competencies with connected learning and a living lab framework to provide opportunities for project based learning in a large classroom setting. Project-based learning is a widely recommended pedagogy for sustainability education as it provides opportunities for collaboration, student autonomy, and real-world application. In this project the campus landscape serves as a living laboratory for project-based learning and environmental stewardship of both built and natural spaces of campus.  This project also helps to fill 3 key gaps in living lab literature including: 1. Bridging living lab projects and learning to specific campus plans or policies; 2. Connecting living labs more broadly to transformation of campus sustainability goals; and 3. Assessing the benefits that come from utilization of landscapes as living laboratories and sustainability competencies (Redman et. al. 2020[2]; Gomez & Derr, 2021).  This project also contributes to helping develop pedagogies to help students engage with complex sustainability problems  (van der Leeuw et al., 2012; Hjorth and Bagheri, 2006; Ferkany and Whyte, 2012).

What Was the Project

My ES 2005 Environment and Sustainability class and the UMD Office of Sustainability capitalized on a burgeoning opportunity to embark on a journey with the University of Minnesota Duluth to collect data to support the integration of an updated Campus Master Plan with the Climate Action Plan [3](CCAP) that will shape how the University adapts and changes over the next decade.  The class was made up of 58 students of various class standing (17 freshman, 21 sophomores, 10  juniors, and 10 seniors) divided into 11 teams who participated in an experiential learning project titled Sustainable Campus Learning Landscapes: Helping students enact sustainability through adaptive-co-management . Given that students are learning in an age of information and social connections we also utilized connected learning methods to embed personal interests, supportive relationships, social connections and opportunities that embraced the diverse backgrounds and interests of students from multiple disciplines. The class was a 50 minute class taught on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and included students from nearly all disciplines across campus.

The Office of Sustainability gave a 50 minute overview and presentation of the University’s new CCAP plan.  We divided the campus into eleven sites and broke the class into corresponding groups.  Student groups were divided up into a manageable size over a period of 3 days and given a campus sustainability tour that included a sampling of visits to the sites over three separate class periods. The tour was led by the Office of Sustainability.  Those not touring remained in the classroom and were trained by their professor in multiple social and ecological data collection tools including i-map invasives, i-naturalist, i-tree survey tools and public life tools to collect data on things like tree health, the location of invasive species, and in what ways students utilize the various sites.  Students were provided with examples of how to collect data and enter it into a shared spreadsheet, and how to write field notes. Students also worked with the professor to negotiate various aspects of a draft rubric contributing significantly to deadlines, deliverables, and recommendations for how to most work effectively as a team. Students were asked to read the former 50-page Master Plan to better understand what a master plan is and in what ways environment and sustainability might play a role in a new integrated approach. Moreover, they were presented with the following working research questions as guides:

• What are the most distinct physical/social features of your site that are important considerations for combining a campus master plan and climate action plan? Trees? Invasive species? Native species? Human uses? Built environment and infrastructure?
  • ○ Once you have working questions it is important to ask, what tools can be applied to answer my research question/s for my particular site?
• Given that the physical environment affects student development, and that students spend most of their time in college out of the classrooms, in what ways might campus landscapes and places be designed to make them inviting, more engaging of students, more protective of more than human systems, more adaptive to climate change?
• In what ways might we make campus more livable, workable, visitable, sustainable?

Main project goals included:

• Inventory, quantify, and map campus’s natural assets;
• Inventory, quantify, map, and take action to remove invasive species;
• Increase knowledge of how spaces are used by people;
• Enable students to provide detailed, data-supported feedback on campus & climate action planning;
• Students experiment through implementing monitoring and adjusting in real space and time;
• Enable students to explore intersecting policies and practice;
• Enable students to consider rights, responsibilities and power across a range of relevant stakeholders through an adaptive co-management strategy to contribute to the creation of a living laboratory on campus, in turn helping achieve campus’ goals;
• Provide opportunities for student identification of in what ways they might implement sustainability into their own career pathways and development deliverables to build their portfolios and practice articulating what they learned.

Students were also asked to utilize their findings to provide recommendations for their site that might help to enhance the university’s sense of place by creating well-defined, functional, sustainable, beautiful and coherent campus environments that promote intellectual and social exchange, ecological preservation and rehabilitation, and help prepare campus for climate adaptation and resilience.  Students were also instructed that their final deliverable would include a class report to the Office of Sustainability; were encouraged to participate in an evening meeting with CCAP campus consultants; that they would need to prepare draft presentations to present to their class for peer review and feedback and that the project would culminate in polished presentations that all staff, faculty, administrators and students would be invited to attend.

Competencies and Frameworks Used

This project combined multiple competency frameworks including: Sustainability Competencies, a Living Lab framework (Gomez and Derr 2021); and Connected Learning model (Connected Learning Alliance 2022). Linking adaptive co-management and living laboratory framework with sustainability competencies can help students learn-by-doing, integrate multiple knowledge systems, emphasize flexibility of management structures, and advance collaboration through power sharing at multiple scales (Gomez & Derr, 2021). A living lab framework also encourages student engagement through recreation, health and well-being, and sustainability awareness.

Key competencies:

• Futures Thinking (ASU)
• Values Thinking (ASU)
• Strategic Thinking (ASU)
• Interpersonal Collaboration (ASU and Connected Learning)
• Integrated Problem Solving (ASU)
• Integrated Policies and Practice (Living Lab)

Skills:

• Knowledge Management and Organization
• Project Management
• Communication/Presentation
• Team-Work
• Adaptive Co-Management

Values:

• Motivation is intimately linked to values. Students consider what they value in a campus community including relationships with the more than human world, interactions with each other, what they value in a built environment.

Some student thoughts

Theme One: Recreation Health and Well-Being

“I found that pulling buckthorn was, while difficult due to the size and strength of its roots, was quite fun. I honestly enjoy doing physical labor and when doing it is helping the native species of the area, it makes it even better. I also find it is easier to bond with people when you put a bunch of us together with a common goal to something, which means I got connected with the community of the classroom a bit more. As it relates to the climate actions plan, it would be interesting to see if there are ways to get more of the student body physically involved in the changing landscape of campus, like if there was a land stewardship class. All in all, it was a good time, and since I don’t have pictures I will keep this short.”

“I actually really enjoyed pulling buckthorn, it was nice to get my hands dirty and be outside before it gets too cold to enjoy it outside. It was also nice to feel like we were making an actual difference to the campus climate and environment while applying what we discuss in class rather than just taking notes and being tested like most of my classes are.  We learned that by removing the buckthorn, not only are we making the environment and greenery on campus look nicer and more welcoming for those passing by, but we are also helping improve the ecosystem. By removing the invasive species that is Buckthorn, we are reducing the competition for the native species meaning that they have more room for roots to grow and therefore can take up more nutrients to grow than they were getting before.”

Theme Two: Adaptive-Co-Management

“While there is some legislation and economic policy dedicated to curb the impact of invasive species on environments (Sherman & Montgomery), in my opinion it is not nearly enough. This holds true for the more broad areas of economic policy. There is a severe distinction between what we know we should do and what we actually do. The scientists have an extremely deep understanding of the topics they discuss. They and the sustainability professionals work together to draft policy that hopefully better our environment to the needed degree. However, there are competing interests in this at all scales of economic and environmental change. Our governments only do enough to satisfy the need for the feeling of progress rather than any actual progress. While we do have an environmental protection agency, year after year its funding and authority is cut. Tischer creek [our site]. The funding probably isn’t there to properly maintain it so we are forced to adapt to what the legislation and broader funding allows. Further, if it was decided by some school officials that the Tischer creek area would “better serve the community as a parking lot, we would see the natural beauty and quiet reserve of the area desecrated with concrete and asphalt. What I am trying to say is that just knowing what to do isn’t enough.”

Theme Three: Complex Social-Ecological Systems

“Between the maintenance building and lot D — this one is even more of a dilemma, as there’s this balance to be struck between the utility and accessibility advantages of a more substantial bridge, versus the environmental impacts on the pond and forest there if we have this new structure there, let alone any paths we might want there if we do create something like a bridge. We don’t want even more concrete blocking up water here, and even without material impacts we also need to consider what this new structure will mean for local fauna and flora; as a source of shelter, will it help local wildlife, or welcome invasive species into its shadowy underpass?”

“​A point that I brought up is that we should have more outdoor spaces for students to study outside. We are supposed to be the up north outside U of M school and we do not inspire​ ​students to be outside. I also suggested that we get rid of the chain link fence by Chester Park. I​ ​am late because of that fence to band everyday and the teacher has to start 5 minutes later​ ​because of it. I do not think that is fair to him, and it certainly isn’t fair to the students who are​ ​paying to get the fullness out of the class. This chain link fence is on our Lund Site.”

“Then, they began to take our feedback as to what we want to see from our campus in the future, including focusing on UMD’s identity, ensuring diversity and representation within these conversations, divesting from fossil fuels, more places to sit and hang out, and general aesthetic appeal. There wasn’t any time to mention my specific site (Tischer Creek), but topics that would affect my site, such as adequate lighting and a welcoming atmosphere were mentioned. I didn’t mention anything directly, but the small group I am a part of in SEE Change prepared recommendations for the consultants. I think that the meeting was beneficial, and I hope that these conversations continue with students throughout this planning process.”

Theme Four: Career Goals

“The semester project has helped me to draw connections between the natural world and business practices and how the two can work together to lead positive change. One of my passions is making businesses more sustainable and holding them accountable for their actions. I would love to work with a company regarding its corporate social responsibility initiatives one day. This experience has proven to be a great resume builder for me to achieve this career goal in reflecting on how my group’s data collection, analysis, and recommendations directly affect the university’s climate action plan for the next ten years. Being a part of this project has given me the opportunity to fine-tune many skills including those in regard to data collection, and field skills such as pulling buckthorn, as well as helped me to use my findings to develop a list of recommendations to better our site and the campus overall.”

“This semester project helped me gain a different perspective of the non-human world on campus. This is my first semester at UMD so this project was my first introduction to wildlife on campus. While I was at my site, site 8, I was thinking of ways that this site could be better for the people who use the campus. However, the main attribute of our site is the forest and wildlife and according to the I canopy tool that our group used, this site offers over $100,000 of free air pollution control for our site (Presentation, 2022). Looking at this information I realized that not everywhere on campus needs to be people friendly and that forest and just act as a forest. This project influenced me to reevaluate the way I see nature on campus, because a forest can just be a forest.”

References