The goBEYOND Teach-In
From ClimateNetworkWiki
The goBeyond Teach-in is about finding climate Solutions for campuses through Education, and is part of the Knowledge Base.
Contents |
The Teach-In
The goal of a teach-in is to focus the resources at post-secondary institutions to tackle climate change issues. The goBeyond Teach-Ins are inspired by past successes, including a climate-change Teach-In in the United States which saw over 1500 colleges and universities host climate-change discussions between January 29th and 31st 2008. The event was organized by Focus the Nation, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering youth to create a just and prosperous clean-energy future. We organized a similar initiative to create movement and focused discussion in BC’s colleges and universities on how they can generate climate change solutions.
Concretely, the Teach-Ins create a province-wide network, linked through online communities and resources, of students and faculty engaged in finding practical solutions to climate change. goBEYOND offers continued support for their endeavors, and offers students, faculty, and campuses further opportunities to engage in climate change solutions.
The Details
We envision the Teach-Ins as starting points for an ongoing dialogue on climate change in BC’s post secondary institutions. As a result of it, we envision students Challenging one another make climate-conscious decisions in their own lives; students, faculty, and administration Planning together to push their institutions beyond climate-neutral; and a network of people making the best use of post-secondary Education’s impact in their communities. We believe campus-based solutions can act as a catalyst for action in our communities, and help BC achieve climate-neutrality and become a world leader for climate change solutions.
Thank you for your time! We look forward to saving the world (a little bit) with you this winter. Please email mbaynham (at) campusclimatenetwork.org to sign up for the Teach-In or for more information.
2009 goBEYOND Teach-In
The next Teach-In will be taking place the week of March 2-6, 2009.
If you would like to help with this exciting and far-reaching initiative, take an hour or two over the next couple weeks to send emails out to professors, department heads, and deans, asking them to SAVE THE DATE! Then, during the first two weeks of January, we’ll ask you to go a-knockin’ on doors to ask professors face-to-face. (Also, we recommend raising your hand on the first day of class and asking them to participate!)
To see a sample email, visit our goBEYOND Guide for Organizing a Teach In.
2008 goBEYOND Teach-In
So what did our first Teach-In look like? From October 27th to 31st, 2008, faculty members in all disciplines facilitated class discussions on climate change issues and the solutions pertinent to their discipline by asking a series of questions. Students shared their thoughts on a set of questions with the rest of the class, in order to stimulate discussion.
Questions:
- What are the connections between our class and climate change?
- How can our discipline be used to develop solutions for climate change in our community or region?
- Imagine that you have just been hired by your local city or town council to create a public campaign to get local residents to reduce their carbon footprint. What skills can you use from our discipline to help develop the campaign? Describe other disciplines that you would want to collaborate with and why.
- What can our school do to reduce its climate impacts and help develop solutions for our community or region to reduce its overall climate impact?
Many of us participated in the Teach In, either as students, organizers, or professors. Now that it is over let's gather our knowledge, and develop a goBEYOND Guide for Organizing a Teach In
We generated the following report based on the results of our first Teach-In:
2008 goBeyond Teach-In Report
The following is a concise report on the 2008 goBEYOND Teach-In. The full document is available here: 2008 goBEYOND Teach-In Report
Climate change is a complex and interdisciplinary problem. If we are to successfully reduce our negative impact and generate positive solutions to climate change, we must be bringing together our knowledge on human attitudes and behaviours, ecosystem pathways, alternative energy sources, economics, effective communications, and the expertise of other diverse fields. Post-secondary institutions are in an ideal position to generate solutions for climate change. In order to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration, we decided to initiate a teach-in at these hubs of knowledge and activism.
The purpose of a teach-in is to raise awareness of pressing contemporary or controversial issues – in this case, climate change – in order to stimulate trans-disciplinary discussion and action as well as generate advocacy for effective solutions. As part of goBeyond’s Education Pillar, we organized a province-wide teach-in that took place during the last week of October. We were able to rally support and ideas for this event from faculty members and instructors across the province, representing a diverse range of departments and disciplines.
We asked faculty and instructors to devote a minimum of 15 minutes of their lecture to a discussion about climate change issues with their students. The focus of this time was to spark a dialogue that looked at the connections between climate change and the faculty member’s discipline or research interests. For example, a psychology class might discuss climate change in relation to behavioural change, and an engineering class might examine their role in creating new innovations in clean energy technology, and how it could be applied to their campus.
goBeyond was pleased with the results, and will be coordinating another teach-in from March 2nd - March 6th, 2009. If you are interested in participating, or would like to be involved in the planning team, please contact info@campusclimatenetwork.org.
The Findings
We will be sharing our findings with students and faculty in order to assist them in integrating climate change learning into their classes. In addition, we hope the findings will encourage the use of community-based learning techniques in which classes work to develop and implement the tangible project ideas they came up. It will also enable them to see the responses generated by the disciplines they indicated a desire to collaborate with.
In addition, we will be communicating our results with the Ministry of Advanced Education and the Climate Action Secretariat, to help them in: (a) utilizing education as an asset in reaching the 2010 mandate of carbon-neutral schools, and (b) re-aligning our education to more fully address trans-disciplinary issues such as the climate crisis.
We will share the results of the teach-in back to the aforementioned stakeholders, and we will work with localized groups to build upon the solutions generated by this project.
Participation in the teach-in far exceeded our expectations:
- 15 post-secondary institutions
- 21 disciplines
- Over 200 instructors
- 10,000 students
Disciplines’ Role in Climate Solutions
The answers that students provided for the first three questions indicate a relatively high degree of education on the issues surrounding climate change. They also contain a wealth of suggestions for interdisciplinary cooperation and advocacy.
Most classes were able to draw direct links between their disciplines and climate change, as well as provide suggestions for how their particular skills could help develop relevant projects. The question that asked the students to describe other disciplines they would want to collaborate with generated a wide range of responses. This is especially encouraging, as it demonstrates awareness within the student body and faculty of the need to have cross-disciplinary cooperation in order to address the climate crisis.
Institutions’ Role in Climate Solutions
The answers that the students provided for the last question are an innovative and broad set of ideas for change that could be implemented by their respective institutions. Responses ranged from the traditional (“Use low-flush toilets.”), to the technical (“Reduce the use of water by xeriscaping on campus.”), to the creative (“Use people to make power, like in the gym, use treadmills and bikes to [generate] power.”)
All of the suggestions were classified into the following categories:
- Food
- Waste
- Transportation
- Energy
- Education/Advocacy
- Other
Potential Collaborative Scenarios
The desire for interdisciplinary cooperation is very significant. The following two scenarios will take ideas generated by teach-in participants in response to Question 4, and will explore how these could become a reality through interdisciplinary collaboration.
Scenario I
“Use people to make power, like in the gym, use treadmills and bikes to [generate] power.”
Step 1: Conceptualize it. This would likely be carried out by the engineering department. Step 2: Propose it. A proposal would be written up by those studying business, with the help of those in english, journalism and communications. Step 3: Present it. The project would be proposed to the institution or any other organizations involved. This proposal would be carried out by a team of students including those studying: business (give presentation), visual arts (create visual aids), environmental studies (show environmental impact), mathematics (calculate energy savings and financial savings). Step 4: Design it. Those studying kinesiology and in the athletics department would be in charge of figuring out which machines to purchase/retrofit. Architecture students would work with engineers to design the physical space. Step 5: Build/Retrofit it. Architects and engineers would work together to build the gym, or retrofit an existing gym. Step 6: Publicize it. Business and english/journalism/communications students would collaborate in publicizing this innovative project. Step 7: Run it. Although campus gyms are not often run by the students themselves, this one could be managed by business and kinesiology students, and the fitness instructors could be kinesiology students themselves.
Disciplines involved: Business, Engineering, Journalism, Visual Arts, Environmental Studies, English, Architecture, Kinesiology, Mathematics.
Stakeholders involved: Facilities managers, Staff Unions, Student Union, Athletics Department.
Scenario II
“Reduce the use of water by xeriscaping on campus.”
Step 1: Research it. In order to figure out which native plants would be best for each campus location, we would rely on the expertise of those in biology, geography, natural resource management, environmental studies and landscaping. Health services students may be interested in creating a medicinal plants garden. Step 2: Propose it. The proposal would be put together by those who identified the plants (see above), those in business and communications (write up and present proposal), visual arts (provide illustrations), and environmental studies (calculate reduction in water use). Step 3: Plant it. The garden would be planted primarily by those in the landscaping program. An interesting addition would be to have education students lead school groups in helping to plant the garden, as a tool for teaching about sustainability and local vegetation. Step 4: Promote it. The xeriscaped garden would be promoted through a series of information signs and posters (designs and content provided by those in visual arts and english/communications, respectively).
Disciplines involved: Biology, Geography, Natural Resource Management, Environmental Studies, Landscaping, Health Services, English, Communications, Business, Visual Arts, Education.
Stakeholders involved: Facilities management, Staff Unions, Student Union
