School of Sustainability Graduate Culminating Experiences
Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.
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Description
In the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District (MPUSD), we ask our students to ‘dream big and dare greatly,’ but threats like climate change, population growth, and technological automation are threatening the realization of those dreams. Therefore, we must implement Sustainability NOW—an interdisciplinary, project-based curriculum that can help us address these threats while improving our local educational system. Sustainability NOW is an innovative, project-based, and STEM-centered curriculum that represents a strategic lever for the Educational Partnership Center (EPC) in achieving expanded outcomes that benefit the greater social good. But Sustainability NOW is more than a curriculum, it is a full-fledged organizational strategy. This report illustrates how a sustainability education program was designed and strategically mapped for MPUSD and the EPC.
ContributorsMutshnick, Christopher (Author)
Created2019-05-15
Description
Incorporating a Sustainability (S) focus curriculum through a sustainability lens, across all degree pathways in higher educational institutions using Indigenous Knowledge as a foundational learning platform can increase successful student learning outcomes. By realizing shared values of open communication, respect and diversity, and high expectation of knowledge explorations; Science, Sustainability, and Indigenous Knowledge systems can build upon curriculum that supports the college, students, our community, and global awareness of unsustainable practice. Higher education institutions have relied mainly on empirical evidence that supports reasoning and logic while Indigenous Knowledge systems uses experiential observations and learning. Being Indigenous Native Hawaiian and doing academic research from scholarly works of Native Hawaiians and their methodology in Science observations; I realized that a sustainability systems model share common value systems, but there is a disconnect between these two powerful systems. Building a coalition of experts in each field of study can create a new learning paradigm through curriculum as a holistic approach to systems thinking. All of the key components to creating a Sustainability focus curriculum are already in place at universities, and now is the time to bridge them together through collective shared values.
ContributorsKakalia, Gordean (Author)
Created2019-05-15
Description
"Community and Composting in Victory Acres” implemented a pilot composting program for a local neighborhood in an effort to increase community cohesion. Victory Acres is a low-income, culturally diverse neighborhood located in Tempe that used to have easier access to the Escalante Community Center before the 101 freeway divided the community. Residents of the neighborhoods surrounding ECC do not have access to the Escalante Community Garden except on Community Harvest Days twice a month. The goal of the project was to reconnect broken ties to the ECG through a neighborhood composting service. Through composting, residents could directly benefit from the community garden’s composting capabilities while encouraging a more sustainable method for dealing with food waste. The composting pilot project in Victory Acres was used as a way to mitigate the greenhouse gases emanating from food waste along with other neighborhood issues. The project would encourage aspects of community cohesion, sustainability, and happiness. By the completion of the project, composting in the neighborhood could continue through increased access to the Escalante Community Center Garden. An assessment via survey responses was made on improvements in perceived community connectedness, sustainability, and happiness. The pilot was unsuccessful in gaining a large client base for composting participation, but it was successful in exploring challenges and barriers to implementation of projects in Victory Acres. Several intervention points were explored, several lessons were learned from successful and unsuccessful engagement techniques, and opportunities arose for further future research.
ContributorsKiefer, Alyssa (Author) / Cloutier, Scott (Contributor) / Prosser, Paul (Contributor)
Created2017-04-28
Description
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions cause climate change, and if the world does not lower its GHG emissions soon, it will cause irreversible damage that will have overwhelmingly negative cascading effects on the entire planet (Mann & Kump, 2008). Up to 47% of the United States GHG emissions are the result of energy used to produce, process, transport, and dispose of the food we eat and the goods that we consume (US EPA, 2009). The linear-economy status quo does nothing to slow down climate change because it puts resources into landfills. This project promotes a circular economy which combats climate change by reusing resources that are at the end of their life cycle, e.g., food waste soil. The project was a month-long compost competition at an apartment building in Phoenix, AZ that houses 194 residents. The apartment building, Urban Living 2 (UL2), is subsidized housing owned by Native American Connections (NAC), a non-profit organization. The project’s main objective was to increase waste diversion. This was done through composting and improving zero-waste capacity. The compost competition included activities to change community behavior such as private and public commitments, a community barbecue, a movie night (which replaced a planned field trip), and a visioning meeting. By the end of the project, 22% of the tenants were composting. Over a year-long period, this equates to a diversion of, 6000 pounds from the landfill and 1.59 metric tons of Carbon Dioxide equivalent (MTCO2E). The waste diversion increased from 28% to 38%. Tenant participation trended upwards during the project and as the social norm develops over time, more tenant participation is expected even after the competition is over. The six indicators that were used to determine the zero-waste capacity, collectively went up by 1.24 points on a five-point scale. This project will be used as a model for NAC for its other 16 properties in the Valley.
ContributorsVelez, Daniel (Author)
Created2017-04-10
Description
The purpose of this paper is to identify the absence of sustainability teachings within our private school systems, introduce a program for the school systems to incorporate into existing curriculum, and present the process that would be needed to be followed for introduction of this program. There is a growing interest in the topic of sustainability and how it potentially will affect the next generations. Today some large companies and even some countries around the world are engaging in sustainability practices. Currently this is a very small piece of action regarding what needs to take place to hope to promote change around the world. Layering sustainable teachings and practices into children in their formidable years through graduation from high-school will bring about individuals that incorporate sustainable living into their everyday personal and professional lives. Repeating this practice generation after generation will ensure a sustainable planet.
ContributorsJanner, Brian D. (Author)
Created2018-04-24