Course Syllabus

Sustainability Studio ENVIR 480

Program on the Environment, University of Washington

Zero Waste: From You to UW

• Instructor: Megan Horst,horstm@uw.edu, 414/350.6093
• Office Hours: Thursdays, 12:20pm-1pm or by email appointment
• Office Location: POE offices, 015E Wallace Hall
• Course Times & Locations: Tues/Thus 10:30-12:20pm, ACC 120
• Link to Class Website (for syllabus, assignments, dropbox, discussion board, etc): https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/777875
• Link to Tumblr Blog (to be supplemented by students): http://www.tumblr.com/blog/envir480
• Link to Public Class Website (admin only; changing) http://depts.washington.edu/poeweb/students/fyi.html

This course seeks to develop students as change agents in the goal of environmental sustainability at the University of Washington. Institutions of higher education, including the University of Washington, play a critical role in fostering rapid and wide-reaching responses to our collective environmental challenges. The greatest leverage in achieving institutional change occurs when faculty, administration, and students collaborate. In Sustainability Studio, students partner with University of Washington faculty and administrative staff in hands-on, campus-based projects. In addition, the course instructor provides students with regular and in-depth mentoring and advising. The specific topic of Sustainability Studio changes every quarter, reflecting student interest and campus partnership opportunities.  

EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING. Sustainability Studio engages students in the basic steps of experiential learning: experience, reflect, and apply.

• Experience. Students learn about the specific sustainability topic, hear from campus & community experts, and engage in relevant field-based activities. In this stage, we build on what students already know and feel, to develop a more sophisticated collective understanding of campus sustainability and the specific topic. Sometimes we also include personal experiments, such as committing to a personal week of zero waste.
• Reflect. At this stage, the focus is on sharing and processing. Students reflect on their reactions and observations, sometimes in a journal or essay form, and process their thoughts via class discussion and analysis. Students then share these reflections with the broader community, via a memo, newspaper op-ed, or blog post.
• Apply. After reflecting on the topic, students propose innovative and flexible solutions (in the shape of applied projects). They get feedback on those solutions from expert guest critics, project partners and clients, classmates, and faculty. Past projects have included case studies, pilot projects, experiments, research, data analysis, development of communication materials, and more. As part of their project-based work, students create professional deliverables that contribute to UW sustainability and gain new skills and experiences relevant to a career path in sustainability work. The course culminates in a final community presentation.

STUDIO FORMAT. Typical of a studio format, usually associated with the design and planning fields, the studio course simulates the practice of working in a real-world setting. It provides an opportunity for students to learn through doing, with faculty providing guidance rather than instruction, building on the students' previously-acquired knowledge, skills, and ability. Additional learning-which may include invited speakers, discussions, and library research-may be needed to further the project, but the format is more like on-the job training than a lecture, seminar or laboratory class. Because each studio deals with dynamics outside the classroom, and because it involves group interaction, each is a unique experience. Even with the most careful preparation, unanticipated things may happen in the course of a project; learning to deal with them is part of the studio experience. Parallel to the campus-based projects, students and the instructor will engage in personal experiments and reflection relevant to the topic. This shared experience will help us all grow in our individual commitments and in our role as change agents.

COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

1. Understand the UW’s sustainability efforts and the challenges and opportunities of sustainability action at a large, higher education institution.
2. Acquire and apply knowledge, skills and feelings about a specific sustainability topic in an immediate and relevant setting 
3. Work collaboratively with students from diverse disciplines and various on and off-campus entities on applied projects.
4. Practice effective communication, learning to filter and synthesize information into accessible, audience‐specific formats.
5. Develop skills in being a change agent for sustainability.

CLASS POLICIES

• Plagarism:Not tolerated.See http://depts.washington.edu/pswrite/plag.html.
• Disabilities:I will support students with disabilities in being successful. See http://www.washington.edu/students/drs/ for resources. Please let me know if this applies to you.
• Laptops or other electronic learning tools:Encouraged for note-taking and working on class projects. Please use professionally in class.
• Cell Phones:Treat class like a professional meeting. Please silence or shut off in class. 
• Communication: Please check the class website and UW emails from Megan frequently. Please post to the class website any course-related questions and/or use the class email list as relevant. You will also communicate often with group members, probably via cell phone/texting.
• Attendance: Every class session is important, and I expect you to attend every session. Please email me in advance with your reason for missing class. More than two absences will affect your Participation Score for the class.

PARTICIPATION GUIDELINES. To be developed collaboratively on first day. I determine 50% of your participation grade based on your participation in class, while you and your team members determine the other 50%.

READINGS. The readings for this course have been selected to help you better understand sustainability action at a university/institutional level and the role of Green Laboratories specifically. IN addition to what is on the syllabus, Megan will add some later, as team projects are selected.

ASSIGNMENTS. Your assignments are focused on applied learning, meaning that every one of your assignments is designed as a stepping stone toward your project. There won’t be any tests or essays. Specific details about each assignment will be provided during the quarter, but a general overview is described below:

• Reflection: Your first individual assignment. A typed journal entry about your Zero Waste experiment and its relationship to UW. To be complimented by a blog post, professional memo, or newspaper op-ed.
• Team Project: Specific projects will be identified and selected during class session. Sub-assignments include: Mini topic presentations, project proposal, scope of work, project deliverables and a final report (chapter of class report).
• Class Project: We will create one final report and presentation from the whole class, which will include participation from each team.

POTENTIAL PROJECTS (to be further developed this quarter)

• Developing communication materials to promote waste diversion, such as instructional videos (example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt4SsfGB7kQ).
• Reusable bag campaign.
• Restroom paper towel composting- pilot project, project coping and development, etc.
• Product stewardship – analysis of packaging on the UW campus, and evaluation of alternatives.

EXTRA CREDIT. Can be earned by reading or watching something from the Other Resources List below, or by attending relevant campus sustainability or waste-related events as approved by Megan. (Note: Videos and readings must equate to full-length to count). Must email Megan a synopsis of what you learned and how it applies to your life and work as a sustainability change agent. 3 points maximum per instance, up to 9 points maximum in the quarter.

OTHER RESOURCES

• Plastics Unwrapped exhibit at Burke Musem
• Any webinair from EPA: http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/ECOCOMM.NSF/climate+change/wccmmf
• Full No Impact Man book or video (available in UW library)
• Books from here: http://uwgarbology.weebly.com/recommended-reading.html
• Blog about Zero Waste living, http://zerowastehome.blogspot.com/
• Expanding list found on class website- students invited to add to list.

GRADES. Grades for the course are distributed according to the following table:

READING AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE- MAY BE ADAPTED AS WE GO

PLANS FOR In CLASS