Sustainability Education Intensive

Join Kurt Grimm for his amazing workshop on mindmapping and sustainability at the CTLT Institute!

When: May 24, 2011 @ 1:00pm – 3:00pm

Register here!

Description:

The discovery and illumination of a life-centric and transformative worldview is central to my research, education, and mindmapping goals. Mindmaps are not networks, and are not equivalent to concept maps. Mindmaps mimic nature while highlighting process, patterns, self-organization, and emergence. Mindmapping unites words and shapes into simple patterns; mindmapping is fun and facilitates transformative understanding. Participants in this seminar will:

- learn to contrast complex phenomena (nature) with complicated systems (technology), while appreciating and applying that understanding to their own work and life

- survey the diversity of mindmap forms/types (and their applications) via an engaging narrative told through mindmaps, and

- create a mindmap of their own that illuminates a research-related concept, a course syllabus, or the essential elements that catalyze and perpetuate personal sustainability.

Facilitator Bio

Kurt Grimm is an interdisciplinary Earth/Life scientist, and is endlessly fascinated with patterning and transformation. He aspires to a unique synthesis of natural and Living phenomena that may clarify, catalyze, and perpetuate authentic and transformative sustainability.

Members of the Sustainability Across the Curriculum CoP are invited to an informal lunch to discuss a new draft document authored by the USI Teaching & Learning Fellows entitled: “Transforming Sustainability Education at UBC: Desired Student Attributes & Pathways for Implementation”. There will be a brief presentation providing an overview of the document, followed by a facilitated discussion. Please join us to share your thoughts on advancing undergraduate sustainability learning at UBC.

When: Apr 8, 2011 @ 11:45am – 1:30pm

Click here to register!

You are invited to join us in celebrating the accomplishments of the Sustainability Education Intensive (SEI) program, as well as to have an open discussion on the program’s future! The session will start with a showcase of projects that have come out of the SEI, following with a visioning session, where we hope you will contribute your thoughts in identifying what worked best about the SEI, approaches that might enhance programming in the future, and on how we can further build capacity for sustainability education at UBC.

Click here to register!

Late October message to the Sustainability Across the Curriculum CoP (Community of Practice)
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*** 1 ***  Upcoming sustainability events at CTLT & UBC

1.  Celebrate Learning Week, October 23 – October 31
See all events here: http://celebratelearning.ubc.ca/2010-events/

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2. Celebrate Sustainability Learning at UBC
Focus on: Students! (please spread the word)

2:00PM – 3:30PM, Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Irving K Barber Learning Centre, Lillooet Room (301), 1961 East Mall

This is a FREE event, intended mainly for UBC Students but also open to the public.
Register at http://www.eventbrite.com/event/899377061/

For more information, please visit: http://www.sustain.ubc.ca/celebrate-sustainability-learning/

The “Celebrate Sustainability Learning” session features eight speakers who will explain the diverse array of curricular and co-curricular sustainability learning opportunities for students at UBC’s Vancouver campus. You will learn how to find for-credit courses that match your sustainability interests, learn details about the UBC SEEDS Program, UBC Reads Sustainability, and sustainability and global citizenship initiatives run by the CTLT, and academic programs at the UBC Farm. You’ll also hear first hand from student leaders about how to get involved in sustainability-oriented student groups.

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3. Sustainability Education at UBC: Towards Place & Promise
Focus on: Educators! (please spread the word)
Special Event in the Learning Conference, Register here: http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca./events/view/1097

1:15PM – 2:15PM, Thursday, October 28, 2010
Irving K Barber Learning Centre, Golden Jubilee Room (4th floor), 1961 East Mall

Sustainability features prominently in the UBC Strategic Plan, and is increasingly cited as a value and objective for diverse activity across the university. It’s agreed that educators need to integrate and enhance sustainability in courses, programs and initiatives. But what is ‘sustainability education’? What support is available for sustainability educators at UBC? This session will briefly share some of the sustainability education projects presently underway at the university, and hopefully kick off an open discussion on how these efforts can be enhanced, and yes, sustained in the future.

Moderator: Yona Sipos, PhD Student in Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems and a Graduate Academic Assistant at CTLT, UBC.

Panelists:

Jean Marcus, Ph.D., Associate Director, UBC Sustainability Teaching & Learning Office
Farah Shroff, PhD., Faculty member, Department of Family Practice and the School of Population and Public Health
Naoko Ellis, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science
Margaret Gardiner, Program Assistant, First Nations Languages Program
Team Member, Forestry Sustainability Group

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4. 10th Annual UBC Learning Conference
Focus on: UBC Teaching & Learning Community

9:00AM – 4:00PM, Thursday, October 28, 2010
Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Golden Jubilee Room

Description:

We invite you to the 10th Annual UBC Learning Conference! This year’s theme, “Exploring the Dimensions of an Exceptional Learning Environment,” creates an opportunity to learn how your colleagues across UBC are engaging with aspects of Place & Promise: The UBC Plan. Come prepared for a participatory and dialogue-oriented experience. Sessions will explore how learning spaces impact teaching and learning, innovative curricular approaches to sustainability and aboriginal engagement and the complexities that may arise in diverse & multicultural learning environments.

This is a FREE event open to UBC staff, students and faculty.
Breakfast and Lunch will be served. A reception will follow.

Preliminary Schedule

9:00AM – 9:30AM: Welcome
9:30AM – 10:30AM: Learning Space Panel Discussion
11:00AM – Noon: Living Lab
Noon – 1:15PM: Lunch/Gallery Walk
1:15PM – 2:15PM: Sustainability Panel (see event above)
2:30PM – 3:30PM: Aboriginal Engagement
3:30PM – 4:00PM: World Cafe Report
4:00PM – 5:30PM: Reception

Please register for the Learning Conference at http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca./events/view/1097
Separate Registration for the Reception is required at http://events.ctlt.ubc.ca./events/view/1102

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5. Sustainability Education Intensive (SEI) Support Studio #2
When: Monday, November 1, 2010, 1:00 – 3:00pm
Where: CTLT Fraser River Room, Irving K. Barber, room 2.27
Who: For SEI 2010 participants
What: Reconnect with SEI participants and facilitators to ask questions and receive additional support for your SEP.
Registration not needed.

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6. Teaching for Global Citizenship Without Even Trying

Date: November 10th, 2010
Time: 1:00pm – 4:00pm
Location: Room 2.22, CTLT, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
Facilitators: Yael Harlap, CTLT

In what ways is your course already encouraging students to develop the knowledge and skills to be global citizens? Are there subtle ways you might be discouraging them inadvertently? Participants will use a model of global citizenship education developed at UBC (See #6 above) to create a global citizenship map of a single course and identify areas of focus to deepen global citizenship in your teaching and students’ learning. Please come prepared with your course syllabus and other course materials.

Please register at: http://events.tag.ubc.ca/events/view/1060

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7. Forestry Sustainability Group proudly presents:
Living Atrium Talks
Open to everyone who likes to play with dirt, and does so sustainably.

After a successful first year of the Living Atrium project, and to satisfy the cravings of those city-bound but nature-loving individuals, the Living Atrium Talks are brought to encourage another form of vital interaction and learning OUTSIDE the classroom.

Between now and January 2011, four UBC mentors will take us on 1-hour long journeys to the land of sustainable design, climate change concepts and urban gardening.
The series are brought to you thanks to Xerox Sustainability Fund and UBC Sustainability Education Initiative. Everyone (Forestry or UBC students, staff, faculty and researchers) is welcome. Participation is free, but registration is required – see details below.

Seeing is believing: climate change futures in pictures

Prof. Stephen Sheppard

October 27, 12:00 pm—1:00 pm

CAWP Classroom 2964/65; 2424 Main Mall, Forest Sciences Centre

What does the future with climate change look like? Do the sci-fi movies have it right?

Join us for a sneak peek of the latest developments in natural and social science on climate change impact and solutions.

Forestry’s best kept secret: the Ethnobotany garden

Prof. Robert Guy, Head of Forest Sciences Department

November 3, 12:00 pm, Tree house, Forest Sciences Centre, 2424 Main Mall

Created in 2001 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Faculty of Forestry, this small yet diverse collection of indigenous plants provides a snapshot of both the First Nations and early settlers’ way of life. The plants showcased here were culturally important for food, medicine and various other practical uses.

Join us on November 3 to discover our province’s living treasures and maybe you’ll be inspired to create one on your patio?

Sustainable gardening and horticulture – the UBC Botanical garden story

Prof. Douglas Justice, SALA and UBC Botanical Gardens

November 17, 12:00 pm, UBC Botanical Gardens

(garden access included with free online registration).

Are squirrels important to people? Learn what it takes to maintain biodiversity in urban regions

Prof. Patrick Mooney

January 12, 12 pm, Forest Sciences Centre

Declining biological diversity indicates a reduction in the ability of the planet to support life, a weakening of ecological systems and threatens the sustainability of human health, populations and culture.  Until we better understand the role of biodiversity in providing ecosystem services, our focus should be on preventing the loss of biodiversity.

Dr. Mooney will discuss the importance of maintaining biological diversity and ecosystem services in urban regions and the necessary changes to traditional methods of urban and conservation planning that would help to make urban regions more ecologically resilient and sustainable.

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8. Sustainability Education Intensive 2010 Project Showcase Event

When: Tuesday, January 11, 2011, 10:00am – 2:00pm
Where: CTLT Seminar Room, Irving K. Barber building, room 2.22
Who: Everyone welcome!
What: Participants from the 2010 Sustainability Education Intensive will present their SEPs (completed or in progress) to their colleagues, each other and other community members. There will be different formats of presentation and mingling throughout the day. Lunch will be served.
Registration info: coming soon

Sign up for the October 8th sustainability education networking event: Meet and Greet the fellows. Free, light lunch included. Time for networking and to ask your burning questions… Does it get better than this? (Well, sometimes it does, but this is still pretty good!).

Learn more about the inaugural group of University Sustainability Initiative (USI) Teaching and Learning Fellows here. Have a chance to meet and interact with them on Friday, October 8th. The fellows will be fielding questions about sustainability education in general, and their plans to advance sustainability education at UBC in the near future. You are welcome!

Friday October 8
11:45 – 1:30
Ike Barber Learning Centre, room 2.22
More info and register here.

An exciting new initiative at UBC - see UBC Reads Sustainability!

Techno-fix vs New Consciousness – In Search of a Hybrid Approach to a Sustainable World

Feature Speakers:

David Korten: Creating a Real Wealth Economy for a Just and Sustainable Future (followed by book signing)

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm, Wednesday, Sept 29th, Victoria Learning Theatre, Irving K Barber Learning Centre, UBC

David Korten is the author of The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community, When Corporations Rule the World and the Post Corporate World: Life after Capitalism. He is co-founder of the Positive Futures Network and Yes! Magazine. He holds M.B.A. and Ph.D degrees from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, has taught at Harvard, and served as a regional advisor for USAID. His most recent book, Agenda for a New Economy, outlines an agenda to liberate the latent entrepreneurial energies of Main Street from Wall Street’s deadly grip and bring into being a new economy – locally based, community-oriented, and devoted to creating a better life for all.

Stewart Brand: Rethinking Green

7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, Tuesday, Oct 5th, Multi-purpose Room, Liu Institute of Global Issues, UBC

Founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, the Global Business Network, the Long Now Foundation and the Well, writer, editor and game designer, Stewart Brand has helped to define the collaborative, data-sharing, forward-thinking world we live in now. In his newest book, Whole Earth Discipline: An Ecopragmatist Manifesto, he compiles reflections and lessons learned from more than 40 years as an environmentalist. Brand suggests a shift in the environmentalists’ dogmatic approach and describes a process of reasonable debate and experimentation. His iconoclastic proposals include transitioning to nuclear energy and ecosystem engineering, sure to provoke widespread debate.

Cost: Free!
This event is hosted by the AMS, the UBCmix and the USI Teaching and Learning Office.

Please register for this event at:

David Korten Lecture

Stewart Brand Lecture

When: Friday, October 8th 2010, 11:45-1:30pm
Where: Irving K. Barber Building, Room 2.22A/B
Please register here.

Members of the Sustainability Across the Curriculum CoP are invited to an informal (and free!) light lunch to meet the University Sustainability Initiative (USI) Teaching & Learning Fellows. This inaugural cohort of fellows is working with the USI Teaching & Learning Office to make concrete contributions to advancing sustainability learning opportunities on campus. There will be a short presentation outlining the Fellow’s priorities for 2010-2011, followed by a discussion and feedback activity. Please join us to share your thoughts on how we can continue to enhance sustainability education at UBC.

The session is open to all who are interested. Whether you can join us or not, join the Sustainability Across the Curriculum Community of Practice.

Each SEI participant designs and implements a Sustainability Education Plan (SEP) specific to their course, program or initiative. If you check this blog under outcomes, you will find a list of the 2009 SEPs. The 2010 ones are still in the works and will be posted in the coming months.

Below, we’ve linked to a paper presented by Annette Berndt at the 2010 Canadian Engineering Education Association, as part of the outcomes of her 2009 SEP. Well done Annette!

SUSTAINABILITY AND THE OFFICIAL COMMUNITY PLAN: INTEGRATING COMMUNITY-BASED RESEARCH INITIATIVES INTO A STANDARDIZED TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION COURSE FOR SECOND-YEAR ENGINEERING STUDENTS

The second annual Sustainability Education Intensive, which transpired May 30 – June 1, was another success! This year brought together 15 participants from various disciplines ranging from Business to Population and Public Health, and 4 institutions, including the College of the Rockies, Mohawk College, the University of Windsor and UBC. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward in supporting the participants in developing and implementing their projects going forward!

Thank you to everyone who spread the word about the SEI, attended as a presenter, nominated a participant to attend, and everyone else who helped make the SEI awesome!

If you are interested in being part of our third SEI in 2011, contact Angela at tag.sustainability (at) ubc.ca

Over the next little while we will be setting up a few Support Studios for SEI participants to troubleshoot and get more feedback for their projects, happening July 8 and November 1.

For those keen on seeing how the participant projects turn out – save the date for the SEI Project Showcase on January 11, 2011, 10:00am-2:00pm – everyone is invited!

On a similar note, we would like to highlight the successes of a closely related initiative: Sustainability Education Across the Province (SEAP-BC) Train the Trainer Workshop. It transpired two weeks before the SEI and brought together 30 champions from 11 post-secondary institutions across the province to learn about how they can advance sustainability education (with workshops like the SEI) at their own institution. Click here to check it out! Email Angela at angelawillock (at) gmail.com if you would like to learn more.

Lastly, click here to check out other upcoming sustainability education events!

Background:
Online technologies (Web 1.0 & Web 2.0) have become an integral component of effective contemporary pedagogy. From email to Facebook, nearly everyone accesses and uses the web daily. One study shows that teenagers ‘spend an average of 31 hours online’ per week!

Activity:
Find resources and tools on the SEI Blog and beyond to help develop your SEP. In small teams, complete the following activities and post your answers to the E-Olympics blog entry before others to win! Team members can work individually or in groups. The first team to complete the required number of entries for each event wins that event.

**Note: When typing up your entry in the comment box, insert your
Team Name (i.e. Team #1) in the ‘Name’ slot**

Event I:
The SEI Blog Scavenger Hunt

1. Find 8 resources on Refworks that you can use for your SEP – total of 8 examples required by the team.

2. Find other things in the SEI blog you can use in your SEP – total of 6 examples required by the team.

Event II:
Surfing the Web

3. Find 2 resources from each of these types of levels: (a) civic, (b) provincial and (c) national or international – total of 6 required by the team.

4. Find other things you can use for your SEP from the web – total of 4 required by the team.

**Note: There were some issues with this activity during the SEI and did not play out in full***