2018 Conference

Individual Paper Presentation

This paper, with its specific focus on transportation within Portland as a model for Orlando to at least partially replicate, highlights the pedagogical benefits to teaching sustainability across disciplines while actively incorporating community partners. Extending the classroom beyond the campus builds on the experiential education merits espoused by those such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Dewey and offers our students unique opportunities to test theories surrounding sustainability directly in the field. Orlando’s sustainability plan, Greenworks Citizen Action Plan,[1] provides the foundation for this analysis, including its division into the six categories of livability/civic art, architecture/housing, food systems, water, transportation, and green economy. Analysis also draws upon forthcoming 2018 revisions to Orlando’s initiatives as well as a spring 2018 workshop thanks to funding from the Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation and an EPA Sustainability Curriculum Grant awarded to my colleague at Rollins College, Bruce Stephenson. Beyond pedagogical recommendations, this paper expressly examines political issues surrounding contemporary transit debates, including how pedestrian and bicycle access to the SunRail Station in Winter Park, FL (Orlando region) might learn from light rail within Portland’s Pearl District. 

[1] http://www.cityoforlando.net/greenworks/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2014/03/sustainabilitybook_web.pdf