2015 Conference

Full Presentation Panel

This panel discussion brings together people who have crossed that invisible yet real boundary between campus and community, by design, with their environmental studies courses. This boundary-crossing goes by many names — community based learning, service learning, experiential learning, and place based learning — which indeed have theoretical differences, but in practice have similar learning goals and challenges. Particularly in the context of interdisciplinary environmental studies courses, these goals often include: helping students concretize global/abstract environmental issues through the lens of their immediate community; illustrating complexity through confronting a real-life interdisciplinary problem; exercising problem-solving skills; learning by doing; meeting a need(s) for a community organization or public entity; and building campus-community goodwill. Panelists will examine the efficacy of these types of environmental studies courses for achieving these goals. Panelists will draw upon their own research and the results of institutional assessments to explore the following questions:

What sorts of things do we intend for students to take away from these learning experiences, and what do they actually learn?

What are the impacts of these courses on affiliated community partners?

What are some of the qualitative strategies and/or quantitative frameworks which have been successfully used to assess student (and community) learning?

AESS Community-Based Learning Part 2: Assessing Student Learning Outcomes & Community Impacts

Panel Organizer: Francis Eanes, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Abstracts for Individual Presenters:

Title: “Issues in Assessing the Outcomes of a Community-based Research Project

Presenter: John C. Berg, PhD — Suffolk University

Community-based research is a form of service-learning in which upper level students bring their academic skills into the field to meet the needs of a community partner. This presentation will discuss a partnership developed over two years between a course in Environmental Policy and Politics and the organization Clean Water Action (CWA). Groups of 6 to 8 students worked with a CWA staff member to tackle such problems as reducing leaks in gas lines, removing consumer products containing toxic substances from stores, and implementing public aid to small businesses for energy-saving projects. After briefly describing the activities, the presentation will focus on problems and possible solutions in assess the student learning outcomes of the community-based portion of the course.

Title: “Multi-level Assessment of Community Engagement Experiences:  Assessing Student-, Program-, and Community-Level Outcomes”

Presenter: Karen G. Mumford, PhD, MS, MA — University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire

Courses employing community engagement practices provide unique opportunities for environmental studies and sciences faculty to assess and document the importance of these practices to their students, programs, institutions, and community partners.  Even as assessment practices in higher education have emerged and been strengthened to ensure program accountability and student learning, many do not address the multiple levels of outcomes associated with community engagement efforts.  Examples of outcomes that could be assessed at multiple levels are discussed including strategies for the collection of quantitative and qualitative information.  Critical to this discussion is the development of outcomes in which measurement or collection of information is possible.  The value of assessing community-based experiences at multiple levels will be examined including how to use the information to improve the experiences for students, faculty, and partners; how to reduce challenges for future projects; how to generate a shared understanding of the experience among those involved; and how to indicate at the program and institutional level of advantages of community-based experiences.

Title: Preparing Students for the Future through Research-Based Service Learning in the    Community

Presenter: Dave Gosselin, PhD — University of Nebraska-Lincoln

An overarch theme for the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is to provide opportunities for real work on real issues so students can make an impact. In the program's Environmental Engagement in the Community Class, each student, as a member of a team, works with a client to address a challenge that the organization has. Clients propose a challenge with which their organization could use help. Through a consensus-based process students are assigned to project teams based on their interest, skills and abilities. Business-based assessment tools help students understand their behavioral and motivational characteristics and the potential impact these characteristics have on their abilities to collaborate with others. These groups collaborate with the client to develop a product that: 1) clearly identifies the challenge, 2) provides relevant research-based background information on what other organizations are doing, 3) offers potential solutions, and 4) provides recommendations for moving forward. As part of the process, students develop work plans, budgets, and client-centered products.

Clients for the Engagement class have included the Lincoln’s Mayor Office; Lincoln Electrical System; WasteCap Nebraska;  Lincoln EcoStores; Lincoln-Lancaster  County Health Department; Cleaner Greener Lincoln, Nebraska Department of Education, City of Lincoln Recycling Office; Robinette Farms; Norris School District; TriCon Industries; and University of Nebraska Facilities. Based on anecdotal information, these projects have had an impact on  their clients. For example, five project groups testified to the Joint Project Authority for a new arena in Lincoln and their input strongly influenced the design of waste management and reduction in the arena. Studies also presented a new video they created to members of the Nebraska Department of Education promoting the Green Schools initiative. Another indication of success is that clients keep returning and look forward to working with the students each spring. 

Title: ”Assessing Experiential Learning in a Senior Capstone Course Examining the Impact of Environmental Lead on Children in Underserved Boston, MA Communities." 

Presenter: Martha E. Richmond, PhD, M.P.H. —Suffolk University

Experiential learning provides a rich opportunity for students to understand and appreciate the challenges faced by residents of underserved communities.  A senior-level environmental studies course offered at Suffolk University is designed to provide each student an opportunity to investigate a different facet of environmental lead with a specific focus on its impact in underserved communities.  Each student will develop a project that provides first-hand knowledge of challenges inherent to lead contamination and remediation. As a whole, the class is required to synthesize findings by developing a position paper/proposal suitable for presentation to a legislative or regulatory body.  To assess the effectiveness of experiential learning, students are asked prior to and after completion of the course to complete a questionnaire addressing several issues of lead contamination, its effects on underserved communities, including health, socio-economic issues, challenges for remediation funding, and the regulatory environment that impacts remediation.  Individual questionnaires will be returned to each student.  Students will be asked to write a short qualitative piece comparing before-after responses and to consider the way(s) that their thinking about challenges of environmental lead may have changed.