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Interim Report Midlands Technical College Following is a summarization of the progress the team has made so far and a brief synopsis of how the team is progressing. So far, we have:
Future plans: I believe Travis Gordon would complement our team perfectly. Linda and I have already discussed the need for an Internet savvy teammate, and Travis is that person. He teaches on the Internet, and has worked extensively as an editor. Travis is excited about joining the group and already has some great ideas. We also need to select a team to judge our PSA's. There are one or two that I believe are worthy of air time. Fall will be the semester
when English and Speech faculty will become more involved. I've spoken
to the other speech instructors, and they agree a fall speech contest focused
only on environmental issues, would be a wonderful opportunity for students.
Final Report Dr.
Risa Gorelick
I received funding for designing a new course at Francis Marion University on Social Action. The course was taught during the Fall 2001 semester in the Honors Program in a first-year honors seminar entitled: Honors 101: Social Action Practicum. The class was capped at 15 students. Three students dropped the course during add/drop. One student stopped attending the course in October (he may have left the university). Eleven students completed the course. I had originally envisioned the course to be an upper-level rather than a freshman course. Some of the materials may have been a bit too advanced for first-year students. To attract qualified students, the FMU Honors Program sent flyers describing courses available for them to take. I do not know if any of the students who enrolled (with the exception of one) read the flyer that described the course prior to the first day of class. When I asked students if they knew what racism, sexism, Anti-Semitism, heterosexism, and environmental concerns were, many could only answer (briefly) about racism and sexism (and somewhat on environmental concerns such as recycling and pollution). Most had little to no knowledge of Anti-Semitism (largely because few admitted to knowing any Jewish people–never considering the fact that Anti-Semitism covers more than just hatred of Jews). The heterosexism topic made many students uncomfortable (as I had expected), but with the help of my T.A., Patrick Rabin, an FMU junior in the Honors program who founded Cross-Roads, the Gay-Straight Alliance, and wished to take the course for its inclusion of Heterosexism and other Social Action topics, students became more at ease with the idea that not all people are heterosexual. Patrick was given special permission to take the course (as he had already completed his Honors 101 requirement) and helped teach various sections (especially in the Heterosexism unit). He was able to handle organizing the unit on heterosexism and helped to put students at ease. Some students even expressed an interest in joining Cross Roads after interacting with Patrick in class. Not only was Patrick helpful in the heterosexism unit, but with daily class activities. Although the course was planned out during the Summer 2001 session, in light of the September 11th terrorist attacks, I revised some of the course’s discussions and I asked that students’ social action projects focus on a positive response to those events. I do think many students learned about the Muslim religion and better understood issues of racial profiling (discussed prior to September 11th but focusing on African Americans rather than Arab-looking people). I had not anticipated including anything on Arabs or people of the Muslim faith when I designed the course, but it did tie into Anti-Semitism unit–something most people (as well as our textbook) tend to link only to hatred of Jews. I do think the redesigned social action project was a positive way to deal with some of the psychological issues surrounding the terrorist attacks and the related issues that followed (Anthrax and other bio-terrorism plots). I was fortunate to utilize eight speakers (from the FMU campus or Florence area) in this course. The following individuals addressed our class:
While the speakers worked well, the textbook I chose did not work as well as I would have wished. I am not certain students did most of the readings (their mid-term and final exams suggest otherwise). Readings also tended to be politically liberal for a rather conservative bunch of students. In the future, I think I will put together a packet of materials rather than rely on a textbook (which did not cover the environmental issues anyway). Patrick and I found other articles (on the environment and other issues) which we copied for the class, and some of those readings worked better. Students were asked to utilize library and Internet skills to find environmental articles of interest to them. They gave mini-presentations of their environmental articles and wrote brief reports on them. It was difficult to orchestrate a service-learning project. I encouraged students to get involved in various community projects (in response to September 11th and other non-related projects). Many of the students’ course projects focused on educating the community on issues of airline safety, better understanding Muslim beliefs via www pages, brochures, and posters, and one student wrote a brochure addressing the positive environmental impact on being a vegetarian. In the future, more time would be needed to plan for service-learning. I would request, if possible, that the course receive 4 credit hours (3 credits for Honors 101 and one credit for service-learning) where time is assigned to do a service-learning project that will impact the campus and/or surrounding community. Many students complained that they did not have the time to complete additional SL projects out-of-class. Future courses would have to better address and plan for this dilemma. Students completed a course survey and I have compiled the results so I can submit them electronically. I am also submitting the course syllabus, midterm & final exams and course project assignment. I am sending the syllabus, social action assignment, midterm & final exams, and the end of the semester survey with the compiled answers.
Dale
Wilson
All three initiatives are in the planning stages. I have commitments from the Students and Advisors (Instructors) to start on the projects in the near future. The students are back in class now. The first initiative involved college recycling. As I mentioned to you earlier, we have an ongoing paper and cardboard program. After talking with the student (in Human Services Curriculum) and challenging her to other avenues for the recycling efforts, she would like to promote and initiate Aluminum and Plastic recycling. We have vending all over campus, but no place to place for the bi-products such as cans and bottles. She is in the process of detailing the activities with a time frame and budget. Second initiative involves a student in the Industrial Electronic Class. He is coordinating some energy conservation activities and budget. The class will assist with the implementation process. Third initiative includes a natural product composting program. The Horticulture Instructor is heavily involved in the development of this process. A student will include these activities as part of his "on grounds - hands on " training activities . Compost piles are already being collected and defined in the different stages for product use in this program. Reports will be generated to study the cost savings, sustainability and usefulness for each discipline. Pictures will be taken during all phases of each initiative. Prepared by: Joe N. Emily
Timothy Shaw
Learning by doing is an invaluable asset to academic researcher when attempting to train young scientists and to help them find their direction in terms of career choices. The South Carolina Sustainable Universities Initiative (SC-SUI) program like wise has been an invaluable asset by helping to provide research experiences for undergraduate students here at South Carolina State University. Thanks to resources provided through the SC-SUI we were able to conduct a scientific study this summer which utilized students and involved them in hands on research. The study involved using the distribution of lead concentrations and ratios in drinking water samples taken from a small rural town and to attempt to identify whether the source of lead is geogenic or anthropogenic. Lead has four naturally occuring isotopes. Only 204Pb is a nonradiogenic stable isotope. The others, 206Pb, 207Pb, and 208Pb are decay products of uranium or thorium. Lead from a natural source (geogenic) is known to have a different ratio of 206Pb to 207Pb than lead from anthropogenic (man introduced) sources1,2. SC-SUI funds were used to travel to Columbia to use the clean room and High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer housed in the laboratories of Dr. Timothy Shaw in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at The University of South Carolina and to buy standards and supplies. The Orangeburg Department of Public Utilities provided us with drinking water samples from their distribution system and gave us a tour of their facilities. An abstract based on the results from this study has been submitted for presentation at the Southern Region Extension Water Quality Conference to take place on October 26, 2001 in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Hopefully we will be able to continue this work and provide the same experience for other students. References: (1) Faure, Gunter, Principles and Applications of Geochemistry, 3rd Ed.; Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, 1991; p 485. (2) Prohaska, T.; Watkins, M.; Latkoczy, C.; Wenzel, W. W.; Stingeder, G.; J. Anal. At. Spectrom., 2000, 15, p365-369. |
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