Student Sustainability Research

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/11603/3107
This collection highlights the work of students in the Environmental Studies course "Applied Sustainability Practicum." All work was created in Spring 2015 under the direction of Dr. Barry R. Muchnick.

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    Reducing Paper Consumption at St. Mary's College of Maryland
    (2015) Whiteis, Caitlin; Muchnick, Barry Ross; St. Mary's College of Maryland. Environmental Studies Program
    In attempts to decrease resource consumption at St. Mary's College, I am trying to lessen paper usage on campus. In order to accomplish this I will be encouraging students and professors alike to use Blackboard in order to reduce printing assignments. I will also be placing signs around computers and printers encouraging students to reduce the margins on the pages they print and reminding them to print correctly the first time. Lastly, a group of students from this class will be providing a procurement plan to administration which will include purchasing double sided printers and more environmentally friendly paper.
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    A History of Sustainability at St. Mary's College
    (2015) Weller, Katherine; Muchnick, Barry Ross; St. Mary's College of Maryland. Environmental Studies Program
    For my project I am looking at the history of sustainability at St. Mary's College, through the different research and projects that have been done. Over the years there have been countless environmental projects and research done but not an easy way to access it. As a part of my project I hope to compile most of this information and have it in an easy accessible location on the St. Mary’s website. As I gather this data I plan on documenting ways in which St. Mary's can improve their sustainability efforts. While our school has made strides in the right direction there is much more to be done. One of my main focuses for this project will be sustainability through the curriculum. I am currently in the process of creating a survey to send out to the professors of St. Mary's. This survey will be a sustainability course evaluation report and will allow professors to vocalize a course they teach that they believe incorporates sustainability. This survey will also allow professors to begin to formulate ideas for future classes within their discipline that incorporate sustainability. This project will encapsulate sustainability efforts that have happened already at St. Mary's and those that are to come in the future.
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    Green, Blue and Gold: Recommendations for Environmentally Conscious Athletics at SMCM
    (2015) Schneider, Lilian F.; Muchnick, Barry Ross; St. Mary's College of Maryland. Environmental Studies Program
    As sustainability becomes an increasingly important issue around the world, people are looking for more ways to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices into their lifestyles. Athletics and recreation have a tendency to get overlooked when thinking of ways to increase sustainability. Additionally, many people ignore or do not realize the capacity of athletics to bring together communities, thus serving as a perfect platform for reaching out and encouraging environmental stewardship. That is why for my project I am putting together a list for feasible, sustainable practices that St. Mary’s athletics teams and the Athletics and Recreation Center can implement now or in the future, depending on their interests and availability of funding. Not only will these ideas help "green" the ARC and athletics teams, but they will increase environmental knowledge within the community, with the ability to transcend that knowledge to other fields and "green" St. Mary’s as a whole.
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    EnvironMentors Chapter at St. Mary's College of Maryland
    (2015) Rupard, Whitney D.; Muchnick, Barry Ross; St. Mary's College of Maryland. Environmental Studies Program
    Launching an EnvironMentors program at St. Mary's College of Maryland will establish a secure relationship between our educational facility and St. Mary’s County Public Schools with the objective to increase environmental literacy of all students in the community regardless of their race, gender, culture, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status. This program will help disenfranchised high school students gain access to STEM related programs to decrease the achievement gap, promote environmental awareness and sustainability, and to increase interest of underrepresented youths in the Environmental Studies program at SMCM.
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    St. Mary's College Sustainable Community Cookbook
    (2015) Kersey, David; Muchnick, Barry Ross; St. Mary's College of Maryland. Environmental Studies Program
    The community members of St. Mary's College of Maryland are interested in and responsible for sustainability because of the rich ecological, historical and cultural resources on campus. This sustainably minded approach has already begun to manifest itself on campus in the food system, however, we are required to continue its development. I wanted to create an avenue through which the wealth of food knowledge and wisdom held by individuals on campus could surface and become easily accessible community information. I opened dialogue with the vegetarian cooperative, whose goal is to eat sustainably, and eventually broadened the conversation to all community members in the form of all-campus emails calling for contributions. I was pleased by the enthusiastic response of the community, confirming my initial suspicions that a sustainable community cookbook would be supported into its completion. Based on support and feedback from the campus community, the cookbook is planned to be released online both in a printable hardcopy form and as an open sourced webpage, accessible to anyone. This will ensure that the cookbook serves as an evolving source for sustainable food initiatives on campus.