Students in Environmental Ethics and Action Course Are Researchers in Landmark Lead Paint Case
Diane Dittrick |
It's not uncommon for college courses to include theory about creating positive change in the world. Students in Diane Dittrick's "Environmental Literature, Ethics & Action" course at Barnard are actually making a difference. They are fighting the lead-paint industry in a landmark case, raising environmental awareness on campus and, in Harlem, teaching elementary school children about the environment through agriculture, exploring religious texts for references on the environment, finding alternatives to traditional agriculture, and on top of it all, blogging about their experiences.
The course, in addition to field work and activism, focuses on literature about the environment and nature to examine human impact on the Earth.
The course has had real and immediate impact: One group of students served as research assistants for Dr. David Rosner, an expert on the environmental impact of lead paint and director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. The students gathered information for his testimony in the landmark Rhode Island case against lead paint manufacturers Sherwin-Williams, NL Industries and Millennium Holdings. In February, a jury found that the three companies created a public nuisance by selling lead paint in the state. The Providence Journal reports that state lawyers have asked a Superior Court judge to appoint a public health expert to oversee the cleanup, which could cost as much as $3.74 billion.
Dittrick's inspiration for the course came in 1998 when she was a guest lecturer at the Columbia University Earth Systems Field School in Arizona. She was moved by the experience and came up with the concept for the course on her return to Barnard. In 2003, she shared the idea with one of her environmental science students, Teruyo Sugimura '03, who circulated a student petition asking Dittrick to create the class; more than 400 students signed the petition.
Drs. Cynthia Rosenzweig and Daniel Hillel, research scientists of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies of Columbia University provided the faculty support to pursue the course and ongoing encouragement throughout all stages of the development.
"After teaching at Columbia's Biosphere Center 2, I became more aware that students wanted to take action about the environment--but didn't know how--and there seemed to be a rising interest in the ethical aspect of environmental issues," says Dittrick.
Dittrick wanted to explore and combine environmental stewardship and ethics in the course so she turned to Barnard religion professor Randall Balmer, one of the country's leading experts on evangelicalism, and recruited environmental journalist Laura Wright of OnEarth, a publication of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the environmental advocacy group.
"Many consider it unusual for ethics, which is centered in the disciplines of religion and philosophy, and environmental science to share a place in the classroom. But I think it's unusual that it doesn't happen more often," she said.
During the course, students are encouraged to explore their passions about the environment and are asked to create a project that will demonstrate their concerns as well as writing a weekly blog ( www.ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/blogs/elea .) about their experiences while developing the project.
"ELEA's collection of student-owned, assignment-driven blogs is the first of its kind at Columbia or Barnard, to my knowledge," says Jonathan C. Hall, the educational technologist at the Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning, who oversees the production of the blogs.
The student-written blogs take the place of more traditional "response papers," says Hall. The difference is that students must consider that their words are published for a worldwide online audience.
The course grew out of a recently-awarded grant to Barnard College from the National Science Foundation, titled "Science Education for Tomorrow," promoting team-taught interdisciplinary courses in science, policy and ethics.
Tim Halpin-Healy, director of the Science and Public Policy program, said the course is particularly important because of its fieldwork component. "The emphasis is on action. I'm a big fan of hands-on experience," says Halpin-Healy, a physicist. "It nicely complements, as well, our other offerings—"Genetics, Biodiversity and Society" and "Science and The State." Click here for more information on these courses.
Both Halpin-Healy and Dittrick expressed their gratitude to Stephanie Pfirman, Martin Stute and other members of the environmental science department in allowing Dittrick ample time to develop this exciting new course. -- Gwen Moran
For more information you may contact Diane Dittrick in the department of environmental science at ddittrick@barnard.edu
Course Reading List:
Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future , by Mark Hertsgaard (1998, Broadway)
Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks, by Mark Buchanan, (2002, W.W. Norton & Company)
Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters, by Annie Dillard (1988, Harper Perennial)
Assignments: Students are required to create projects that reflect their dedication to stewardship of the environment. In addition to the team of students who helped Dr. Rosner conduct research for his testimony in the landmark lead paint case against three Rhode Island lead paint manufacturers, another team, on the other end of the spectrum, produced an environmentally themed concert to take place in the garden of a Harlem seniors' residence. All teams created projects based on their own interests and concerns.
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