|
Barnard
Introduces Innovative Environmental Science Curriculum to
Eight Colleges
New York, NY— Barnard introduced its innovative, multimedia
environmental science curriculum Brownfield Action
to eight colleges on April 11-13 in a seminar aimed at helping
other schools adopt the program.
 The
workshop, led by Peter Bower, senior lecturer of environmental
science, drew faculty and other participants from Skidmore,
Wellesley, Connecticut College, Trinity University, Spelman,
Carleton, Lafayette, and Rhodes Colleges for an intensive
two-day seminar funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation's
Center for Educational Technologies. The workshop was offered
to faculty and administrative staff at colleges and universities
in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states.
Bower said: "We feel that the workshop was successful
in that the participants responded to it positively and at
least half of them came up with concrete ways of how to integrate
Brownfield Action into their science classes. We will
follow up with these schools on how to best package this method
for their learning needs. We also received helpful feedback
on how to further develop the program as a variety of questions
on how to best utilize the curriculum relating to different
student bodies, class sizes, and overall science programs
were addressed by the representatives from other colleges."
Brownfield Action is the foundation for Barnard’s
Introduction to Environmental Science, taught by Bower, who
developed the program with Ryan Kelsey of Columbia University’s
Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL).
"The seminar was a great opportunity for Professor Bower
and me and the CCNMTL staff to share what we've learned through
the experience of transforming his course through the purposeful
use of technology. It was exciting to see so many of the participants
enthusiastic about applying what they learned from the seminar
to their educational goals at their respective institutions,"
said Kelsey.
In
class, students learn real-world lessons about cleaning up
environmental disasters through Brownfield Action,
a digital simulation that takes students step by step through
the assessment of a contaminated mock factory. By navigating
this CD-ROM and Web-based learning program, students form
environmental consulting teams to assess a contaminated site
as they use principles of geology, environmental science,
physics, and biology, along with historical, legal and political
knowledge gained in the classroom. The goal of the program
is that students learn to do in the classroom what environmental
consultants accomplish in the real world: walk through the
site, investigate it, run tests and examine public records.
According to Bower, the Brownfield Action curriculum
allows students to retain ideas, concepts and information
more efficiently, resulting in more authentic reports, opposed
to the traditional textbook methods.
The weekend’s seminar consisted of hands-on workshops
and laboratory sessions where the participants were shown
how to use the main software and the supporting materials,
such as maps and other documents; they were also instructed
in how to navigate the Brownfield Action Web site.
The participants were also introduced to the wider curriculum,
which includes lectures based on contemporary readings, including
A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr and Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson.
A professional evaluator from the Columbia Center for New
Media, Teaching, and Learning will assess feedback from the
seminar participants and also will provide follow-up over
the course of a year on the impact of this seminar.
The Brownfield Action conference was led by Bower and
Kelsey in conjunction with other staff members, including
Joseph Liddicoat and Diane Dittrick, both Laboratory Directors
at Barnard.
Barnard is also known for introducing Reacting to the Past,
an innovative history curriculum developed by Professor Mark
Carnes for first-year students to other colleges nationwide.
Contact:
Petra Tuomi, Barnard Public Affairs, (212) 854-7907, ptuomi@barnard.edu
Barnard
College, a distinguished leader in higher education for women
for over 100 years, is today the most sought after private
liberal arts college for women in the nation. Founded in 1889,
the College was the first in New York City, and one of the
few in the nation at the time, where women could receive the
same rigorous liberal arts education available to men. Independent
but affiliated with Columbia University, Barnard maintains
its own administration, trustees, faculty, curriculum, endowment,
budget and campus. Barnard students may take classes at Columbia,
as Columbia students may do at Barnard. Barnard alumnae include
pioneers like anthropologist Margaret Mead and Judith Kaye,
the first female Chief Judge of the State of New York, along
with prominent cultural figures such as choreographer Twyla
Tharp, writers Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Gordon, and Pulitzer
Prize-winning journalists Anna Quindlen and Natalie Angier.
|
