CAPSTONE: " Engaging Environmental Education: Creating Supportive Spaces for K-8 Environmental Education”
Sergio Palleroni
Tuesday-Thursday 2-5 PM
1.0Course Description:
This capstone will focus on the urban K-8 schools of Portland and their potential to become environmental advocates, and models for a “greener” Portland within their communities. Specifically our subject, and client, will be three schools in the PortlandPublic School system (Sunnyside, Lee, and Faubion) that are contemplating adding outdoor classrooms. We will help them investigate exactly what these outdoor environmental classrooms have the potential to be, but also in a broader sense our focus will be in establishing a program that will over the next few years will help local schools engage sustainability in their facilities and education. All the schools in Portland face not only the challenge of preparing the students for a world that needs environmental advocates but also transforming their facilities to support this new educational pedagogy. Of course they are being challenged to do this in the midst of one of the worst economic crisis of the last century. How can we help them meet these challenges in these difficult times? In this course we will engage social and environmental practices that are emerging from the fields of sustainability and community development to help Portland schools to figure out what their options are, and propose possible solutions. This will involve getting to know the community of students, teachers, and neighbors, and helping them through a process of discussions, design conversations, research and implementation to figure out a road map for change. Specifically this year we will work with the students and teachers of one of these elementary schools to design and begin building one of these outdoor environmental learning spaces.
General Requirements:
2.1Assumptions:
The assumption behind this course is that sustainable practice requires knowledge that is both scientifically and culturally responsible. One of the best way to engage university students in the production of such knowledge is through real world case studies.
2.3 Objectives:
The objective of this course is for students to learn how sustainability influences the choices we have, decisions we make, and how to act on these. Successful completion of the course will give students the intellectual toolsto apply the disciplinary knowledge they acquired at PSU in service of environmental issues in their communities. In pursuit of these objectives the ideas to be investigated will include:
2.3.1How do we help a client arrive at priorities and decisions that reflect their values.
2.3.2What makes for a “green” school.
2.3.3How do we begin to move the idea of classroom out into the community.
2.3.4How does a school become more part of its community through its environmental advocacy.
2.3.5How to create a roadmap for environmental action.
2.4Study methods:
The quarter is structured around the development of a research project by groups of students. Weekly topics will be investigated in lecture and case study format jointly by the professor and students . Following the first two week of introductory material, the capstone will focus on fieldwork at the SunnysideSchool, and discussion of the fieldwork findings in the seminar. Lectures and case studies presentations will examine the same issues from differing perspectives. Where lectures will emphasize theoretical concepts, and their applications in case studies, student presentations on Thursdays will emphasize how these are being applied, or could be applied in their projects at SunnysideEnvironmentalSchool.
The texts and bibliographic resources listed below are by no means the limits of required research, additional readings will be handed out during the quarter and new readings will be suggested
2.5Books and Other Readings:
2.5.1Suggested Books::
Will be handed out separately on Tuesday April 14th
2.5.4Suggested articles:
Dunn, Seth. “Micropower: The Next Electrical Era,” Worldwatch Paper 151 (July 2000).
Andrew Feenberg, “Subversive Rationalization: Technology, Power, and Democracy,” in Technology and the Politics of Knowledge, Andrew Feenberg and Alistair Hannay, Eds., (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1995), pp. 43-64.
Thomas Hughes, “Edison and Electric Light,” in The Social Shaping of Technology, Donald MacKenzie and Judith Wajcman, Eds., (Philadelphia: Open University Press, 1985), pp. 39-52.
Frederic Jameson, “Spatial Equivalents in the World System,” in Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991), pp., 97-130.
John Tillman Lyle, Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (New York: Wiley, 1994), pp. 141-185.
-----. Regenerative Design for Sustainable Development (New York: Wiley, 1994), pp. 225-260.
William McDonough, “Design, Ecology, and the Making of Things,” in Theorizing a New Agenda for Architecture, Kate Nesbitt, Ed., (New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1996), p. 398-407.
Silberman, Steve. “Energy Web,” in Wired (July 2001): 115-127.
Robert Thayer, Gray World Green Heart (New York: Wiley, 1994), pp. 136-161.
Ronald Tobey, Technology as Freedom (Berkeley, CA: UC Press, 1994), pp., 1-9, 194-214.
World water Council, “World Water Vision Commission Report: A Water Secure World.”
4.0 Requirements:
Course requirements include acomplete large group case study, three introductory individual case assignments and class participation.
4.2 The case study:
Your case study investigations (I and II) should be both quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative analysis should critically examine the natural and mechanical capacities of the system under investigation and make recommendations for improved efficiency. Qualitative analysis should critically examine the cultural and historical conditions that lead to the selection of the system under investigation.
5.0Performance Evaluation
In general, members of a team will receive the same grade for collaborative work in case studies. The instructor reserves the right, however, to modify the grade of team members who contribute either more, or less, to the investigation. Case studies will be evaluated as follows:
A:Students work is original and of exceptional intellectual quality, is very well written and graphically well presented, is supported by wide textual documentation, is structurally inventive, and is complete.
B:Students work is of high intellectual quality, is well written and well presented, is supported by textual documentation, progresses logically, and is complete.
C:Students work is of average intellectual quality, is written intelligibly and graphically clear, is supported by some textual documentation, progresses logically, and is complete.
D:Students work is of below average intellectual quality, is written and/or presented poorly, is not adequately supported by textual documentation, progresses illogically, and/or is incomplete.
F:Students work is of unacceptable intellectual quality, badly written and/or presented, unsupported, illogical, and/or incomplete.
Course requirements will contribute to the final grade as follows:
Large Group Case Study / 40%3 ishort assignments / 40%
Participation in class discussion / 20%
Total / 100%
Absence from class will be considered in the final grade. Three or more unexcused absences will result in a course grade of “F.” Two unexcused absences will result in the lowering of the final grade. Tardiness may be considered an absence. Please note that class participation accounts for 20% of your final grade.
6.0 Office Hours:
Mondays 9:00AM-12:00PM Shattuck 235, or by appointment,
Tel. 725-8403, e-mail:
CAPSTONE: GREEN SCHOOLSPALLERONI1