ANT 365 Environment, Culture and Sustainability

For this course, I sought to provide a balance between readings, films, workshops and assignments that would address each of these, but other faculty member might decide to balance them in different proportions.

My first task was to familiarize myself more deeply with human centered design. To do so, I enrolled in and completed two different (and free-of-charge) on-line courses (see Resources & Materials):

1. Design Kit: The Course for Human-Centered Design
2. Design Kit: The Facilitator’s Guide to Human Centered Design

The Facilitator’s Guide, noted above was particularly useful, including a series of handouts which were used in the classroom. The Presentation Deck for Your Workshop (see Resources & Materials).

My second task was to figure out how to integrate this process with the content and theory of the course.

Since Cornell College operates on a compressed One-Course-at-A-Time format (a semester’s worth of work in 18 days), I decided that we could take advantage of the longer class hours to use the first week to introduce basic content, theory and anthropological perspectives and contributions to our understanding of human impacts on the environment.

I began the second week in a day-long workshop introducing Human Centered Design. I used “The Presentation Deck for Your Workshop” noted above and modified it slightly, so that the Design Challenge students were asked to respond to was “What can we do to help students (and others on campus) be more healthy?”

Students were sorted into four groups, and after some initial training and work-shopping, went off in the middle of the day to interview different people on campus. I encouraged them to decide who to interview and which parts of campus to visit ahead of time, so that they were not duplicating each other’s work.

I was pleased to see that students took the workshop and the Design Challenge seriously. After taking the steps outlined in the workshop, each group had come up with a prototype they were ready to test out on their peers. It was impressive to see what creative solutions students came up with, including:

• Creating a work-study position that pairs student athletes with non-athletes (non-exercisers) for training in how to use the equipment in the gym and weight-room and for encouragement.
• Hiring a nutritionist (and/or training students) to be on-site daily to answer questions about specific meal choices in the dining room.
• A somewhat tongue-in-cheek suggestion that we recruit local adults from the community willing to serve as a local “mom” who could check with students about their eating, sleeping, drinking and exercise habits and invite them over for a home cooked meal once in a while. (While this suggestion was met with a great deal of laughter, I noticed that it was made by a couple of first generation college students who explained that they don’t like to worry their parents, who are far away and don’t understand the stresses of college life.)

Once students had completed the workshop, they were put into four groups of 4-5 to conduct research on local environmental problems, with instructions to use the Human Centered Design process to try to understand the nature of local environmental challenges, to brainstorm possible solutions, and to iterate/ create rapid prototypes and solicit feedback on these.

The third week of the course, students split their time between reading and discussing an ethnography (see Mafia Island in Resources & Materials), finishing data collection, brainstorming possible solutions and writing a first draft of their final research report paper.

The final few days of the course, students work-shopped their papers, gave presentations and finished discussion of the readings.

Teaching Notes

To give students different options for research, and to facilitate initial contacts, I suggested that groups select from the following research options:

• On-campus environmental challenges
• Environmental challenges affected the town where campus is located
• Environmental challenges in the nearby city (same county)
• Environmental challenges faced by local farmers

For each of these areas I made preliminary contact with a local expert who could get them started with understanding some of the environmental challenges of Eastern Iowa. These included the head of the campus food service, the head of the local parks department, a local organic farmer and the head of the department of public health for our county. All agreed to meet with students.

I also scheduled class time during weeks two and three in which students could work in small groups and could get feedback on their work from me and their peers.

The final projects (prototypes) suggested by the various groups included:

Group A – Environmental concerns on campus

The group decided that students could improve their participation in recycling efforts with two new initiatives:

1. Information fliers that would better explain campus recycling to be posted above each receptacle. The group found that many recycling bins were unlabeled and unevenly distributed. They realized that without a budget they could not change the number or location of recycling facilities. They could, however, help educate students, staff and faculty. The group produced a flier about what could be recycled and their prototyping efforts involved posting these in residence halls and soliciting feedback.
2. The group also learned that large dumpsters full of potentially re-useable items from student dorm rooms were discarded each year. Their prototyping suggestions included two options:
   1. Ask college administration for space where items could be stored and then given away or sold to incoming/returning students.
   2. Invite local non-profits to come and collect items on move-out day.

Group B – Sustainable farming practices and local environmental concerns

This group found that pest control was the biggest problem for local farmers. They came up with the idea of promoting the use of bat houses, since bats eat many of the species of insect pests that are problems in Iowa.

Since the group did not have time to mock up examples or sell them at the local farmer’s market, they came up with a prototype flier instructing local farmers and homeowners on how to make these at home.

Group C – Local environment in Mt Vernon 

This group found that although members of both the college community and the local town shared a willingness to do more to improve the health of bees, there was little shared knowledge or resources. They also found some local residents were resistant to students’ efforts to cultivate bees and that there was not enough good bee habitat.

Their prototype was to create a work-study position that would function as a “bee-aison” (bee liason) between campus and town. This student would also work with the Bee interest group on campus to grow bee-friendly flowering plants that could be used by campus and sold cheaply to local homeowners. This aimed to help people in town avoid planting annuals and perennials that have been treated with Neonicotinoid insecticides, which have been linked to honey-bee colony collapse disorder.

Group D – Cedar Rapids – Environment and Public Health 

This group decided to focus on local water supply (the Jordan Aquifer) and its depletion. They correctly noted that this is not widely understood by average citizens in the affected area.

Their prototype is to create an educational campaign that would help the public understand local water issues and how to better conserve water. They also hoped that this campaign could include an education component for grade school children and subsidies for water saving devices like low-flow showerheads.