Welcome to the MRCSE Tools and Ideas Marketplace

 

The first "Tool and Ideas Marketplace” was hosted at the 2009 MRCSE Summer Workshop hosted at Northland College.  The marketplace allowed workshop participants to present 30 minute sessions on their sustainability education work and were designed to help our collaborative explore ideas that can help foster our transformative learning about sustainability education.   

Each marketplace presentations had questions rather than answers as the central focus--for questions are by their nature more transformative than answers and are essentials tools of engagement, they create the space for something new to emerge.  At MRCSE we have foudn that questions that have the power to make a difference are ones that engage people in an intimate way and invite them to co-create a future possibility. 

 

The following co-concurrent presentations were offered the the 2009 MRCSE workshop.  Click on the title of the workshop to learn more about the presentation and to review presentation materials and resourcse.  If you are a member of the MRCSE collaborative and have a presentation that you would like to share at this markplace, please contact Christine Kelly at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

 

 

 

What Are the Key Concepts of Sustainability Leadership?    

Presented by Jim Lorman and Amy Schiebel, Edgewood College

As part of a process of developing courses and programs in sustainability at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, we have compiled a list of sustainability topic areas grouped in about a dozen areas. We are wondering what others consider to be the knowledge, skills, and dispositions essential for each of these topics in order for an adult in today’s world to be considered competent in sustainability, especially as effective change agents in their organization or community. After a brief introduction to our work, we engaged participants in a simple process for sharing all our ideas on what constitutes “sustainability literacy.”

 

Central great question(s) explored: What knowledge, skills, and dispositions do adults need in order to be considered competent as change agents for sustainability?

 

Learn more about the presentation and review the " Tentative List of Sustainability Topics" created at this presentation. 

 

 

 

Business and Biology Team-Teaching Sustainability Strategies  

Presented by Anne Hoel, University of Wisconsin-Stout

Interdisciplinary experiences utilize problem-based learning to integrate theory, knowledge, and practice from business, social, and natural sciences to explore current environmental issues and strategic challenges facing organizations. Benefits to student learning, teaching methodologies, community involvement and assessing success will be dialogued.

 

Central great question(s) explored: How can students and educators transition to speaking the dual languages of business and science?

 

  

How can we use sustainability as a context for teaching our disciplines?    

Presented by Sharon Anthony, Northland College

Teaching in the context of environmental and societal issues can often seem to compete with classroom time dedicated to disciplinary ‘coverage’.  In this workshop, we discussed strategies for teaching disciplinary content in the context of sustainability issues.

 

Central great question(s) explored: How can we use sustainability as a context for teaching our disciplines?

 

 

 

Energy Independent Communities: Lofty goal or illusion?   

Presented by Tom Wojciechowski, UW Extension – Ashland County 

Governor Doyle of Wisconsin established a new office of Energy Independence and charged it with leading the state to achieve 25% renewable energy use by 2025. Nine partners in the Chequamegon Bay region sought and received a grant in the first round of this initiative.  Since February the partners have been working to establish baselines for all their energy use and to create goals for moving toward energy independence.  I’ll shared an overview of the work in the Chequamegon Bay region and pose questions about the scope, limitations, practicality, sufficiency and challenges of the initiative.  We also discussed potential roles for higher education in moving to energy independence.

 

Central great question(s) explored:  What might Energy Independence look like in our region and in the state?  Is a 25% by 2025 goal ambitious enough to lead to energy independence? How can higher education help lead the way to Energy Independence?

 

 

Cussing Green: Breaking Bad Business and Changing Practices    

Presented by Allison Mills, Northland College Student, oikos-Ashland president and Environmental Council co-chair

 The buzzwords "green" and "sustainable" have become overused and trendy, some point to mainstream business greenwashing. However, students in oikos-Ashland, the local chapter of oikos-International--a student group based in Europe that focuses on changing business management practices--show that the words still have meaning within the world of economics. So whether you think we're sustainable heralds or cussing green, join us and find out more about this unique organization, the first in the US!   Learn more about oikos-International and oikos-Ashland

 

Central great question(s) explored:  How can students engage with their local and international communities while still seeking to change the social paradigm that dictates current business-as-usual practices?

 

 

 

UW-Extension Sustainability Team – Past and Future Efforts to Support Sustainable Communities in Wisconsin  

Presented by Jerry Hembd (team co-chair from University of Wisconsin-Superior) and other team members (from various locations around the state)

This team was created four years ago with the following purpose: The purpose of the Sustainability Team is to develop and maintain a UWEX [University of Wisconsin-Extension] institutional framework for understanding and promoting sustainability across all program areas and divisions. The Team willengage in both internal capacity building and strategic external educational programming.

 

The team includes campus- and county-based Extension educators as well as “external” members. During the past year, key efforts have included:

•           A statewide “Sustainable Communities” in-service that attracted seventy participants

•           The launch of the Sustainable Communities Capacity Center web site (www.capacitycenter.org) that features a listing of all eco-municipalities in the state

•           A nine-month webinar series on Sustainable Community Development

 

This presentation outlined, briefly, the history and efforts of the team with an emphasis on the past year’s efforts and recently established priorities for the next year.

 

Learn more about Capacity Center at www.capacitycenter.org

 

Central great question(s) explored: Now that you have a sense of what we have done in the past and what we are focusing on for the next year, help us think about next steps, partnerships, connections, needed resources, etc. What is the best way for us to support sustainable community development and the eco-municipality movement in Wisconsin? We tend to look at this question from an “Extension vantage point.” What are we missing by looking through this particular window? How can we broaden and enliven our viewpoint? Who should be brought into our conversations?

 

 

 

Test Riding EnAct: How do we do this thing called Sustainable Living?  

Presented by Erin Schneider, EnAct Program Manager, Madison Environmental Group, Inc. and Organic Farmer, Hilltop Community Farm, LLC

 What does sustainable living look like? What tools, processes, actions,and resources are needed to set a course for sustainability in your neighborhoods? How do we know when and if we succeeded? Using Madison Environmental Group, Inc.'s EnAct Steps to Greener Living program as a model for assessing sustainable living, we will demonstrate environmental impacts of EnAct participation and discuss lessons learned from behind the desk and in the field. Enjoy an interactive and lively discussion while collaborating on ideas regarding how environmental stewardship, when done as a group, can effectively build socially sustainable communities too.

 

Central great question(s) explored: How do we facilitate transitioning to a sustainable way of 'being and knowing' with psychological ease?

 

  

 

Tools and Practices for Citizen-based Science Programming    

Presented by Stacy M. Craig, Environmental Education Program Coordinator, Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute, Northland College

Over the past thirty years, the LoonWatch program at the Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute has coordinated a citizen-based science component as a part of their WI loon research project. During this session, we’ll use the LoonWatch program as a case study to look at how engaging citizens in science—from youth to adults—can fulfill educational and research oriented programming goals. After this session, participants will have an understanding of citizen-based science projects currently available, tools such as recently developed frameworks for engaging students in citizen science, and will leave with resources and connections for programming citizen-based science opportunities on their own.

 

Central great question(s) explored:  “Can citizens contribute to scientific research?”

 

 

 

Urban Stewards  

Presented by Christopher Feider, Program Coordinator, Eco Education 

Urban Stewards is a four-phase process in which students use environmental problem-solving skills to address real-world situations in their urban neighborhoods.  The process is embedded into the academic curriculum and helps students connect with community partners in making improvements to the communities in which they live.

 

Central great question(s) explored: How can the community become more of a central context for learning?

 

 

 

Play: A means to a more sustainable and regenerative future   

Presented by Nancy W. Wiltz, Ph. D.

This presentation explored play for all people, at all ages, at all times, as a way to understand effective learning and a means to developing a sense of well-being.  Scientists who study play are in harmony that play is something more than a frivolous luxury for kids to work off steam.  Play is a central part of neurological growth and development—one important way that children build complex, skilled, responsive, socially adept, and cognitively flexible brains. Playing well requires an uncensored attitude, intense sharing, social harmony, cooperation, relative quietude, and the ability to see the world from the other players’ points of view.  In this session, through collaborative thinking, careful listening, and unique opportunities to unlock our accepted wisdoms,  we imagined solutions to a more sustainable and regenerative future.

 

Central great question(s) explored: What is play?  Is play is a fundamental aspect of life? If so, why don’t we do more of it? If play is an extravagance, why has it persisted?

How can play help us imagine solutions to a more sustainable and regenerative future?