For this inquiry project, I wanted to find a great example of a university campus in Canada that has developed an innovative way for students to use the "Living Schools Model". I wanted to find out what other campuses are doing to improve sustainability and how students, faculty and staff play a role. The inspiration for my research is as an employee at a higher education institution, I was hoping to find one project or initiative I feel could be implemented on my campus in the near future and know the ins and outs of how that project or initiative worked.
Overview of Living Schools Model:
ASR at McGill University
I was very impressed to find through McGill University's Office of Sustainability the Applied Student Research projects. Essentially this initiative allows undergraduate students to earn credit by designing a research project aimed at improving sustainability on campus or within their community. Students are encouraged to identify challenges facing their campus and community and work with professors and other key stakeholders to design solutions. The aim is to use campus and the surrounding community as a "Living Lab" and provide students the opportunity to use practical skills and deep inquiry to address real issues in real time.
Some questions I had regarding the program were;
1) What students can participate in this program?
2) What are the steps involved for a student to begin and complete an ASR project?
3) How is ASR using the living schools model?
4) What types of projects have been implemented?
5) How could another University adopt a similar program? What is the first step?
My Results
1) Any undergraduate can participate in an ASR project. Projects do not need to be completed alone, it is encouraged to build a team inclusive of other students, stakeholders ( ie experts in the field or community members) and a professor or supervisor. This is not limited to certain programs, and when completed students do receive course credit ( 3 credits).
2) Students interested in this program are first advised to speak to their program advisor to see if they can use it as an independent study from the department in which their project will focus on. From there, they should ensure they are prepared to take on the research project by ideally having some previous courses in which research papers or other research projects were introduced. Once the student is confident they want to take on an ASR project, they will identify the research question, plan out the project for the duration on the semester and find a supervisor who is willing to mentor the student and grade their work. They must then submit an application to be registered into the course. An important note here is that students actually do this before the beginning of each semester. Throughout the course Students will work with key stakeholders throughout the project collecting data, and make recommendations that can directly benefit the campus or neighbouring community
3) the ASR project doesn't use the Living Schools Model completely but certain aspects definitely reflect this ethos. McGill University uses the term "Living Lab" to essentially bring the research to life focusing on sustainability and gaining practical skills. The ASR projects are promoted through the office of sustainability and the aim is enhance environmental, social, and economic dimensions of the University and society. The toolkit students use includes a section on systems thinking and offers a step by step outline on how to best implement a project using a sustainability lens. I would argue that more could be done with this program to encourage better relationships with nature, however, some projects have used nature as a solution to a current challenge. I will explore projects in the next section.
4) The projects are divided up into 10 sections: academics, community, energy, finance, food, land, materials, social justice, water and wellness and health. Projects have ranged from implementing sustainability into curriculum to building a community of conscious eaters and implementing initiatives such as "meatless Mondays". Other projects include researching food and links with university procurement policies, improving energy efficiency in one of the student residences and even producing edible mushrooms from generated coffee waste.
5) Inspired by this program I wanted to have a really solid grasp on how to begin ASR projects at Laurentian University. The next section is devoted to key steps and identifying stakeholders.
Starting an ASR program at Laurentian University
Based on what I have learned, I do think it is possible for Laurentian University to adopt a program like this and I think it would be largely beneficial to the campus and community. To start, I think initial conversations should take place at the environmental sustainability committee to gather some in put from potential key stakeholders and decide if this group would be willing to support the initiative. From there, I believe some data gathering is required to understand what options are available for undergraduate students to complete an independent study or practicum and identify which program(s) do not have an offering. The next step would be preparing a pitch to our higher administration outlining the program idea, resources for students and some initial ideas for projects. If that all goes well, a meeting with professors and administrative staff ( program coordinators etc) in all programs would take place to discuss supervisor roles and the aim of the program. Finally marketing material would be created to promote and spread awareness for the program for students ( as well as community) to see.
Potential Barriers:
This is definitely a pretty surface level idea of how I foresee the process working and anticipate barriers to implementing the program campus wide. For one, creating new practicums or independent studies in programs that currently do not offer one might be very difficult and require senate approval. The second is identifying stakeholders within the campus to support students as well as professors in supervisor roles. Not everyone wants to dedicate extra time to student learning. I imagine more approvals will be required through various committees that might slow the process as well. Overall, I do think this is an attainable goal for Laurentian University and McGill provides a great model and framework.
Conclusion
Overall I am really pleased with this inquiry project and feel confident to begin the next steps in initiating an ASR program at my institution. In my opinion the ASR program highlights some key attributes of the living schools model but McGill could encourage more collaboration with nature as solutions to challenges facing the campus and surrounding community. Lots more can be done to dive further into this program such interviewing students who completed projects, visiting the campus and identifying completed projects and finally meet with representatives for the program to see discuss future goals/outcomes of the program and see if the natural world will be playing a bigger role.
Resources:
References:
Howard, P., & O'Brien, C. (2018) Living Schools Attributes Chart
O’Brien, C., & Howard, P. (2016). The Living school: The emergence of a transformative sustainability education paradigm.