GoBEYOND Teach-In
From Common Energy UVic
The goBEYOND Teach-In is part of the Education Pillar of the goBEYOND project. You can download a .pdf of the following message by clicking: here.
This fall, would you like to help save the world, be part of the beyond climate-neutral movement, and save yourself from writing 15-20 minutes of lecture material? Still not sold? How about if we throw in a sabbatical to Paris for a year? (Just kidding on that one.) Intrigued? Read on!
Contents |
[edit] The Teach-In
goBEYOND connects students, staff, faculty, and administrations interested in taking responsibility for our climate impacts and taking opportunities to create climate solutions. We are asking: how can we do more to solve climate change than we do to cause it? We envision BC’s post-secondary institutions as hubs for local solutions to climate change. We want to connect with you to help make this vision a reality.
How? From October 27th to 31st, 2008, join hundreds of other faculty for BC’s first Teach-In on climate change. Dedicate 15-20 minutes of your class’ time to a discussion on climate change, and help spark a province-wide dialogue on climate change issues in our homes, communities, and province. Still interested? (We hope so!) Read on for the details: goBEYOND
goBEYOND is a project of the BC Campus Climate Network, and seeks to educate, inspire, engage, and support students and schools to take action on climate change. We focus on working together, step-by-step, with students, faculty, and administrations to move post-secondary institutions beyond climate-neutral. goBEYOND believes in:
- Education: Connecting teaching and learning about climate change with local solutions.
- Planning: Supporting collaborative planning to develop beyond climate-neutral plans.
- Challenges: Engaging students to go beyond climate-neutral in their own lives.
- Training: Training students to become more effective agents of change.
The Teach-In is a first step to develop a province-wide network, linked through online communities and resources, of students and faculty engaged in teaching and learning about practical solutions to climate change. The direction that the network takes will be determined by the responses to the questions that make up the Teach-In. At a minimum, goBEYOND will offer continued support for their endeavors, and will offer students, faculty, and campuses further opportunities to engage in climate change solutions.
[edit] Context of the Teach-In
Post-secondary institutions have the potential to catalyze climate change solutions in their communities. They bring together diverse expertise, have large economic impacts, and are cradles of innovation. Post-secondary institutions draw together communities, government, and the private sector and shape their responses to new ideas. Most of all, post-secondary institutions educate people for our future, and in doing so inform the decisions they will make in a rapidly changing world.
The goal of the Teach-In is to start focusing the resources at post-secondary institutions to tackle climate change issues. The goBEYOND Teach-In is inspired by past successes, including a climate change teach-in in the United States which saw over 1500 colleges and universities host climate change discussions between January 29th and 31st 2008. The event was organized by Focus the Nation, a non-profit organization dedicated to empowering youth to create a just and prosperous clean-energy future. We propose a similar venture to create movement and focused discussion in BC’s colleges and universities on how they can generate climate change solutions.
[edit] The Details
So what will it look like? From October 27th to 31st, 2008, faculty members in all disciplines will facilitate class discussions on climate change issues and the solutions pertinent to their discipline and institutions by asking a series of questions. We suggest that participating faculty distribute the four questions a week in advance of the class discussion. goBEYOND will have online resources that they can draw on to inform their answers. Giving the students the Teach-In questions in advance will significantly increase the quality of the discussion and responses.
Questions:
- What are the connections between our class and climate change?
- How can our discipline be used to develop solutions for climate change in our community or region?
- Imagine that you have just been hired by your local city or town council to create a public campaign to get local residents to reduce their carbon footprint. What skills can you use from our discipline to help develop the campaign? Describe other disciplines that you would want to collaborate with and why?
- What can our school do to reduce its climate impacts and help develop climate solutions for our community or region?
goBEYOND will provide a short, 2-3 minute video with information on climate change issues to be shown before the discussion. We will also provide information on next steps for students to take away about how they can go beyond climate-neutral. We advise finding one or two students who will type the answers from the discussion into an online survey. goBEYOND will compile responses generated from these surveys into a report to be distributed across BC’s post-secondary institutions to stimulate and focus climate change planning and education.
Little preparation is necessary for the Teach-In. Faculty members need not be experts on climate change. Instead, we invite you to use your discipline and research interests to stimulate dialogue. We ask that participating faculty members dedicate a minimum of 15 minutes of their class’s time between October 27th and 31st, to address the four questions listed above.
[edit] What Happens After the Teach-In?
We envision the Teach-In as one of several starting points for an ongoing dialogue on climate change in BC’s post-secondary institutions. We envision students challenging one another to go beyond climate-neutral in their own lives; students, faculty, and administration planning together to move their institutions beyond climate-neutral; and a network of people making the best use of post-secondary education’s potential for their communities.
Thank you for your time! We look forward to saving the world (a little bit at a time) with you this fall. Please email our Project Manager, Maggie Baynham, at mbaynham(at)campusclimatenetwork.org to sign up for the Teach-In or for more information.
[edit] Teach-In Outreach
Environmental Studies
- Kara Shaw - Jamie
- Duncan Taylor-Pomme (agreed)
- Val Schaefer-Pomme (not teaching this semester)
Anthropology
- D.C. Merrett- Shale
Philosophy
- Dr. S. Turner- Shale
Economics
- Betty Johnson- Shale
Social Sciences
- David Mckercher- Shale
Engineering
- MECH 141 (all first years) B. Buckham (has agreed) - Sharon
- MECH 392 (MECH 3rd years) P. Oshkai (will talk about climate change in class but cannot do 20 min discussion) - Sharon
- ENGR 280 (All discipline 3rd years) S. Iverson (will ask on Monday, almost positive he will participate) - Sharon
- ELEC 200 (ELEC 2rd years) P. So (will participate if M. Adams cannot) - Sharon
- MECH 240 (MECH 2rd years) A. Hung (will contact on monday) - Sharon
English
- W. Markham- Shale
- Evelyn Cobley (agreed)- Naomi S
- James Dopp (can't do full discussion but will provide information [like website] for his class)- Naomi S
- Stephen Ross (agreed) - Naomi S
- John Tucker (agreed) - Naomi S
- Gary Kuchar (agreed)- Naomi S
- Lisa Chalykoff (did not agree; concerned about privileging agenda in classroom, but supports the project) - Naomi S
- Nicholas Bradley (agreed) - Naomi S
- Magdalena Kay (agreed) - Naomi S
- Richard Pickard - (agreed) Naomi S
- Susan Doyle - (agreed) Naomi S
- Lisa Surridge - (unless someone in her class would like to) Naomi S
- Judith Mitchell - (unless someone in her class would like to) Naomi S
- Susan Huntley-Elderkin - (agreed) Naomi S
(also, Naomi S has copied out all of the English dept's office hours, should anyone have someone they want to address; will try to get to as many as possible but is pretty overcommitted) Hispanic and Italian Studies
- Joseph Grossi (agreed) - Naomi S
Geography
- Jean Brouard-Pomme (agreed)
- Larry McCann-Pomme (no-field trip day)
- Naohiro Nakamura-Pomme (agreeed)
- Heather Castleden-Pomme (agreed)
Earth and Ocean Sciences
- EOS 110 Katrin Meissner - Brianne
- EOS 210 and 410 George Spence - Brianne
- EOS 316 Kathryn Gillis - Brianne
- EOS 330 Vera Pospelova - Brianne
- EOS 350 Roberta Hamme - Brianne
