Accessibility menu

Skip to main content Skip to footer

Agenda

A page within Driftless Region Sustainability in Education Project

Driftless Region Sustainability in Education Project
May 22–23, 2019
Tentative Agenda

Stzrelczyk Great Hall, UWL Cleary Alumni & Friends Center, 615 East Ave. N., La Crosse, WI 54601

Wednesday, May 22, 2019

8:30–9 a.m. Registration
9 a.m.–Noon Workshop Activities (includes lunch and morning break)

What is sustainability?
Discuss with others what sustainability means to you and reflect on how your discipline contributes to the narrative. Learn how the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals as a framework for thinking more holistically about sustainability.

Exploring learning standards and resources.
Work in small groups to delve into the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development learning standards. You'll have some time to explore high-quality web-based resources that provide lesson activity ideas, connections to sustainability in education professional organizations, and links to engaging, reliable information.  

What you’ll walk away with:
• A better understanding of how your discipline authentically contributes to sustainability

• Access to resources to help you think through sustainability and how to incorporate it into your courses

• Examples of pedagogical frameworks and methods that create a more engaged learning environment

Noon–1 p.m. Lunch Break
Lunch is provided.
1–5 p.m. Site Visits

Community Food Forest at the YMCA:  A food forest is a sustainable gardening technique that mimics our native forest ecosystem. The Community Food Forest has served as an inspiring example of reimagining a regenerative, resilient urban landscape. The food forest, now in its fourth year, brings the community together to grow food, rehabilitate our local ecosystem and provide educational opportunities for healthier residents and families.

The Hub on Sixth:  What do you do with a 1960 County Administration building in a prime downtown location that needs over $1.3 million dollars in abatement? That is the question Three Sixty Real Estate Solutions took on five years ago. The result? In alignment with Three Sixty’s goals to create sustainable neighborhoods and help build resiliency in communities, it kept the building, kept hundreds of tons of construction debris out of the landfill, and created a new hub of activity in downtown La Crosse. The Hub consists of over 100 residential units and commercial space surrounded by edible landscaping and is one of the building projects transforming the downtown area into a desirable place to live and work.

Thursday, May 23, 2019

8:30–8:45 a.m. Check-in
8:45–10:15 a.m. Curriculum Connections to Facilities: A Panel Discussion
Listen to what facilities professionals at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Winona State University, and Western Technical College are thinking about in terms of sustainability efforts on their respective campuses.  This panel is designed to open a dialogue between facilities staff and faculty in order to help see how student learning can connect to college operations.

What you’ll walk away with:

• A syllabus, unit plan, project, assessment, or activity (or a strong start to any of these) that you created to incorporate sustainability into one of your courses

• A resource network of faculty across disciplines and participating colleges who are also engaged in sustainability education

10:15 a.m.–Noon

Paris 2015–Climate Change Negotiation Simulation (tentative)
(This session will be subject to time, number of attendees, and needs of workshop participants.)The best available science indicates that we must keep global warming below 1.5°C to avoid the worst case scenarios.  How big a global effort will this take, and why can’t we come together to achieve this? The simulation activity is engaging and eye-opening…and all the materials are freely accessible so you can run it with your students, too!

Noon1 p.m.

Lunch Break
Lunch is provided.

1–4:30 p.m.


Workshop Time
Work alone or in small groups to develop a sustainability-related syllabus, unit, project, assessment, or activity for a course you teach.  Several experts in curriculum development will be present for you to brainstorm and plan.

Sharing with the group
Share your ideas and progress with the whole group and celebrate what we have accomplished.

Who Should Attend:

  • University faculty
  • University instructional staff
  • Technical college faculty
  • Technical college instructional staff
  • Curriculum developers
  • Secondary teachers

Encompassing human and ecological health, social justice, secure livelihoods and a better world for all generations.