Applied Sustainability: UBC as a Living Laboratory

The pilot project entitled Applied Sustainability: UBC as a Living Laboratory, is being expanded to three components beginning in January 2012. Continuing from last year, the 3 credit course (APSC 364) is geared to 3rd and 4th years students and additionally integrates an applied project under the SEEDs umbrella that involves investigating real sustainability solutions on campus. A new 1 credit option (CONS 102) targets 1st and 2nd year students and combines lectures, discussion groups, and written assignments. Both courses share a public lecture series component which takes place on Tuesdays from 3.30-5:00 pm and is open to staff, faculty, and the UBC community.

APSC 364 – Applied Sustainability: UBC as a Living Laboratory (3 credit option)

UBC bridges the gap between sustainability theory and practice through this course aimed at engaging third and fourth-year students in real-life campus operations. The first edition of Applied Sustainability: UBC as a Living Laboratory (APSC 364) was held in January 2011 with students from the faculties of Applied Sciences, Forestry, Land and Food Systems, Science, Arts and Sauder School of Business. Our second edition will begin in January 2012 and registration is now open. The ‘living lab campus’ concept is central to the course and means creating opportunities, processes and procedures for staff to engage in active dialogues with students and researchers to identify and implement more sustainable pathways. [Read more...]

CONS 102 (code: 499A) – Applied Sustainability: UBC as a Living Laboratory (1 credit option)

An extension of the existing APSC 364 3rd and 4th level course, this new 1 credit option will be run in parallel (use temporary course code: CONS 499A). It is designed to provide an opportunity to interested students, early on in their degree at UBC to better understand and discuss what UBC is doing with respect to sustainability related initiatives such as the “UBC as a living lab” initiative. The lecture component is shared with APSC 364 and is based on sustainability themes of governance, transportation, water and energy. Each lecture will comprise two perspectives. The first perspective is provided by campus operations staff (20 minutes), and the second by an active UBC researcher working in the same field (20 minutes). This will be followed by 45 minutes of group discussion with the presenters. [Read more...]

Public Lecture Series – Applied Sustainability: UBC as a Living Laboratory (public)

Everyone welcome. Take a seat and engage with UBC staff members, scholars, residents and students as they discuss the “how,” the “what,” and the “why” of making UBC a positive agent of change for sustainability. Join participants of APSC 364 and CONS 102 for weekly lectures from UBC staff members and scholars as they present and discuss sustainability themes relevant to UBC. The objective of the lecture series is to integrate teaching, learning, and research on sustainability to inform and contribute to long-term strategy development at UBC under the theme “UBC as a living lab”. Lectures will run on selected Tuesday afternoons from 3:30 – 5:00pm (room tba) beginning January 10th, 2012. All students, staff, faculty, UBC residents and the general public are warmly welcomed! No pre-registration required. [Read more...]

{ We gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this project provided by UBC students via the Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund }