Educational Intersections
An Assessment of Environmental Aspects of Sleep Health in a Private College
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Srijana Bajracharya, Samantha Goodstein, Makensy Jabbour, Jimmy Gramajo
College environment has a significant impact on students’ sleep health. Lack of sleep and irregular sleeping patterns can lead to obesity, depression, and cardiovascular disease, which can be detrimental to one’s physical and mental well-being. National Institute of Health using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) on college students reported about 60% of students in the US suffer from poor quality of sleep. American College Health Association [ACHA] has started assessing sleep health status of several colleges and indicated that most colleges do not offer positive environment to promote student sleep health. The purpose of this study was to assess the environmental factors related to sleep health of a Northeastern private college. An observational study design was conducted using a College Sleep Environmental Scan instrument that was developed by the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota. The scan consisted of eleven sections on college environment. Results indicated that out of a possible 269 points, this college scored 152 points. This equates to a score of 57% out of total score indicating that this college would receive an F letter grade based on the academic grading scale. Since this is a mid-sized private school in a rural, “healthy” town, the environment was expected to be positive. Apparently, there is a room for improvement in many areas. Based on the findings a set of recommendations is provided for the college to consider environmental modification and promote students’ sleep health.
Talking About the Environment to Help Learn a Foreign Language: Environmental and Conservation Topics in a Chinese Foreign Language Classroom
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Weihsun Mao
Studies of foreign language pedagogy have shown that exposure to meaningful subject matter phrased in the foreign language increases both content and linguistic mastery. The question, then, is determining a subject area to import to the classroom that is comprehensible yet universally meaningful for students, and that provides exposure to vocabulary that will lead to an overall increase in foreign language fluency. This study, based on Chinese language courses taught at a community college in California, tests the hypothesis that conservation and environmental topics can serve this purpose. Environmental subjects incorporate biological, physical, and social sciences as well as daily activities in a context that matters greatly in the everyday life of today and the future. As such, environmental content contextualizes Chinese language learning and provides a means for communicative competence acquisition. This study discusses the pedagogical methods of incorporating environmental knowledge and sustainability literature into the foreign language education to simultaneously achieve both sustainability awareness and language proficiency. It shows that an environmental content-based approach substantiates students’ interest, accelerates students’ acquisition of a foreign language, and propels learners to higher levels of language proficiency and environmental competency. Moreover, instructional materials concerning environment and sustainability and reflecting the viewpoints of native Chinese intellectuals help students gain understanding of and perspective on environmental problems central to the Chinese experience.
Incorporating “Real” Sustainability Topics into Business Education
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeff Anstine
There is a growing concern about ‘sustainability’ by corporations around the world. Due to this awareness and also from an interest in academia there has been a growth in environmental classes in universities, including those in business schools. Unfortunately, many of the courses in universities and much of the action by corporations has been ‘greenwashing’ or looking at minor changes such as improved recycling. This research looks at how we can teach business students subjects where firms can truly decrease their impact on the environment. Sustainability starts with being, and remaining, profitable so subjects have to include costs, sales and revenue. Topics such as Return on Investment (ROI), efficiency and Internal Rates of Return (IRR) need to be the focus of the class material. I provide examples where true double bottom line exists such that companies can simultaneously cut costs or increase revenues while also decreasing their impact on the environment. Example range from the simple, installing LED lighting to more complex such as using ‘green’ roofs to reduce heating and cooling costs.
Utilizing Social Innovation to Couple Sustainability Education across the United Nations Sustainable Developmental Goals
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nirav S. Patel
Much of the sustainable developmental goals (SDGs) relate to food-energy-water nexus situated in larger social-ecological framework. Traditional models of sustainability education focused on imparting information must give way to more realistic psychological-foundational models that can enhance a participant’s motivation and further enable them to put into practice what they have learned. This study describes a platform that engages students using the domain of social innovation and project-based learning (PBL) in teams and further analyze how these teams engage on incorporating sustainability within their social innovation ideas. A total of 1560 student participant projects were analyzed and based on the data gathered, the paper presents a set of examples of how social innovation across SDGs are guided by social topics and issues. These examples suggest that creating a platform for interdisciplinary research communities and multisectoral practitioners to engage in sociology of approach so that concepts, issues, opportunities and resilient solutions of the intricately coupled F-E-W nexus are thoroughly discussed, debated and culminated into larger SDG research questions can result in fostering a holistic understanding of the risks and opportunities of the complex and dynamically interconnected social-ecological systems. An intentional sustainability scholarship can thus engage social innovation as a conceptual framework for creating transdisciplinary engagement amongst students from all disciplines. It can lead to convergence across multiple fields to address the moral, social, and cultural questions and the scientific and economic challenges surrounding SDGs and their interconnectedness to twenty-first century sustainability issues and needs.
