Emerging Models
Revolutionizing STEM Curriculum Using Hydroponics: Using Campus Hydroponic Container Farming as an Avenue to STEM Degrees and Careers View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Tabetha Johnson, Marvin Payne
The Guided Pathways to Success Title V team centers a two-week intensive for first year students around a hydroponic shipping container farm to create high-touch, interactive programs for University students. The collaborative experience includes faculty from eight university departments. With leadership from the Title V team we offer students activities, experiments, and projects from growing seeds to developing sales pitches. This interdisciplinary approach introduces students to multiple career pathways-- many within STEM, all within one business; farming high-end lettuce. We also discuss diverse representation in STEM, the importance of access and of including all voices. Students develop a strong peer support system throughout the program. Surveys were taken after the pilot program. 50% of the students identified as Hispanic or Latino and as first-generation college students. Half the students felt their foundational understanding of the sciences improved after attending STEM Bridge. 25% of the students indicated newly wanting to obtain a terminal degree (the highest degree that can be awarded in a particular field) after attending STEM Bridge. 75% of students felt an increase in awareness of resources on campus to support them academically and a knowledge of their way around campus.100% of students felt an increase in preparedness for the academic rigors of college life while 87.5% of students felt an increase in their ability to manage their time well after the program.Next year's program will include 2 cohorts. Students from the 2021 pilot program will be utilized as learning assistants in planning and executing the new programs.
The Role of Local Cultural Factors in the Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Eduardo Ordonez-Ponce
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the greatest agreement achieved among countries. However, international policies such as the SDGs usually forget to include local cultural factors that would enable their achievement. Culture and sustainability have been studied in several contexts; however, the role that local culture plays in achieving sustainability has not been fully explored. This research addresses that gap by focusing on the SDGs globally and according to countries’ income, continent, and region of origin. Hypotheses are tested through regression models using Hofstede’s cultural dimensions at the country level and the countries’ overall and partial SDG scores. Results highlight significant relationships between cultural dimensions and countries’ SDG Scores in general and for groups of countries, and between cultural predictors and SDGs. Overall, power distance and masculinity contribute negatively to sustainability, whereas individualism, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, and indulgence affect sustainability positively. However, results vary across regions and SDGs.
How Effectively Do We Plan?: Qualitative Strategy Analysis of Hungarian Cities
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Bettina Szimonetta Jäger, Attila Buzasi
Nowadays, more than the half of the world’s population lives in cities, and according to UN forecast this value can reach approximately 83 percent in Europe by 2050. Climate change can cause extreme weather events and related adverse socio-economic effects in cities, which becomes an even more urgent issue in addition to the high population density. Improving the cities’ adaptive capacity can help to reduce the negative consequences, therefore, it is crucial to practice sustainable city management. Examining the relationship between sustainability and climate adaptation is essential for determining the most appropriate and effective objectives and actions, since the uncoordinated processes may lead to undesirable consequences, including lock-in risk and negative path dependencies. The aim of the present study is to explore the interaction between climate adaption and sustainability objectives and actions based on the relevant urban development and climate strategies of the selected cities, namely Budapest, Győr, Miskolc, Nyíregyháza, Debrecen, Szeged, Pécs, Kecskemét and Székesfehérvár with a population exceeding 100,000. A qualitative analysis is carried out after gathering the available strategies, paying particular attention to the objectives and actions. The goal is to develop a scorecard-based evaluation system that can be used to describe the "risk of lock-in" path dependencies of the strategies.
Intermediaries, Sustainability, and the Challenge of Local Context: The Case of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) in Canada
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jeremy Rayner, Mariia Iakovleva
Work in the sustainability transitions tradition has put special emphasis on the importance of intermediaries - organizations and individuals that provide the links between innovation and the successful deployment and operation of new technologies. Recent work on the need to accelerate sustainable transitions in the face of the climate and biodiversity crises has re-emphasized the importance of intermediaries in transition networks. We present a case study of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) in Canada, a technology that fits the profile of the kind of "ready to use" innovation promoted by the advocates of transition acceleration, focusing on the work being done by intermediaries. SMRs are not an entirely new technology (a bonus in the eyes of the accelerators) but have been, for sometime, a classic case of a solution in search of a problem. Using John Kingdon's model of agenda-setting, we use document analysis and interviews to identify SMR intermediaries and show how they have helped attach the SMR solution to the twin problems of rapidly expanding clean energy production for the grid and providing energy security in remote communities. The fact that the latter are often indigenous communities in the Canadian context creates a special challenge for intermediaries In our discussion of the case, we offer some recommendations to policy makers to recognize the role of transition intermediaries in accelerating local sustainability transitions but also identify the practice of intermediaries shaping the narratives around SMR deployment in local contexts where there are alternative solutions to the problems at hand.
