Spring 2012 Course Syllbi - ENVMT 1, 2, 2L

ENVIRONMENTAL CAREERS. ENVMT 1 #24487 1.0 UNIT
Spring 2012 SYLLABUS
Environmental Center, Self Reliant House
INSTRUCTOR: ROBIN FREEMAN 510-434-3840, robinf5713@aol.com

Recommended texts (not required): The Complete Guide to Environmental Careers. Island Press; and What Color is Your Parachute?, 10 Speed Press

Course Requirements:
Environmental Careers is a required core course for Environmental Studies majors. It may be taken for 1) a letter grade (required of majors or for transfer grade point average), 2) for Credit (no grade, gives transfer elective units), or
3) No Credit (does not affect transcript). For those taking a letter grade, you will participate in grading yourself.

1) Course attendance, 2) a minimum of 4 hours volunteer work for any environment related organization or firm, 3) an Informational Interview or Research Report on an environmental career are required for a letter grade. There will be brief evaluations of the interview and volunteer/intern projects (see due dates). An Environmental Career Portfolio will be developed during the course.

Your volunteer work can be for the Environmental Program at Merritt or at a location of your choosing which willing to have you for a short period of time.
Some organizations would rather have you for at least a full day. Of course, you are welcome to put in more than four hours. You should choose work that is interesting to you and fits into your career development. There will be listings available in class or on line, the Ecology Center on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley and numerous government agencies.

Learning Outcomes: You will be able to research and survey environmental job or entrepreneurial opportunities, prioritize your choices and make and execute a plan to work in that career pathway.

SCHEDULE:
January 26, Thurs. 1-4– Introduction to the course, Class Introduction Interviews
February 2, Thurs. 1-4- Preference Profiles, Environ. Careers Slide presentation
February 9, Thurs. 1-6:20, 5 Year Plan, Strategy A and B, Resume, History of Work. To accommodate religious services, you may attend the afternoon only.
Break time for Interviews and Mini-internship
March 15, Thurs. 1-4 - Reports on interviews/internships due, discussion/task,
March 22, Thurs 1-4 - Reports continued, discussion, evaluation.


INTRODUCTION TO SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS
ENVMT 2, Code: 22656 (3 units)
SYLLABUS Spring 2012, Version 1.0

Team Contact: Robin Freeman M.A., 434-3840, robinf5713@aol.com, Office hrs (call first) @ SRH; Check field day locations and time updates the week before the field trip. Topic days may change.

Wednesdays 6:30-9:20PM & 3 Sunday field days
Text: Miller, G. Tyler. Living in the Environment, 11th to 16th Editions.
Note: You are encouraged to use editions which you can find used. The chapter numbers change in each edition. Find the subject in the title of the lecture either in the Table of Contents or in the Index. There is free information on line for each chapter as well as a pay as you read site. There are copies on 2 hour reserve in the Library in the A Building.

2/1 Introductions; about the course and the ENVMT program Definitions Sustainability, System, Ecology
2/8 Environmental Problems, Their Causes and Solutions, Sustainability and History
2/12 Sunday, 10am Meet at SRH Field Trip to Village Homes in Davis, 1.5 hour drive, bring lunch.
2/15 Urban Land Use, Economics; Politics, Sustainability
2/22 Science, Matter and Energy, Climate Change, Water, Carbon and
Geologic Cycles
2/26 Sunday TBA Community Meeting or event planning; Student presentation
group planning
2/28 Ecosystems, Populations, Communities,
3/7 Risk, Toxicology, Air, H2O Pollution; Minerals, Soil, Water Pollution;
STUDENT PRESENTATION
3/11 Sunday San Leandro Creek event.
3/14 Energy: Climate planning, Resiliency
3/21 Forest Resources, Restoration, Global Warming: Chapters 11-3 through
11-10, 21
3/28 Biodiversity, Restoration: R, Freenan
Pesticides, IPM, Extinctions, Wildlife Conservation
STUDENT PRESENTATION
3/30 Solid Waste, Food Resources and Food Security STUDENT PRESENTATION
4/4 Sustainable Planning Discussion or Speaker event PROJECT REPORTS DUE:
4/11 Class presentations, evaluations, grades;
Spring Break



Course Requirements:
Field Days: If you schedule does not permit you to attend a field day, you may substitute a field day from another course in the Integrated Curriculum this semester.

Weekly Assignment: Each week turn in one brief paragraph for the text reading, or the lecture about how the subject affects your life in some way or, if you do not think it does, why not.

Semester Project:
Option 1 - Choose one of the subjects from the ENVMT 2L lab list and and volunteer a minimum of 8 hours on a project. It can be the same as the Lab project you are doing. It can be in the community or research or work on your own that is useful to the group or sector you choose. We will work with other classes this semester on the integrated curriculum in the San Leandro Creek corridor. Write briefly where you volunteered, what you did, and what was most and least useful to you about the experience and how, or if that particular area of effort affects, or could affect the human (or other species) health and the quality of life both locally and globally. You will present your work in class. You can work in groups.
Option 2 – Select one of the STUDENT PRESENTATION italicized lecture topics above. Research it in the text and anywhere else, use your own experience, if you have experience in the subject. Present a lecture, discussion, or workshop activity on that topic individually or in a group.

Grade You will suggest your grade based on attendance, completion of weekly reading and writing assignments, and completion of your final project. This course is required for all of the Environmental majors. Environmental Studies 2 satisfies certain UC, CSU Social Sciences requirements. You must choose a grade or CR/NC by the beginning of class.


Introduction to Sustainable Systems Lab
Spring 2012 Syllabus
ENVMT 2L (1 Unit) Code: 23930

Robin Freeman, robinf5713@aol.com, (510) 434-3840, Cell: (510) 915-1452

Wednesday, 2/1: 3:00 optional Drop in Orientation, 5:00 Orientation
What is a project? What is a plan?
Wednesday, 2/8 – 5/9 Regular update meetings at 5:30; attend as needed.
Wednesday, 5/16 Project and course Evaluations/pot luck
Each student will make his or her own plan, goals and schedule with me. The Lab schedule will be flexible to accommodate student projects.

ENVMT 2L projects can be combined with ENVMT 50 projects and both volunteer and paid internships.

A completely sustainable system will include everything that humans do. For that reason, this lab course has access to many and diverse projects. Everything we are doing to learn how to live sustainably is a global experiment. You can join working groups from various courses that will be working on multiple projects through Green Works Development beginning in February. They will include all the student initiated projects that are on-going and will include orientations and powerpoint updates. Set individual or group meetings to outline what you want to focus on for the semester.

Course Requirements:
.
1) Select project(s) from this list, or you may suggest your own. Due Feb. 8 a priority list of which projects interest you most and questions you have about them
2) Form working groups
3) Write a lousy first draft of a project plan. Due Feb. 15 A preliminary project plan and schedule
4) Begin Project – meet with Robin to develop final plan agreement.
5) Continue updating via meetings, emails, phone, Wednesday 5:30 meetings
6) Your evaluation of your project is due May 9. You will suggest your grade based on these 6 steps. Your project is an experiment, so it does not have to be a “success”. A successful project will have a plan and an execution of the plan as much as possible and an evaluation of lessons learned.


Ongoing Projects of the Environmental Management and Technology Program and partners.
Green Building:
Self Reliant House Environmental Center
1. Complete lumber rack (Robin)
2. Complete tracking mechanism for Batch Solar Water Heater (Bruce Douglas)
3. Connect water to Batch Heater (Bruce Douglas, John Poon)
4. Paint doors with Zero Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) non-toxic paint (Robin)
5. Repair fence with green materials (Robin)
6. Complete Urban Wood green wall bench
7. Upgrade directional and interpretive signs
8. Build slip form interpretive sign posts
9. Upgrade Local Area Network
10. Other
Friends of Sausal Creek Nursery
1. Hang Bee house
2. General project work with staff (Megan Hess, Jeffrey Chilcott)

Many Generations Health Center Urban Wood Paneling
1. Complete bid(Robin)
2. Complete design
3. Cut and dry lumber, build, install (Treewolf, Noel Woodhouse)

Urban Lumber Milling and drying (Robin)
1. Big Leaf Maple logs
2. See Urban Lumber under Organizing

Housing Ourselves
1. Designing high quality, low income housing in “found” space (Robin)
2. Working on sustainable garden installation at a residence

Ecological Landscape and Stream Restoration:
1. San Leandro Creek Restoration and Greenway Plan and research (also see Urban Planning) We have been working on the San Leandro Creek Greenway as a lab project for both Restoration and Urban Planning You can look up "Waters of Connection" on Wiki to see some of the on-line work that students have done as well as San Leandro Creek on Google Sites as San Leandro Creek Greenway (Robin, David Ralston, many more)
2. Self Reliant House Ecological Study Zone planting and invasive control (Michael Meese, Shirley Knight, Robin)
3. City of Emeryville bayside pedestrian underpass native gardens planning(Robin)
4. Leona Open Space (Michael Charnofsky, Janet Gomes)
5. Lion Creek (Grace Neufeld)
6. Friends of Sausal Creek (Megan Hess)
7. Trout in the Classroom (Grace Neufeld)
8. Feral Cats at SRH

Ranger Naturalist Interpretation:
1. Interpretive signs and brochures at SRH Hilton Trail
2. York trail brochure box
3. Friends of Sausal Creek volunteer interpreter (Megan Hess)
4. Leona Open Space interpretive walks (Michael Charnofsky)
5. Baywood Learning Center and York Trail/Lion creek.

Urban Planning:
1. San Leandro Greenway urban and regional planning with city and regional staff, elected officials and community groups,
2. Emeryville native planting (see Restoration)
3. Urban Lumber Milling and Sales organizing

Solid Waste- Reduce, Re-use, Recycle:
1. Zero Waste Crafts – The Land and the People Student Club (Robin)
2. SRH Compost and wood/yard waste re-cycling (Robin, Leslie Geathers)
3. East Bay Depot for Creative Re-Use volunteer
4. Urban Lumber Milling and Sales organizing

Water Use:
1. SRH Rain Barrel installation
2. Starting a Rainbarrel/Rain Garden design and installation service

Food and food production:
1. Work on the Urban/Edible garden (Leslie Geathers)
2. Culinary sustainable food event or preparation

Planning ENVMT/Outreach/Fundraising:
1. SRH Volunteer Days (Eric Lindberg, Michael Meese, Shirley Knight)
2. 50th Anniversary Program and Speakers (Everybody)
3. ENVMT Transition Team (Wendy Wheeler, Eric, Robin)
4. California Higher Education Sustainability Conference, Davis CA, Summer
5. Grant writing
6. Green Works Development organizational planning events (David Ralston, Robin, David and Janis Poon, many others)

Other:



PROJECT PLAN WORKSHEET
VISION
Why are you interested, what inspires or motivates you about your choice as it fits into your life and creating a sustainable and thriving world? What is the story behind what you want to do or find out about? Use other sheets to write your drafts and plan.



GOAL(S)
What outcome(s) do you expect or hope for? What will happen at the end, what “work products” or other information or learning or observations will lead to a successful effort by your own definition.



OBJECTIVES
Are there smaller pieces that can add up to the goal above?



ACTIONS
What will you do to make the objectives happen? Begin small. For instance, filling in a very rough first draft of this worksheet is an action.



TIME LINE or SCHEDULE:
When will you do the actions? Who will do each action? What has to come before what else?



BUDGET
Will your project cost anything? Where will the money or materials come from? This can be entirely your class time, or it can be funded in some manner.



EVALUATION
What did you learn from the project? How did it fit what you imagined for each element of your plan? Would you re-define “success”?



TEXT
What lectures in ENVMT 2 Introduction to Sustainable Systems or sections of Living in the Environment does your project relate to?