Environmental Science and Sustainability

Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Global Health Studies Caryl Waggett, Katrina Korfmacher (University of Rochester School of Medicine), Richard Gragg (Florida A&M), and Martha Richmond (Suffolk University) have been awarded $45,000 from InTeGrate, an NSF-funded project of the Science Education Resource Center (SERC). The collaborative award was granted for the development of undergraduate teaching modules examining the science, policy, and public health prevention of childhood lead poisoning. The grant covers module development, course piloting in multiple campuses, assessment/module refinement, publication, and workshops over a two-year process.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden coauthored “Effects of Decreasing Carbon Saturation Deficit on Temperate Forest Soil Carbon Cycling” in a special edition of the Soil Science Society of America Journal. The work, based on the Detritus Input and Transfer (DIRT) experiment at the Bousson Experimental Forest, showed that soils in intact forests have the capacity to increase soil C storage, but that increases in storage are very slow. Professor Bowden also co-authored “Linking soil organic matter content, chemistry, and decomposition: Complex responses to input manipulation and long-term incubation,” presented at the 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The work, conducted on soils collected from the Bousson Forest, and including colleagues from U. Oregon and Oregon State, shows that alteration of organic matter into soils dramatically alters the chemistry of soil organic matter, which is important for understanding controls on forest productivity and soil carbon storage.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny alum Daryl Ford ’13 reflects on her first year in Teach for America.

This winter, my students and I celebrated Black History Month. I teach science, so the occasion offered us a chance to talk about chemistry through the lens of environmental justice. They’re learning how, as people of color from low-income families, they are often placed at a health disadvantage because of the lack of resources available in their communities. As we’ve delved deeper, I’ve watched them make powerful connections to the disadvantages they experience more viscerally in their own daily lives – when a cashier is squinting suspiciously when they walk into a store, when more news breaks of another person who looks like them losing their lives to senseless violence, police brutality and violence on the streets. Like the polluted air they breathe, these injustices are affecting my kids in the South Bronx every day.

In the face of these realities, we have no time to waste. This school year marked the first in which the majority of public school students are minorities. Our generation has a responsibility to work to ensure that each and every one of these students is moving through a system that affirms their identities, shows them they’re valued, and allows them access to the opportunities they have been denied for far too long.

While the “whites only” signs of the ’60s have come down, the reality of separate and unequal endures. Alongside glaring gaps in educational, employment and economic opportunity, people of color in this nation face a variety of subtler, no less damaging assumptions. A successful black lawyer hears whispers of affirmative action. A young black boy on a corner is seen as “lurking,” while his white peers “hang out.” A black college student is asked to give “the black perspective” to a seminar full of white students who are never asked to speak on behalf of their race.

In my class, it didn’t take long for my kids to notice that most of the scientists and innovators they read about are primarily white and male. So as they learn to think, write, and report like scientists, they’re also asking about how to use their skills to advocate for themselves and their communities. They are eager to learn not only about chemistry, but about how they can apply what they learn in their science class to build a more equitable future.

As a teacher, nothing could thrill me more than seeing my kids so engaged and passionate about leveraging their newfound knowledge. I joined Teach For America because I love to learn and I believe that education is the key to opening doors that have been locked to families and communities for years. Now that I’m in the classroom, I am convinced more deeply than ever that teachers have the power to help their students transform their own lives.

We have a long way to go as a country before we truly achieve justice for all. To fix the systemic oppression that has created the gross inequality of the present will take the hard, dedicated work of countless leaders and change-makers – many who have experienced it firsthand, others who bear witness to it from further away. We must work toward these long-term changes as well as the immediate, urgent opportunities to change the way our students view themselves and their futures.

As teachers, we can play a central role in this. Every day, we can remind our kids that their thoughts, ideas, identities and opinions are important. We can share our own stories so that when our kids look to the front of the room, they see a little bit of themselves reflected back. We can remind them that they matter, that they always have and that they always will.

Daryl Ford is a 2013 Allegheny graduate and a Teach For America-New York City corps member. She teaches science/special education at MS 22 in the South Bronx.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny students make a fashion statement with trash

Lying on the table were a few pieces of cardboard, some wrinkled aluminum foil and about 30 never-before-played CDs. Oh, and don’t forget the large bag overflowing with old microfilm.

Some would see this and search for the nearest trashcan. But not Jared Balik, Emily Herwerden and Rose Fischer. These students look at what most consider trash and instead see treasure.

The students are using these items and more to create costumes for Allegheny’s sixth annual Trashion Show, an annual fashion-style show that encourages groups and individuals to create funky outfits using only recycled material that would otherwise go in the recycle bin or trash. The show will take place Sunday, March 29, at 4 p.m. in the Campus Center Lobby.

This year’s event, called “Junk Jungle,” is hosted by Students for Environmental Action (SEA), a group whose goal is to work for a positive change, creating a healthier environment and more sustainable planet and way of life.

According to junior Jared Balik, SEA co-president, the idea for the Trashion Show is to promote waste awareness and recycling/reuse. Some examples of materials used for costumes in the past include egg and milk cartons, newspaper, plastic bottles, solo cups, flour bags and 35-mm film.

“We try to use the event as an educational opportunity to raise awareness about waste minimization efforts,” says Balik, who is a double major in biology and environmental science. “I think participants walk away with an enhanced appreciation for what creativity can accomplish in terms of repurposing ‘junk.’”

Each year, the show averages 10 to 12 entries. A panel of judges including administrators and students chooses winners based on categories such as “best outfit” or “most wearable outfit.” Assistant Professor of English Matthew Ferrence serves as emcee.

“The Trashion Show is a chance for students to show their creativity,” says senior Emily Herwerden, SEA treasurer who is a double major in environmental studies and German. “This is my first time creating an outfit for the show. I’m really excited to be involved this year.”

Herwerden says she plans to use CDs that were donated from the College’s radio station, WARC 90.3, to make a dress for the show. “I plan to flip the CDs silver-side out and use them on the skirt,” she says. “We also received the donation of old microfilm from the library, so I plan to use that as the bodice.”

Planning for the annual event doesn’t happen overnight. Balik says it requires a “daunting amount of planning and a bunch of student-led committees,” with the group setting up the Campus Center lobby and stages, coordinating lights and sound, advertising and promoting the event, designing decorations and recruiting individuals to create outfits.

Freshman Rose Fischer, who plans to major in environmental science, serves as an SEA member and is on the decoration committee for this year’s Trashion Show. She says the group already has brainstormed ideas to make sure the stage fits in with this year’s “Junk Jungle” theme.

“We’re planning to use potato chip bags to make a sun and cardboard to make animals like monkeys, jaguars and toucans,” she says. “We also hope to make bugs out of bottle caps and packing peanuts, and we’re planning to spray-paint the microfilm green to make vines.

“I’m excited to see everyone’s creativity,” she adds. “We tend to think of trash as waste, but you can really repurpose it in a lot of amazing ways. Making fashion out of it is one way to do that.”

“The planning for the event can be stressful, but seeing it all happen is so satisfying, and everyone has such a great time,” Balik adds. “And if someone learns something, that’s even better. Somehow it always comes together, and it’s beautiful.

“I think the Trashion Show is unique in that it brings a kind of creativity to campus that I’ve never seen elsewhere,” he adds. “It brings people together, and it gets people pumped about environmentalism.”

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny College’s Environmental Science/Studies Department ranks No. 2 in the country, according to EnvironmentalScience.org, a website dedicated to environmental science education and careers.

Allegheny’s program “teaches students to analyze the relationships between humans and the environment that we live with and use,” the site says.

Factors considered in the ranking were location, environmental practices, faculty, study abroad opportunities, teaching methods, program breadth, degree levels offered and renowned research.

“Allegheny’s environmental science department has long been dedicated to teaching students to solve real-world environmental problems,” says Professor Eric Pallant, department chair. “More than a dozen Allegheny faculty with exceptional breadth and depth in environmental problem-solving work shoulder-to-shoulder with students to make the world more sustainable. Our students and alumni have achieved extraordinary success in promoting environmental sustainability. It is a wonderful achievement to be recognized by the nation’s most reliable and expansive advocate for environmental science education and careers.”

Students enrolled at Allegheny can major in environmental science, which focuses on scientific understanding of the changing world, or environmental studies, which has a broader interdisciplinary scope and focuses on such fields as economics and policy, art, literature and philosophy.

The EnvironmentalScience.org rankings are based on published surveys, student data, and other school and career data collected through several sources, including the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). For more information, visit environmentalscience.org/top-schools.

Visit sites.allegheny.edu/envsci to learn more about environmental science/studies at Allegheny.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny College’s newest piece of technology offers students a chance to roll up their sleeves and act like a kid again — a combination of sands and smarts. This augmented reality sandbox, located in the basement of Alden Hall, arrived in late January and creates three-dimensional topographical maps based on the way students physically shape the sand.

Read more.

Tyler Pecyna is the fact-checker for Pittsburgh Magazine. This article appeared in Pittsburgh Magazine’s Great Minds newsletter.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Professor of Environmental Science Richard Bowden co-authored a paper, “Twenty Years of Litter and Root Manipulations in a Temperate Deciduous Forest: Insights into Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Stability,” in a special edition of the Soil Science Society of America Journal. The work, conducted at the Harvard Forest Long-Term Experimental Research Site, found that these soils increase soil C very slowly, and thus intact forests cannot be manipulated easily to increase the ability of soil to help reduce global warming pollution. The work was also featured in the article “Insights into Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Stability in a Temperate Deciduous Forest” published in CSA News, the official magazine for members of the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America. Bowden also co-authored “Detritus Inputs & Forest Soil Organic Matter Formation: Is There a Linear Relationship Between Detrital Input Rates and Soil Carbon Accumulation?” which was delivered at the 2014 meeting of the Annual Meeting of the Soil Science Society of America. The presentation, which described results of field experiments conducted for 10-50 years in Massachusetts, Oregon, Wisconsin, Michigan, Hungary, and Allegheny’s Bousson forest, shows that soils are slow to store atmospheric carbon pollution but are vulnerable to disturbances that can release stored carbon into the atmosphere.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Assistant Professor of Environmental Science TJ Eatmon gave an invited research presentation at SUNY Oneonta. The presentation, “Entrepreneurship as a Vehicle for Citizen-Driven Environmental Action,” highlighted grassroots environmental enterprises that have placed pressure on existing structures to accommodate new ways of doing things, creating spaces in the process that bring together citizens and local policymakers.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

Allegheny senior Kristy Garcia rolled up her sleeves and dug right into the sandbox, piling up clean, white sand to form a mountain.

Senior David Olson joined in as well, using his fingers to dig a trench at the base of the mountain.

As they watched the colors change from deep reds and oranges to bright greens to blues, they braced themselves for the fun part – placing their hand over the camera overlooking the sandbox to “make it rain.”

“That is so cool!” the wide-eyed environmental science majors said in unison as virtual rain washed over the mountain and sloshed into the trench.

It’s a common reaction when someone first sees Allegheny’s newest piece of technology, the augmented reality (AR) sandbox, in the basement of Alden Hall.

The AR sandbox, which arrived at Allegheny in January, combines the playfulness of a child’s sandbox with advanced technology to create a learning tool that can be used by students of all ages. When students shape the sand, a Microsoft Kinect 3-D camera and a projector with powerful software detect the movement and display a three-dimensional topographic and colored elevation map in real time.

According to Sam Reese, lab technician for the geology and environmental science departments, unlike street maps, topographic maps display 3-D characteristics of an area using lines, called contours, to represent elevation above or below sea level. Using topographic maps, engineers know where best to build a road, scientists know where rainwater will flow after a storm and hikers know where a trail is steepest.

“By using this technology, students can actually see how a topographic map portrays a 3-D world. Sometimes people don’t grasp that concept on a flat 2-D map,” Reese says. “The beauty of the sandbox is the simplicity of the model, as it tells a very complicated story.”

Reese explains that the College acquired the materials to construct the sandbox through a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Allegheny carpenters built the actual box, and Craig Newell Welding in Cambridge Springs, Pa., built the metal apparatus that holds the camera and software in place. Dave Wagner, network and systems administrator in computer science and information technology services, set up the operating system and installed the software.

The idea for the AR sandbox came from a group of Czech researchers who posted a YouTube video displaying an early prototype that included elevation maps and a basic form of fluid movement, Reese says. A team at the W.M. Keck Center for Active Visualization in the Earth Sciences (KeckCaves) at the University of California Davis then added the topographic contour lines and improved the simulated fluid flow to create the current prototype. UC Davis provides the blueprints to build the system as well as the necessary software free of charge on its website.

Reese estimates that only a couple dozen AR sandboxes exist, mainly at museums. “It’s so new. The day our sandbox went live – Jan. 21 – an article appeared in the New York Times about augmented reality,” he says. “It’s really cutting edge for Allegheny to have this.”

In addition to the geology and environmental science departments using the sandbox in labs and for independent research projects, the computer science and biology departments also plan to incorporate the technology into their class curricula.

College students won’t be the only ones digging in the sand. Creek Connections, a partnership between the College and K-12 schools that focuses on hands-on watershed education, plans to incorporate the AR sandbox in activities that explore topographic maps, watersheds and stream geology.

“People are used to street maps and Google maps that are very flat. But when we talk about watershed delineation and where rain will go, the concept becomes much easier when you can use a 3-D topographic map like this,” says Wendy Kedzierski, director of Creek Connections. “With the sandbox, you can see it as the sand builds up and the colors change. It makes the connection so much easier.”

Student Kristy Garcia, who works as a project assistant with Kedzierski and the Creek Connections program, agrees. “It’s definitely easier to understand topography when looking at the sandbox,” she says.

Kedzierski believes another benefit is that the sandbox will give students who prefer hands-on activities another opportunity for learning.

“The education that we provide in schools is a lot different from what they do every day in the classroom. Some of the children who have a hard time with traditional lecturing react differently when we do our Creek Connections activities,” Kedzierski says. “This is another tactile experience for those students.”

Reese believes that the AR sandbox is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to hands-on education.

“I believe virtual reality is going to augment the augmented reality,” he says. “It will be interesting to see how the AR software upgrades will add more bells and whistles to the sandbox over the next year or two.”

Source: Academics, Publications & Research

A chapter titled “Food Production as an Integrating Context for Campus Sustainability,” co-authored by Associate Professor of Environmental Science TJ Eatmon, Professor of Environmental Science Eric Pallant and Samantha Laurence ’14 has been published in the book Implementing Campus Greening Initiatives: Approaches, Methods, and Perspectives, edited by Walter Leal and published by Springer. The chapter considers food production as a whole-systems approach to achieving campus sustainability and provides a practical model for bringing together students, faculty, administrators, dining service personnel and local community members through teaching, research and community engagement efforts.

Source: Academics, Publications & Research