![\"Peter](\"http:\/\/www.augsburg.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2009\/04\/connections.jpg\" "\\"connections\\"")
The topic of conversation on this early December afternoon was pumpkin ice cream, a dessert that summed up many of the conflicts that go along with making environmental change.<\/p>\nby Jeff Shelman<\/p>\n
The topic of conversation on this early December afternoon was pumpkin ice cream, a dessert that summed up many of the conflicts that go along with making environmental change.<\/p>\n
In Environmental Connections, the gateway course for Augsburg\u2019s new environmental studies major, history professor Michael Lansing and political science professor Joe Underhill take an issue and break it down over a semester. In fall 2007, the topic was water. This past fall, a dozen Augsburg students looked at food and just how it ends up on our plates.<\/p>\n
At the end of the semester, the Environmental Connections students had to take what they learned and plan a menu for a lunch that was served in the Christensen Center Commons. Nutrition and taste were important to the students. But so were environmentally friendly practices, the use of vegetables grown in the Augsburg greenhouse, and supporting local farmers and companies.<\/p>\n
And that led to the lengthy discussion about whether they should serve pumpkin ice cream from Kemps or buy it from Izzy\u2019s, a St. Paul ice cream shop. The students knew they wanted the Izzy\u2019s because the ice cream is made with organic products and the shop uses solar power. But there was the issue with price. Kemps wasn\u2019t as environmentally friendly, but the students could get more ice cream at a lower price.<\/p>\n
Because while it\u2019s easy for people to say that they want to take environmental concerns into consideration when making decisions, the tone sometimes changes when being green is more expensive. In the end, the class reached a compromise and would get ice cream from both.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat discussion was everything the class was about,\u201d says Kathy DeKrey, a first-year student from Bemidji, Minn. \u201cI thought we should have put up the cost and got just the Izzy\u2019s ice cream.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people aren\u2019t willing to put forth the initial costs to make good decisions and that is too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the kind of broad, big-picture thinking that the professors hope comes out of this interdisciplinary class. Because things like food, water, and energy\u2014 a potential topic for next year\u2014impact so many parts of society, Underhill and Lansing bring in guest lecturers from departments across campus.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what you won\u2019t find in Augsburg\u2019s new environmental studies major: a windmill suddenly being constructed in the middle of Cedar-Riverside, repeated trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and anything that could be considered rural.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what we want,\u201d Lansing says. \u201cThat\u2019s not who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n
The term \u201cenvironmental\u201d is often equated with rural, with wetlands, and with ecosystems. But Lansing and Underhill are much more interested in making an impact on and around campus. After all, the Mississippi River is only a few blocks away. There is a Superfund site in Minneapolis\u2019 Phillips neighborhood because of high amounts of pesticides and herbicides previously produced there. The local Sierra Club office is just across Interstate 94 in the Seward neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Students in both the water and the food classes took the light rail to downtown Minneapolis to learn about the impact of St. Anthony Falls. For the initial class, the falls demonstrated the importance of water in relation to the creation of energy. Last semester, the falls taught about the milling process and the history of Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
In addition to being a vehicle for teaching, studying environmental issues in an urban environment creates opportunity. \u201cIf you\u2019re interested in the wilderness and studying ecosystem dynamics, this probably isn\u2019t the right program,\u201d Underhill says. \u201cBut if you want to do something on human impact, you have to be where the people are. Humans are having a huge impact so we have to spend time where the most people are.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the water class, the students constructed rain gardens on the Augsburg campus. The gardens are positioned to collect water runoff from campus buildings. In addition to adding plant life to campus, the rain gardens keep runoff water from eventually reaching the Mississippi River.<\/p>\n
Getting students out of the classroom and getting their hands, quite literally, dirty very much fits into the experiential teaching Augsburg is known for.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want students to be aware of their immediate surroundings,\u201d Lansing says. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to put them in a sealed classroom and learn about grand theories while ignoring what\u2019s going on around them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter Klink is in his first year at Augsburg after taking classes a year ago at Minneapolis Community and Technical College. He always had an interest in the outdoors, but he didn\u2019t really know just how complex food is.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost cows are fed corn hay because it gets them fat quicker, but it\u2019s not as good for people,\u201d Klink says. \u201cBut if you stop feeding them corn hay and feed them grass, the corn industry is hurt. Whatever you do, it impacts something.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klink, who grew up in Stillwater, Minn., found his habits as a consumer changing as the semester progressed. His biggest change\u2014the result of learning about the environmental cost of transporting food across country\u2014has been to make a greater effort to buy locallygrown food.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to know where it comes from,\u201d Klink says. \u201cAlso, it\u2019s a way to support local businesses. The way the economy is, I\u2019m all about supporting local businesses rather than some big corporation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because the Environmental Connections class is a gateway course and largely for first-year students and sophomores, the students enter at different points.<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly the most satisfying thing is when they start with no clue and as the semester goes on, the light bulb starts to come on,\u201d Underhill says.<\/p>\n
The environmental studies major\u2014which will feature classes from a variety of departments on campus\u2014is very much in its infancy at Augsburg. While the curriculum has been approved and the requirements laid out, simply offering a major doesn\u2019t guarantee student interest.<\/p>\n
In addition to providing a base of knowledge, the gateway course also shows students with interest in the environment some of the possibilities that are out there, that an environmental studies major isn\u2019t limited to a job in nature or working as some sort of scientist.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of green stuff that\u2019s going to be used in the future,\u201d says Klink, who is going to major in business and at least minor in environmental studies. \u201cI think there is going to be a lot of opportunities for jobs in that area. There\u2019s wind energy, solar energy, green architecture. To have a background where you understand that is a key thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
And getting students on the path toward understanding is what the Environmental Connections class is all about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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