Media

Recorded Presentations

Brownfield Corps Students

UConn Environment Corps: Harnessing Student Power to Help Towns, March 25, 2020

Chet Arnold, Director, Center for Land Use Education and Research, Dept. of Extension, UConn

Abstract

A UConn faculty partnership that reaches across departmental and college lines is engaged in an effort that seeks to enhance, expand and institutionalize a new model for community engagement at the University. The “Environment Corps” combines the familiar elements of classroom instruction, service learning and Extension outreach in a unique way that provides “real world” experience for students as they prepare for the work force, while helping communities respond to complex environmental mandates. Students enroll in a semester of classroom instruction that focuses on the impacts and issues involved in an environmental problem at the municipal level. Case studies, news articles, guest lectures by practitioners, field visits, and group projects are used to provide a local framework for the class. Students can then choose to enroll in a practicum course during the following semester, where they form teams that work directly with municipal officials from Connecticut towns. The initial pilot effort, funded by an internal UConn grant, created the Climate Corps, now finishing its third year. It was joined in the following year by the Brownfields Corps, and the Stormwater Corps in Spring 2020. To date, 39 town projects have been completed. The challenge moving forward will be to institutionalize this approach at UConn by making it an attractive and viable option for instructors.

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Brownfield Corps Students

Path to brownfield redevelopment: the Municipal Assistance Program (Brownfields Corps) of the Connecticut Brownfields Initiative, April 22, 2020

Dr. Nefeli Bompoti, Project Manager, Connecticut Brownfields Initiative, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UConn

Abstract

The Connecticut Brownfields Initiative (CBI) is an educational and community support program with a mission to promote brownfield redevelopment in the State of Connecticut. CBI operates within the University of Connecticut and provides training and support for CT stakeholders on brownfield remediation and redevelopment. Our educational program creates a workforce of skilled graduates with hands on experience on brownfields. The initiative enables public-private industry, academia and government to collaborate in solving brownfield remediation and redevelopment challenges in CT.

In this webinar, you will learn about:

  • Brownfields projects we support
  • CBI’s Fall and Spring Municipal Assistance Program
  • Recent success stories

 

 

 

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Webinar

The Environment Corps: an engaged scholarship model that combines classroom instruction, service learning and Extension (an act in two parts). Part Two: focus on community projects, April 23, 2021

Chet Arnold, Director, Center for Land Use Education and Research, Dept. of Extension, UConn
Barrett, J., Bompoti, N., Dickson, Sullivan, B., Kerrigan, K., and Maitland, M.

Abstract

UCONN CETL Workshop highlighting a partnership at UConn that reaches across college and departmental lines is engaged in a project that seeks to enhance, expand, institutionalize, and study a new model for experiential learning and community engagement. The model, called the Environment Corps (“E-Corps”), combines familiar elements of classroom instruction, service learning, and extension outreach to create a method of engagement that aims to benefit students, faculty, surrounding communities, and the university community itself. In this second session in a 2-part series (the first was not recorded) focused on building community partnerships and designing appropriate student projects, including several examples from instructors and our municipal “clients.”

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Youtube webinar

Responses to COVID-19: Adapting Classroom Teaching Techniques and Hands-On Learning to an Online Environment, March 23, 2021

Dr. Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo, Postdoctoral Research Associate, UConn
Dr. Chaya Gopalan, Associate Professor, Applied Health, Primary Care, and Health Systems, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville

Abstract

How can we adapt STEM courses to the online environment without missing out on the benefits of hands-on learning or strong teaching techniques used in-person? In this workshop hosted by the AAAS-IUSE Initiative, speakers share their research and experience transitioning their courses online. First, researcher Dr. Rebecca Campbell-Montalvo shares how to pivot STEM service-learning courses to an online environment by sharing her research from the University of Connecticut’s environmental service corps’ move online. Afterwards, Dr. Chaya Gopalan discusses how she used flipped teaching techniques in a remote environment. Overall, the workshop serves as an opportunity to explore successful strategies for transitioning STEM courses online while continuing to engage students.

 

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