Bringing Sustainability to our Communities

“My education and understanding of sustainability was very different and from a totally different perspective. …. this enables me toreally look at my classroom and what I teach through a different lens. In doing this, growth can only naturally occur. Thank you.”

2019 MCSI Teach-the-Teacher participant

TEACHING SUSTAINABILITY PRACTICES FOR THE VIRTUAL MIDDLE SCHOOL CLASSROOM

Program Leads: David Sanchez, MCSI and Jon Kovach, UCLA Center X

Due to COVID-19, the Teach-the-Teacher program has been reimagined into an online, two-day workshop for

regional middle school teachers. Adapting the program has provided unique opportunities to expand our reach and engages more deeply in the new challenge of hybrid teaching in the K-12 science classroom. reached its capacity of 22 teachers in under one week of promotion. The program

MCSI and Japanese Studies are working to develop a Teacher program centered around Japan, the 2021 Summer Olympics. and Sustainability. Originally planned for 2020, this program has been deferred to Summer 2021.

Figure 2: Map shows broad range of Teach-the-Teacher participants and school districts throughout the

Pittsburgh region.

“Beyond the impact that our projects have had on the young people with whom we work, the student projects and student club installations of hydroponic and aquaponic systems have increased our agricultural capacity for both fish and greens and also helped to positively impact perceptions of the Homewood community. In fact, the work with Dr. Sanchez, his students,and colleagues has helped to draw people from around the country to visit and learn from the work our partnership around urban agriculture and youth STEM education.”

Cynthia M. Wallace, Executive Director,The Oasis Project

CREATIVITY IN TEACHING

MCSI is helping faculty throughout the campus adapt and modify their courses to infuse sustainability content into their curriculum. In addition, we’ve supported unique sustainability course offerings including:

Sustainability Capstone ENGR1907 David Sanchez and Faculty Fellow, Tony Kerzmann, have worked closely with a number of local organizations including: McCandless Township, New Sun Rising, Solar Unified Network of Western Pennsylvania, CPower Energy, Green Building Alliance, Tree Pittsburgh, Phipps Conservatory, Clean Robotics, Allegheny Cleanways, Grow Pittsburgh, Passive House of Western Pennsylvania, Scalo Solar Solutions, Forbes Street Market, Operation Better Block, and Worm Return. All Capstone teams created 2-minute videos of their projects. Examples can be found at Pitt MCSI Capstone Community Solar video and Pitt MCSI Capstone Operation Better Block video

Environmental Education for Social Change

was a course created by Peters Faculty Fellow, Danielle Andrews-Brown for the 2019 Pitt in South Africa Study Abroad Program. This course seeks to use South Africa (one of the most culturally and environmentally diverse countries in the world) as an outdoor classroom to highlight the challenges, solutions, and negotiations that are central to sustaining life on Earth.

EDUCATION AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

Engineering Sustainability in Island Nations: Dr. Tony Kerzmann received a donation of 18 solar panels from Scalo Solar Solutions for installation in Jamaica as a service learning project for the course. Scalo is also going to provide a certified NABCEP Installer to train Pitt students on solar installation. We are planning to schedule a training weekend in the Spring 2021 semester (COVID permitting).