inside_the_greenhouse_using_media_to_communicate_a_crisis | CU-Boulder Environmental Studies Program

News Jun 29, 2012

Inside the Greenhouse: Using Media to Communicate a Crisis

Maxwell Boykoff. View Biography

WHAT CAN THIRTY-FIVE EARNEST COLLEGE STUDENTS with a video camera, a set of white board markers and deep concerns about the environment accomplish in one semester? What if these students are imbued with a sense of purpose…a drive to affect change? Theater and Dance professor Dr. Beth Osnes and Environmental Studies professor Dr. Max Boykoff had the highest expectations for undergraduates enrolled in their spring 2012 interdisciplinary class Inside the Greenhouse. They were not disappointed.

“The quality of the final work…was impressive and surprising,” says Dr. Osnes. “Agreed” says Dr. Boykoff. “I was impressed by how much they accomplished with just a little opportunity (the course). I don’t mean to be falsely modest but perhaps the most credit for us goes to just creating the conditions within which they could express themselves in this class setting.”

It was a course without tests or term papers and the classroom stretched far beyond room 1B31, ATLAS. Students were expected to go out into the community, working in groups to produce a series of “compositions” (anything from a pop song to a documentary) that would spread awareness about environmental issues. The class discussed the benefits and drawbacks of certain approaches but groups were encouraged to focus on issues that were interesting to them and Boykoff and Osnes hoped that each student would find his or her own style.

Read the entire story.

News Source: ASSETT--Arts and Sciences Support of Education Through Technology

ENVS Faculty: Maxwell Boykoff

ENVS News Category: Media Story

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