Bowdoin College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

A student worked on an independent project during Spring 2023 with Visiting Assistant Professor of Art Mary Hart to create a field guide to birds on the Bowdoin campus. The purpose of her project was to help others notice and appreciate the wide variety of wildlife on campus, and by doing so, engage them with the protection and care for these species. One printed copy of "Birds of Bowdoin" will be kept in Bowdoin's George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives, and the book is also published as a free e-book to share with as wide an audience as possible. https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2023/05/local-guide-visual-arts-major-creates-illustrated-book-of-birds.html

Students in BIOL 2581 were asked to create a land use management plan for one of several local properties as their final project in class. Biodiversity, sustainability, responsible forest and land development, and stakeholder concerns were major themes for the course and their projects. One of the students also created an installation art piece for her final installation art course project based on her land management project in BIOL 2581.

Every spring semester the Perspectives in Environmental Science course does a segment on the atmosphere and carbon sequestration. To better understand these concepts, the class takes a trip to the Schiller Coastal Studies Center to measure the circumference of various trees throughout the property. The students then use the data to analyze the capturing and storing of atmospheric carbon dioxide over the past years. The students' data contribute to a larger research project involving atmospheric carbon in Maine.

One student worked on a summer research project where he calculated the amount of carbon being absorbed by trees at Bowdoin’s Schiller Coastal Studies Center. During his research, he conducted measurements of trunk diameter and used lidar—light detection and ranging—data to model the canopy height and other forest characteristics. Then he used his data points to extrapolate across the rest of the forest at the 118-acre center to estimate the total amount of biomass and how much carbon is held in that mass. The purpose of gathering this information is to evaluate the forest as an offset for carbon emissions.

A joint faculty-student project to count bird strikes around Bowdoin buildings has resulted in statistics for numbers, species, sites, etc. to help identify priorities as the College plans to adopt bird-safe architecture practices. 

The students in Professor Shu-chin Tsui's eco-cinema class study how filmmakers in China are documenting and telling stories of environmental calamity. They also make their own short films here in Maine. Student filmmakers explored Barry Mills Hall and the John and Lile Gibbons Center for Arctic Studies, the first commercial construction project in the state of Maine to use mass timber as its primary load-bearing material. The students had an opportunity to take a look at the construction of the two buildings as it was happening.

In MATH 1300 Biostatistics, one team of students chose to use information about the fuel and electricity consumption of campus buildings before, during, and after the pandemic to understand how that consumption was impacted by the changed buildings usage patterns.

A student's thesis project in 2021 with Assistant Professor of Computer Science Sean Barker involved designing and deploying smart energy meters in campus buildings to measure the consumption of individual electrical appliances. https://www.bowdoin.edu/news/2021/08/making-smart-buildings-even-smarter.html

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Government Shana Starobin teaches a methods course that worked with Bowdoin Dining to investigate questions regarding local sourcing options for various commodities that could be supplied through Maine farmers and vendors. The course also plans to collaborate with the sustainability office to examine the ways in which current campus activities align with the goals of being pollinator-friendly according to select external organizations. The Bowdoin Organic Garden, which is managed by Bowdoin Dining Services, hosts various educational and volunteer opportunities so both students and faculty can be directly exposed to the strategies for organically growing food, as well as its benefits.

Students in the class Ecology—taught by Assistant Professor of Biology Patty Jones and Laboratory Instructor Shana Stewart Deeds—has completed two annual surveys of plants in the grassland meadow below the solar panels located on the 17,000-panel solar array on Bowdoin land in Brunswick. The class is comparing new plant growth, post installation, with areas of less disturbance in the pitch pine sandplain that makes up much of that area's ecosystem. Bowdoin is assessing what is happening out there to make good management decisions and simultaneously help students to learn about ecology data collection and analysis.

Students in ENVS2201 labs researched and then presented to the Office of Sustainability their proposal on how Bowdoin should approach purchasing carbon offsets. Options included discontinuing buying carbon offsets and using the funding to get to fossil–fuel–free sooner, continuing to buy offsets and identifying which types of offsets the College should purchase, or exploring innovative carbon offset projects that would allow for incorporating into academics or into opportunities for student engagement along with purchasing other offsets as the College is already doing. This information was also shared with the Sustainability Implementation Committee to help guide decision-making on carbon offsets. A student from the course worked on a summer fellowship with the Office of Sustainability to continue looking into innovative carbon offset projects that can be carried out with student and faculty engagement.

Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Government, Shana Starobin, teaches a methods course which worked with Bowdoin Dining to investigate questions regarding local sourcing options for various commodities that could be supplied through Maine farmers and vendors.

The students in Professor Shu-chin Tsui's eco-cinema class study how filmmakers in China are documenting and telling stories of environmental calamity. They also make their own short films here in Maine. Water Bottles, by Zander Gilman ’24 and Jillian Horton ’24 begins by presenting staggering statistics on plastic waste littering the land and seas around the globe. It then redirects its focus to Bowdoin, examining the efforts the College is taking to limit plastic use and create a sustainable campus.

Research Associate in Biology and Mathematics, Olaf Ellers, taught a research course in Fall 2022 that incorporated two projects on the prevalence of nanoplastic particles in the coastal Maine marine environment and on the effects of such nanoplastic particles on local marine animals. They used the marine lab at the Bowdoin Schiller Coastal Studies Center to conduct the research projects, and a Bowdoin research vessel was used to survey for plastic nanoparticles. Other research projects focus on eelgrass beds and effects of ocean acidification and temperature on marine animals. These research projects provide the underlying scientific understanding necessary to engage in understanding sustainability with respect to the ocean. Furthermore, class discussion focuses on current research on issues such as marine protected areas, biology of sustainability in fisheries, biodiversity and extinction, coral bleaching on Hawaiian reefs and impact of global warming on marine species.

Students in ENVS2201 labs researched and then presented to the Office of Sustainability their proposal on how Bowdoin should approach purchasing carbon offsets. Options included discontinuing buying carbon offsets and using the funding to get to fossil-fuel-free status sooner, continuing to buy offsets and identifying which types of offsets the College should purchase, or exploring innovative carbon offset projects that would allow for incorporating into academics or into opportunities for student engagement along with purchasing other offsets as the College is already doing. This information was also shared with the Sustainability Implementation Committee to help guide decision-making on carbon offsets. A student from the course worked on a summer fellowship with the Office of Sustainability to continue looking into innovative carbon offset projects that can be carried out with student and faculty engagement.

In Assistant Professor of Anthropology William Lempert's Imagining Futures and Contemporary Issues in Native North America classes, students engage with virtual reality (VR) media to reimagine sustainable and Indigenous futures through our VR lab. His Contemporary Issues in Native North America class also engages the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Bowdoin’s George J. Mitchell Department of Special Collections & Archives and with the Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum around issues of sustainability.

Students in ENVS2201 labs researched and then presented to the Office of Sustainability their proposal on how Bowdoin should approach purchasing carbon offsets. Options included discontinuing buying carbon offsets and using the funding to get to fossil-fuel-free status sooner, continuing to buy offsets and identifying which types of offsets the College should purchase, or exploring innovative carbon offset projects that would allow for incorporating into academics or into opportunities for student engagement along with purchasing other offsets as the College is already doing. This information was also shared with the Sustainability Implementation Committee to help guide decision-making on carbon offsets. A student from the course worked on a summer fellowship with the Office of Sustainability to continue looking into innovative carbon offset projects that can be carried out with student and faculty engagement.

Students in Associate Professor of Dance Aretha Aoki's Dancing Place class are creating choreographic and sonic projects outdoors, at Bowdoin's Schiller Coastal Studies Center related to issues of place, belonging, identity, and well-being.