California State University, Monterey Bay
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

The collection of water from fog offers a unique opportunity to engage with an environmental feature endemic to the Monterey area (fog). Worldwide, numerous countries capitalize upon the presence of fog to produce potable water in regions that receive little rainfall. In some cases entire communities utilize fog water to meet their basic needs (Henderson et al. and Edwards et al.). Indeed, such deployments exist in Chile, Guatemala, Israel, Yemen, Eritrea, Morocco, Spain, and many other countries throughout the world. A simple mesh mounted properly on a square frame provides a surface for the fog water to coalesce. Once the droplets reach a suitable size, their weight causes them to fall off and collect in a trough below. From a single square meter of vertically-mounted mesh up to several gallons of water have been produced in a single day under foggy conditions with sufficient wind. Actual amounts collected are very location dependent and under foggy conditions are more typically about a liter. Besides potentially providing a means of capture of usable water, which can serve multiple purposes, this technique provides a much more quantitative in situ means of assessing the presence of fog. The fog collected is a function both of the density of water in the air as well as the wind speed and direction. When the wind directs fog into the mesh, maximal fog water accrues. As wind speed increases, typically so does the amount of fog water collected.

(Second to last paragraph) Students in Dr. Atzori’s Sustainable Event Management course volunteer with local organizations. In September, they volunteered for the Jazz Festival, at Corral De Tierra, and at the Nature Valley First Tee Open at Poppy Hills. An upcoming volunteer opportunity is November’s American Red Cross Farm to Table event. This course also completes a ‘Sustainability Initiative Project’. Students are analyzing the sustainability practices of the Intercontinental The Clement to determine what the facility is currently doing and what can be done as a facility. The student teams each focus on one aspect of sustainability (i.e. water, waste, energy). The students will produce a written report that will constitute the outcome of their project and the report will be shared with the Intercontinental The Clement of the semester. Hospitality Capstone students are working with Dametra Fresh and the Monterey County Convention and Visitors Bureau (MCCVB). One capstone group is doing a study of franchise expansion for the fast casual concept of Dametra Fresh. The other group is studying sustainable tourism marketing initiatives for MCCVB. Professionally, they’re making contributions to their field through research and furthering their own education with professional certifications. Angel presented his paper “Factors in Tourists’ Food Decision Processes” at the iCHRIE Annual Conference. Roberta’s paper, “The Sustainable Tourist Experience: Antecedents, Components, and Consequences,” was accepted at the October EuroCHRIE Conference. Dr. González qualified as a Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE®) through the American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute (AHLEI). This program is the only professional development opportunity designed for postsecondary hospitality educators. Educators with this certification are able to strengthen students' critical thinking and motivation to learn, share ideas with fellow educators, and receive recognition for their teaching abilities from students, colleagues, and the industry.

Mammology course (BIO 364) researches ground squirrel space use and behavior with undergraduate course. Natural History of CA Wildlife (Bio360) foraging experiments on campus with ground squirrels. The Return of the Natives project has a 4-acre habitat restoration parcel that the Watershed Institute and the Return to the Native program brings students to collect seeds, grow plants from seed, removes invasive species, and plants seedlings. The soccer team helps to remove ice-plant, which is the most invasive species on campus.

The campus recently launched a Sustainable City Year Program which matches a local municipality's project needs with classes across the university's many academic disciplines. Program allows students to apply academic knowledge in real-world contexts, and has regular support from Campus Planning & Development staff. Students have so far produced well-researched, feasible recommendations for improvements to the campus transportation network and that of our City Year partner. CSUMB received a $15,000 grant funding to do a living lab project with respect to transportation. The advantage of this project and the two courses that were modified to accommodate is that they are now offered on alternating semesters each academic year. One course is entitled Sustainability Systems (ENSTU 375) and is taught every fall semester. A student intern is employed by the Campus Planning and Development to focus on alternative transportation. This is funded by the contracts with Monterey/Salinas Transit.

ENSTU 376 Fog collection for oak tree watering on campus.

Undergraduate researchers in the course RSCH 294 working on a project that looks at diversity and affordability in terms of how well does representation in mentored undergraduate research and course-based undergraduate research reflect the diversity of the larger student population. We are also specifically looking at working, low-income and care-taker students to see if offering research opportunities in class or funded out-of-class opportunities makes participating more feasible/affordable.

PHYS221 solar suitcases to local communities. Working with communities to provide solar power. The student in the class work with local high school to develop.