North Seattle College
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

A faculty member and student collaborated to give a presentation to student government on climate change and to advocate the institution to establish an ambitious climate neutrality goal.

North Seattle College provides land for the City of Seattle P-Patch program. One faculty member used the P-Patch for their BIOL 213 course in spring 2019. Students made field observations on pollinators and wrote scientific reports. Any unique (or rare) pollinator observations were reported to a citizen science group that is monitoring native bumble bee populations.

A faculty member and student collaborated to give a presentation to student government on climate change and to advocate the institution to establish an ambitious climate neutrality goal.

1. Environmental Science students conduct a sustainability survey of campus. Students assess buildings, energy, transportation, landscaping, and waste management. The students complete an assignment with assessment and recommendations.
2. OCE&E – Opportunity Center for Employment & Education is a LEED Gold Certification Building that serves as a model to all visitors on campus. Sustainability Office work study students provide a green campus tour and this building is highlighted. Its features such as the green roof and rain gardens contribute to onsite stormwater management, and have helped us to retain the health of the groundwater on campus, as we sit at the headwaters of Thornton Creek. Large south facing windows, advanced energy management systems, and integrative building techniques were utilized with great success.
3. HSSR – Health Sciences & Student Resources is also certified LEED Gold building. The building itself integrates a number of ‘green’ features already highlighted in our OCE&E building, including filtered water-bottle fill-up stations, and advanced energy distribution systems.

Environmental Science students conduct a sustainability survey of campus. Students assess buildings, energy use, transportation, landscaping, and waste management. The students complete an assignment with assessment and recommendations.

1. Students collaborate with staff and faculty on shared garden plots at the campus P-Patch. Collaborators include a botany faculty member that integrates student learning into identifying and growing pollinator species, and other plots that grow crops to be donated to the giving garden.
2. Student volunteers and paid student workers help coordinate the campus food bank, which is part of a holistic United Way Benefits Hub located on campus. Students learn about food insecurity, healthy food options, food assistance programs, and other resources for those in need.

1. Students work with a non-profit to remediate an invasive species, knotweed, from the surrounding wetland.
2. Students collaborate with staff and faculty on shared garden plots at the campus P-Patch. Collaborators include a botany faculty member that integrates student learning into identifying and growing pollinator species, and other plots that grow crops to be donated to the giving garden.
3. Biology and Environmental Science students conduct biodiversity surveys of campus grounds as part of a lab.
4. Environmental Science students conduct a sustainability survey of campus, which includes an assessment of transportation, landscaping, and waste management.

Environmental Science students conduct a sustainability survey of campus. Students assess buildings, energy, transportation, landscaping, and waste management. The students complete an assignment with assessment and recommendations.

Library renovation project, which necessitated the liquidation of theater equipment and Drama department archives. E.P.I.C. student interns took the lead in managing the Stage One portion of this large project. This included taking inventory of all materials, determining what would be routed to storage, surplus, or disposal, and finding the most environmentally friendly options when disposal was necessary. E.P.I.C. interns solicited donors for used materials, through which they were able to route two dozen boxes of scripts and theater texts and a handful of props to deserving programs, and separating materials for more efficient recycling, including 30 years of Drama department files. E.P.I.C. interns were also able to see how sustainability worked into the larger project by attending regular project meetings led by NSC’s Capital Projects Manager.

Library renovation project, which necessitated the liquidation of theater equipment and Drama department archives. E.P.I.C. student interns took the lead in managing the Stage One portion of this large project. This included taking inventory of all materials, determining what would be routed to storage, surplus, or disposal, and finding the most environmentally friendly options when disposal was necessary. E.P.I.C. interns solicited donors for used materials, through which they were able to route two dozen boxes of scripts and theater texts and a handful of props to deserving programs, and separating materials for more efficient recycling, including 30 years of Drama department files. E.P.I.C. interns were also able to see how sustainability worked into the larger project by attending regular project meetings led by NSC’s Capital Projects Manager.

1. Environmental Studies students mapped noise pollution levels around the college campus. NSC is between Interstate 5 and two arterial streets, which create road noise, so this mapping assignment helped to identify areas of most concern.
2. Students collaborate with staff and faculty on shared garden plots at the campus P-Patch. Collaborators include a botany faculty member that integrates student learning into identifying and growing pollinator species, and other plots that grow crops to be donated to the giving garden.