University of Minnesota, Duluth
AC-8: Campus as a Living Laboratory

At UMD there are four Living Learning Communities (LLC) for undergraduate students to develop connections with other students with similar interests. These communities are University Honors, BizDogs, Sustainability, and World Languages and Cultures. It is documented that students who belong to LLCs are more likely to complete their degree than students who are not a part of these communities.

During the 2024 Spring semester, Remi Foust completed an Undergraduate Research Opportunity Project (UROP) which focused on engaging the students in these communities to better understand the relationships between faculty, staff, and LLC students. Through their research, they determined that there is a need for further research due to a lack of existing research and a lack of engagement between faculty, staff, and students.

The research Remi has done and will continue to do is impactful for the Sustainability LLC on our campus and to those on other campuses as they have highlighted and seek to fill a gap in existing research, developing a tool to better understand how LLCs can be more effective for those who live in them, and will be continuing to engage beyond what has already been done during the 2024 Fall semester through the implementation of the survey completed as the final product of their UROP. Additionally, after it's inaugural year, the faculty organizers of the Sustainability LLC recognize that becuase Sustainability is so broad and student interests can be so vast, that it will take time and effort to hone an LLC environment that best meets the needs of these students.

Poster

Gavin Buersken, a biology student, initiated and led a project to plant trees in elementary school forests in the Duluth community during the 2023 and 2024 academic years.

Gavin reached out to The Office of Sustainability with his idea to plant trees in the community during the 22-23 school year and has led the project in its entirety since then. He collaborated with Biology professors Dr. Jessica Savage and Dr. Julie Etterson, Thor Pakosz, a DNR forester, Ryan Hueffmeier from the Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center, student groups, and administrators and teachers from Stowe Elementary. Gavin visited the elementary school and determined which species should be purchased and planted, developed a budget, and coordinated with other students at UMD who volunteered to lead groups of 4th and 5th grade students in planting the trees as well as give a lesson plan on why the planting was important. This culminated in the planting of 600 trees over a few hours in Spring 2023. During the 2023 Fall semester, Gavin returned to the school to bud cap and record the survival rates of the trees planted the previous spring, and survival was upward of 80%!

Gavin continued with the project during the 23-24 school year and applied to receive funding through an Institute on the Environment Mini-Grant. His grant proposal was accepted and fully funded which led to tree plantings at the Lowell and Marshall School forests with over 1000 trees planted in total. Again Gavin collaborated with multiple groups on and off campus to successfully lead this project.

This project has been critical to ensuring the long-term health of these educational forests in the Duluth community, as the forests contain significant populations of Ash, which could at any time be decimated by Emerald Ash Borer and the trees Gavin chose for replacement species are climate smart and expected to thrive in a warming northern MInnesota environment. This project has been mutually beneficial for Gavin as well, developing skills in budgeting, curriculum development, project management, and ecological restoration. Gavin graduated from UMD one week before the 2024 planting and the following Monday he began work for Northern Ecological Services, a habitat restoration and landscape company.

The project was also publicized in multiple local news outlets linked below.
https://www.thenorth1033.org/environment-outdoors/2024-05-01/green-visions-more-tree-planting-with-gavin-buersken

https://www.northernnewsnow.com/2024/05/11/elementary-students-plant-over-1000-trees-duluth-neighborhoods/

https://www.wdio.com/front-page/top-stories/elementary-school-students-plant-over-1000-trees/

https://www.fox21online.com/2024/05/10/lowell-and-marshall-elementary-students-plant-over-a-thousand-trees/

In Dr. Julie Etterson's lab, undergraduate research opportunities abound. In 2022, Shelby Suhr, a sophomore Biology student worked with Dr. Etterson to grow thousands of red oak seedlings in the lab, plant these seedlings at the UMD Research and Field Studies Center (RFSC) and then monitor growth from bud burst to leaf fall. The twist in the research is that the red oak seeds were collected from central Minnesota, a climate zone traditionally warmer than Duluth, but based on Etterson's research, the NE Minnesota forests are not adapting well to the warmer temps that have already arrived with climate change and they are completely unprepared for the increase in temps to come. Having access to the 113 acre RFSC provided the controlled outdoor space needed to take this lab experiment into the wild and ground truth growth while still providing close proximity access for student research.

During the Spring 2023 semester, graduate and undergraduate students in the Environmental Education course “Sustainability Issues Investigation” did a semester-long study ending with a paper titled “Exploring Strategies for Sustainability on University of Minnesota Duluth Rooftops” and a presentation to key stakeholders at UMD to give their recommendations.

Students interviewed members of UMD’s Facilities Management staff, staff from the Office of Sustainability, professors, and the Sustainability Officer for the City of Duluth. Through these interviews, a literature review, and research on the construction of buildings at UMD, the students in the class learned about and presented on the classification of green roofs, the feasibility of them in our climate, the feasibility of them on a university campus, examples of green roofs already in existence on the UMD campus, and gave their recommendations with estimated costs to an audience that included the Director for Facilities Management, the Sustainability Director, multiple operations and project managers, and professors.

This extensive project is being utilized in Facilities Management planning as existing roof areas are slated for replacement and may be suitable for green roof enhancements.

EnviroEd 5325_Exploring Sustainability for UMD Rooftops_Paper.pdf

Bereket Loer, a student in the Swenson College of Science and Engineering, was awarded funding from the North Star STEM Alliance for summer research and worked with the City of Duluth's Office of Sustainability to perform a feasibility study of bringing lake-source heat pump technology to the City of Duluth, taking into account varying utility rates. Just a few months later, Bereket's work was included in UMD's Campus and Climate Action Plan process which also evaluated whether to include lake-source heat pump technology in the suite of options to tackle campus greenhouse gas emissions and help the campus reach carbon neutrality by 2050 or earlier.

The close relationship between the City of Duluth and UMD's sustainability office's make information sharing easy and work applied on campus or in community is often utilized or considered by the other in pursuit of mutual goals to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change.

https://hdl.handle.net/11299/241480

Environment and Sustainability offers a summer course titled: Western Lake Superior Sustainable Food Systems which covers issues in sustainable agriculture including relationships between food, environmental quality, human health and nurtrition, social justice, and economic imperatives. This is a place-based, experiential course designed for hands-on, interdisciplinary fieldwork and community engaged learning.

Students in this course used the UMD Land Lab as their primary classroom space, engaging in the day-to-day experience of growing food, from planting to weeding to harvesting and all manner of items in between. Fieldwork and site visits to other local farms, the Aquarium, and the local foodbank, helped students put the idea of food webs and local food importance into context. In 2021, students made a digital story about their experiences and in 2022's cohort of students, they had specific projects and research that impacted local food. Students kept honeybees and researched disease and trialed different types of apiaries to see if hive survival improved, another group worked on landscape regeneration in favor of native plants over invases and measure different types of weed suppression technology followed by native plant succession trials in the cleared space. Each of these experiences were anchored in place at the UMD Land Lab, where students had the ability to test, observe, question, and experiment with ideas in support of local food and sustainable agriculture.

During the Fall 2022 semester, students in Dr. Teresa Bertossi’s Environment & Sustainability class completed projects reporting on observations of outdoor space utilization by human users, an inventory of trees, and documentation of native and invasive species at their site for ten areas on the UMD campus. Upon completion of their reporting, students presented their findings and recommendations for each site to professors, staff from the Office of Sustainability, the Director of Facilities Management, and the Fleet and Grounds Supervisor.

This research and the recommendations provided by the students in the course were insightful and used in the development of the new Campus and Climate Action Plan around areas of vegetation and reforestation opportunities. Additionally, planning for improvements and use changes to the campus grounds are being informed by this work on an ongoing basis.

Site Recommendations

In 2023, Sara Fitzgerald, a finance professional at UMD and a student in pursuit of a master's degree, analyzed UMD's existing investment in a community solar garden to determine the financial viability of future community solar investments for the University. The local utility, Minnesota Power, offered up large blocks of the community solar garden to commercial customers, which was a significant upfront purchase/investment on the part of the UMD Auxiliaries (Housing, Dining, Parking & Transportation) and though they were being allocated credit on their electricity costs each month, the big question was (and is) was the purchse worth it (is it hitting expected payback levels) and depending on that answer, should the university pursue this type of purchase again?

This type of analysis is critical as the university evaluates future solar investments, both owned and subscription, and her application of learning through a class project to a this tangible, currently happening in real time purchase/long term investment is valuable to the experience as a student, as a professional, and to the university as a whole.

UMD Community Solar Garden_Sara Fitzgerald_2023.pdf

Marley Hinschberger, a junior in Environment, Sustainability, & Geography, undertook a very timely issue to study in Senior Seminar (ES4010) during the winter of 2023 (technically spring semester, but spring was delayed that year...), looking at the impact of snow and snow removal on public transportation ridership and accessibility. Duluth had a record snowfall accumulation that year, finishing the winter at a whopping 140 inches. Streets, sidewalks, roads, parking lots, and homes were heavily impacted by the unprecedented snowfall, and Marley's research highlighted the impacts on folks that rely on public transportation, offer comparisons & improvements, and reach out to entities within the campus and community to inform her work.

The research revealed that comparing the City of Duluth's efforts to the University was an apples to oranges comparison, with the University's public outdoor spaces (parking lots, roads, and sidewalks) being free of snow within 24 hours whereas many areas under the city's control (roads and sidewalks in front of city owned property took anywhere from 3 to 7 days to be cleared. Public transit shelters were under the purview of the Duluth Transit Authority and were cleared within 24-48 hours, but sidewalks leading to/from/around transit stops were the responsibility of the homeowners or business owners to clear and were often neglected as the city was buried further and further under snow.

Systems thinking and broadening the map of what the true issue is and the multiple entities involved that need to work together in a variety of ways in order to solve it was a recurring learning moment in this process.

In Spring 2024, graduate students in Environmental Education course "Investigating Sustainability Issues and Educating for Change" undertook a semester-long investigation into UMD's internal e-waste stream. The students used a systems thinking framework to initially dig into the end of life recycling and disposal options for ewaste at UMD and develop recommendations for improvement. Through qualitative interviews with key stakeholders (ITSS professionals, Sustainability staff, Environmental Health & Safety staff) as well as background research and experiencing a day in the life of a piece of e-waste at UMD, the students were able to look at ewaste in an even broader way and start linking back toward the sources of waste, purchasing and replacement policies, and university processes that are creating unneccessary barriers to proper disposal in a timely manner.

The students also placed their work into the context of new Campus & Climate Action Plan, presented their research and findings at multiple campus events to spread the word and spark more conversation at the student and institutional level, and invited key campus stakeholders together in one place to discuss how the system could be improved from point of purchase to ultimate disposal. This final gathering of staff was critical because the students, after a semester of research, had a better, more holistic picture of e-waste at UMD than any of the individual stakeholders did up to that point. One of the students plans to continue this work to hopefully move the needle institutionally and across the system to change behaviors around technology purchases, utilization, and disposal.

E-Waste at UMD - Final 05.01.2024
Poster: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGBM5h1Oi0/TNdfXm3-IX-77g-bxhZ1-Q/edit

Based on a comment/suggestion received during UMD's annual request for comments on our Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program (SWPPP), in 2023, our stormwater coordinator installed a variety of temporary inlet protection devices at catch basins across campus. The goal was to see which device was most effective in preventing stormwater pollutants (leaves, litter, sand/gravel, other debris) from entering the stormwater system. An engineering student was tasked with install, inspection, monitoring, and assessment of these devices on a weekly basis and kept track of volume of sediment collected (that didn't go down the drain), whether a rain event preceded the inspection, etc.

Typically, these devices are installed during a construction project and are standard practice in the field, however this application of having the devices installed without an active construction project presented a novel experiment to test feasibility and endurance of the devices over a long summer, as well as efficacy of each style of device based on real world interactions like cars driving over/nearby, pedestrians and safety/tripping hazards, and whether or not the device design accomplished the job or if improvements could be made/were needed. Overall, it gave the student exposure to six different types of inlet protection devices with the ability to assess their use, value, and other factors when choosing such devices in the field going forward.

For their internship for the UMD Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies during the Spring 2024 semester, Remi Foust gathered and analyzed information for UMD’s STARS report. They worked to find data and write information for credits in the Preface, Engagement, and Innovation sections of the report. Remi developed skills in coordinating through contacting and engaging with multiple offices, departments, and professionals across the UMD campus and was a part of the planning meetings that took place while completing the STARS submission.

The work they did was crucial to the completion of UMD’s STARS report in the timeframe that was planned for and was done at a professional level.

Ozzie Ramsey conducted research and presented “The Effect of Indoor Plants on Sustained Attention” for the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program during the Spring 2024 semester. Their research sought to expand on the understanding that plants have on attention by comparing the attentiveness of participants via The Sustained Attention Response Task and a reading comprehension test when exposed to low and high quantities of plants in the testing space.

This research was part of a larger project led by Ozzie to promote more plants indoors at UMD including placing plants throughout a section on the third floor of the Kathryn A. Martin Library designated for students to study.

Ozzie has been at the core of a noticeable change to the UMD campus with multiple department heads and office directors reaching out to include more plants in locations for staff and faculty.