NEW SUSTAINABILITY COURSE OFFERED THIS SPRING
Students get the chance to
personally make a difference in
sustaining the university as well as
the city of Houston with a new
course offered this spring.
Sustaining the City: Researching
Houston (HON 4397H, 24024) gives
students the opportunity to get
hands on experience and work with
government and nonprofit agencies as
well as programs and groups within
the university dedicated to
sustainability.
�Sustainability is not just about
recycling,� said Dr. Daniel Price,
Research Assistant Professor and one
of the instructors for the course.
�It�s about the systems that sustain
us � our communities, our physical
surroundings, our economic system �
and what keeps them going.�
Price, along with Dr. Barry Lefer,
Associate Professor for the
Department of Earth & Atmospheric
Sciences, and Emily Messa, Assistant
Vice President of University
Services, will co-teach the open
Honor�s course. Lefer said he wants
to teach the students the
relationship between sustainability
and his two primary research areas:
air quality and climate change.
�It is really important to me that
UH students realize that they (by
their day-to-day actions) are
currently contributing to these
problems, but that we all can become
part of the solutions to these
complex environmental issues by
making sustainable choices,� Lefer
said.
The course is open to all enrolled
UH students interested in signing up
for the course. The course will be
spent outside of the classroom
experiencing real world issues
through internships and then meet
for an hour on Friday mornings.
�The theme of this course is active
learning about sustainability
through real-world experiences in
internships throughout the city of
Houston,� Messa said. �I am looking
forward to watching the students
grow in this model of a
living-learning lab on
sustainability!�
Some students are expected to work
in Houston�s Housing and Community
Development Department alongside
city personnel taking on efforts to
sustain local communities through
economic development, real estate
policies, architecture and urban
planning. There are also
possibilities of students assisting
the city�s Bureau of Air Quality.
The university has its own
sustainability projects as well that
the enrolled students will have the
opportunity to participate. For
example, students may have the
opportunity to learn about
sustainability practices through
nurturing the sense of history in a
community by working on such
projects, for example, as UH
research professor Carroll Blue�s
community initiatives in the Third
Ward. Price said opportunities will
also be available in environmental
science, the history of Houston�s
environment and urban development as
well as with UH�s own sustainability
office.
�Through internships, students learn
things that you can�t get in books,
and one of the main purposes of the
course is to bridge the academic and
the practical � it�s central to any
possibility of sustaining the
university as a part of the city,�
Dr. Price said.
Course materials include a packet of
readings focusing on the science and
politics of city and campus life,
and understanding and improving the
social, environmental and technical
infrastructure. Sustaining the City:
Researching Houston is offered on
Fridays from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.
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