Combatting Invasives thru SPACE: Engaging students with ecological issues in general education courses (SL/CE)
Abstract
SPACE invaders come in various forms, but this joint community-university presentation will focus on the Engage Green project targeted at creating meaningful educational experiences for students as they work to remove invasive plant species growing at the nearby Upper Chinquapin Greenway, managed by the Spartanburg Area Conservancy (SPACE). The goals of the presentation include introducing the project, exploring the process through which a conversation over coffee became a fully-fledged program resulting in more than 700 hours of student service hours in Fall 2023 & continuing in Spring 2024 and for the foreseeable future, sharing the development of the project as a transferable model for other projects, and celebrating the success of the program.
This project is founded on key principles of reciprocity (Dostilio, et al, 2012), hands-on meaningful learning [as particularly important to Gen Z students] (Kirk, 2024), inclusion of soft-skills training for career-readiness of college students (Packer, 2022), and the importance of building local stakeholder engagement in ecological conservation efforts (Sterling, et al., 2017).
From the community perspective, SPACE gets the opportunity to share our message for ecological conservation with 200-300 students per semester, we get substantial and visible improvement on one of our properties, increased visibility in the greater community as we celebrate the impact of our partnership, and expanded capacity in seeking grant funding to support our efforts at the service location and across our other properties.
From the campus perspective, USC Upstate is focused on integrating service into (primarily) general education courses which focus on first- and second-year students where retention and growth are pivotal (Kuntz & Duff, 2015) while encouraging faculty to manage the workload for themselves and their students through strategic replacement (Budwig, 2022). Toward this end, we offer logistical support for the project including a community partner who not only welcomes our students but informs and mentors them as well as a preparatory boot camp, a cohort of colleagues engaged in the same project, and full logistical support including transportation & all the tools needed to complete the service.
Keywords
Community, General Education, Conservancy, Sustainability
Combatting Invasives thru SPACE: Engaging students with ecological issues in general education courses (SL/CE)
CASB 102
SPACE invaders come in various forms, but this joint community-university presentation will focus on the Engage Green project targeted at creating meaningful educational experiences for students as they work to remove invasive plant species growing at the nearby Upper Chinquapin Greenway, managed by the Spartanburg Area Conservancy (SPACE). The goals of the presentation include introducing the project, exploring the process through which a conversation over coffee became a fully-fledged program resulting in more than 700 hours of student service hours in Fall 2023 & continuing in Spring 2024 and for the foreseeable future, sharing the development of the project as a transferable model for other projects, and celebrating the success of the program.
This project is founded on key principles of reciprocity (Dostilio, et al, 2012), hands-on meaningful learning [as particularly important to Gen Z students] (Kirk, 2024), inclusion of soft-skills training for career-readiness of college students (Packer, 2022), and the importance of building local stakeholder engagement in ecological conservation efforts (Sterling, et al., 2017).
From the community perspective, SPACE gets the opportunity to share our message for ecological conservation with 200-300 students per semester, we get substantial and visible improvement on one of our properties, increased visibility in the greater community as we celebrate the impact of our partnership, and expanded capacity in seeking grant funding to support our efforts at the service location and across our other properties.
From the campus perspective, USC Upstate is focused on integrating service into (primarily) general education courses which focus on first- and second-year students where retention and growth are pivotal (Kuntz & Duff, 2015) while encouraging faculty to manage the workload for themselves and their students through strategic replacement (Budwig, 2022). Toward this end, we offer logistical support for the project including a community partner who not only welcomes our students but informs and mentors them as well as a preparatory boot camp, a cohort of colleagues engaged in the same project, and full logistical support including transportation & all the tools needed to complete the service.