{"id":16305,"date":"2015-05-11T10:15:50","date_gmt":"2015-05-11T14:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/?p=16305"},"modified":"2025-07-10T10:28:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T14:28:14","slug":"carleton-professor-leads-community-based-learning-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/2015\/carleton-professor-leads-community-based-learning-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton professor leads community-based learning initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n
\n
\n
\n

\n Carleton professor leads community-based learning initiative\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n

By <\/span>Michelle Zilio<\/a><\/span> | <\/span>Print this article
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Featured in Carleton Now<\/a> May 2015<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

 First-year students in the seminar on sustainable environments hosted an eco-workshop at Churchill Alternative School, a community-based learning initiative. (Photo provided by Paul Williams)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Carleton geography and environmental studies adjunct Prof. Paul Williams thinks outside the box when it comes to assessing his students.<\/p>\n

For the past two years, Williams has taken his first-year seminar on sustainable environments outside the university\u2019s campus and into the community.<\/p>\n

As a part of their coursework, Williams\u2019 students are assigned to organize an eco-workshop for the elementary students at Churchill Alternative School in Ottawa. The purpose of the workshop is to educate the Grade 6 students about the benefits of environmental studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was setting out to design assessment for the students \u2026 I was thinking more along the lines of different forms of assessment and also how we can take things off campus and the students can apply what they have learned,\u201d says Williams.<\/p>\n

The workshop is a part of Williams\u2019 efforts to encourage community-based learning at Carleton.<\/p>\n

Students in the full-year class select their topics for the workshop in the fall semester. Over the following months, they develop posters and demonstrations for their presentations. They held the Churchill workshop on April 1.<\/p>\n

Williams says he tries to keep his students focused on developing engaging and educational presentations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re conscious always of the fact that we\u2019re not just there to entertain,\u201d says Williams. \u201cThe end goal is to pass that knowledge on to the next generation of students.\u201d<\/p>\n

First-year student Emily Clougher participated in the eco-workshop. Her group\u2019s presentation on biodiversity explained what biodiversity is and threats to different species.<\/p>\n

As a part of their presentation, Clougher\u2019s group brought in a piece of bark that had been destroyed by emerald ash borer, an invasive insect that kills ash trees. She says the students were interested in the bark because they had seen the effects of the pest in their communities.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of them were really open to talking and interested in thinking about the different impacts on their community. A lot of them were like, \u2018We noticed the ash trees were being cut down. Now we know why.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She enjoyed the eco-workshop and hopes Carleton continues to encourage similar community-based learning in classes.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs university students, we kind of forget how much these younger kids look up to us,\u201d says Clougher. \u201cI think that we have a great opportunity to pass things on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow first-year student Rebecca Wedley took part in the workshop as well; her group presented on energy. She also appreciated the opportunity to share her work with the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope I get to see some more of that in my other classes,\u201d says Wedley. \u201cPeople try so much harder when it\u2019s just not just going to be marked by a teacher or a TA (teaching assistant) \u2013 it\u2019s going to impact somebody\u2019s life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The eco-workshop also greatly benefitted the elementary students, according to Churchill teacher Ray Kalynuk. He says his students were talking about the workshop for days.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnytime you get college or university students coming to the school to interact with the students, they benefit because that\u2019s such a role model for them. You can\u2019t explain enough how important it is to see real people continuing with education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going forward, Williams hopes Carleton will continue to encourage more community-based learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should all be looking into this sort of thing. It\u2019s giving back to the community, it\u2019s applying knowledge, which I think is something we sometimes forget about.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Michelle Zilio | Print this article Featured in Carleton Now May 2015  First-year students in the seminar on sustainable environments hosted an eco-workshop at Churchill Alternative School, a community-based learning initiative. (Photo provided by Paul Williams) Carleton geography and environmental studies adjunct Prof. Paul Williams thinks outside the box when it comes to assessing his students. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16305"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31931,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16305\/revisions\/31931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/geography\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}