Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The project also brought in a third collaborator through the Kansas Environmental Leadership Program (KELP) coordinator. Hosting a successful class required a great deal of coordination with outside resource people and collaboration for agreement on project work off-campus. The project itself got off to a rocky start. The KELP coordinator serving at the time of acceptance of this project grant ended her work at KSU in December of 2010. Brandi Nelson was hired in mid-January 2011 in the KELP coordinator position. Brandi immediately was introduced to the project. However, another significant change was simultaneously unfolding with the instructor of record for this proposed class. The person who had begun working on the curriculum development for this class left the University. A search process and new hire brought Dr. Lauri Baker to K-State in June of 2011. Dr. Baker agreed to participate in the project and to help develop the class curriculum. However, the actual starting date of Dr. Baker was deferred to August of 2011 for maternity leave. Shortly after Dr. Baker's arrival at KSU, the leadership team supporting this proposal met to revise our plan of action for this project. The leadership team consisting of the two new project faculty; Dr. Kris Boone, Mary Kay Siefers; Dr. David Procter, and Dan Kahl, and implemented a shared strategy to move the project forward. An outline of the proposed course was presented to the full steering committee to review in November of 2011. At this point, the co-instructor from the Leadership Studies department also was leaving on maternity leave, which added another complication to the planning process. With the curricular foundation for the class established, the committee initiated plans to recruit student participation. The class was announced and promoted through phone calls, emails, and letters to department heads, student advisors, and student groups across campus. The class was piloted in the spring intersession of 2012. This environmental leadership course was team-taught through the utilization of the skillsets and expertise of the instructors. The lead instructor for the course has expertise in environmental and communication theory. One instructor was the director of the KELP and as such had contacts with specialist throughout the state. The third instructor was experienced with leadership theory and practice. The three types of learning utilized in this course were 1) Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge) 2) Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude) 3) Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills). Cognitive skills were taught through guest lectures provided as a contact with the KELP program and drawing on the expertise areas of the instructors. Additionally, cognitive skills were built through the application of content in a real world environment. Affective skills were taught through team building activities, the service learning project, and processing of these activities in writing and group discussions. Psychomotor teaching was done through the use of connections with KELP experts and onsite learning from the zoo's employees about rain gardens and building. PARTICIPANTS: PI: David Procter, Director, Center Engagement Community Development, KSU. Dan Kahl, Extension Liaison Center for Engagement and Community Development, Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources, KSU Mary Tolar, Director - School of Leadership Studies, KSU Judy Willingham, Project Coordinator, Kansas Environmental Leadership Program, KSU (2009 -2010) Brandi Nelson, Project Coordinator, Kansas Environmental Leadership Program, KSU (2011) Christopher Lavergne, Instructor of Record, Agricultural Communications and Journalism (2009 -2010) Laurie Baker, Instructor of Record, Department of Communication and Agricultural Education. (2011) Planning committee members include: Dan Devlin, Environmental Quality Specialist, Department of Agronomy Bill Hargrove, Director, Kansas Center for Agriculture Resources and the Environment Mary Kay Siefers, Senior Associate Director and Assistant Professor, School of Leadership Studies Lori Kniffin, Administrative Specialist and Academic Advisor, School of Leadership Studies Laura Downey, Executive Director, Kansas Association of Conservation and Education Christa Smith, Evaluator, Educational Innovation and Evaluation, KSU Dave Steward, Associate Professor - Civil Engineering, KSU Nancy Muturi, Assistant Professor - Journalism & Mass Communication, KSU Matt Jordan, Director of Programs, Kansas Leadership Center, Wichita, Ks. Janice Cole, WaterLINK Coordinator Sondra Megrail, Water Quality Education Officer, Bureau of Water, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (2009-2010) Travis Sieve, Water Quality Education Officer, Bureau of Water, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (2011) Hank Ernst, Communications Coordinator, Kansas Water Office 8 students who took Environmental Leadership class TARGET AUDIENCES: Not relevant to this project. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Hosting an experiential, environmental leadership class requires a great investment of faculty time for planning, coordination, and implementation of the class. While the class was successful by the standards of depth and quality of experience of the students, it was resource intensive. In the creation of this class, willing collaborators pulled together to create a new and meaningful educational experience. The process allowed faculty to invest themselves in the creation of an educational experience. It is sustainable in that they have pride of ownership, and have developed strong working relationships. However, the costs for re-creating this class include instructor salary compensation, and project materials costs. To address instructor salary compensation, sustainability may require student costs for classes can be increased, or instructor fees shared for the split workload. Material costs for class projects may be supported by the local recipient of service, in this case, the community zoo. Because of the good fortune of having the KELP staff person at Kansas State University, these arrangements can be sought out and made in advance. The KELP staff person can either align resources through the recipient, or seek material and resource support from other business or granting organizations. In transferring this model to other universities, however, it may be problematic for full time teaching faculty to make these arrangements in a timely manner. This class creates a meaningful and applied service leadership experience. This is a valuable learning experience to students wanting to build their confidence and capacities for bringing about effective change. It is the type of learning experience universities seek to provide their students. Creating and sustaining these type of meaningful educational experiences will depend on the level of commitment and support provided to the faculty at higher education institutions.
Impacts
This project had the expressed goal of helping young professionals to understand the importance and strategies for watershed protection and gain a heightened capacity for environmental leadership by meeting the following objectives: This project brought collaborators from several different departments at KSU together that had not been working together previously. The grant provided incentive and opportunity to collaborate on a high profile example of outreach and education at KSU, and established a strategy for ongoing collaborative work. CECD can showcase this successful example of interdepartmental collaboration which meets the KSU goals of applied, experiential learning. Water resources, research, and restoration strategies. Leadership skills related to community and watershed stakeholders. Experiential service-learning for water quality. This project successfully created a course and curriculum for environmental leadership. LEAD 502 offers an exciting combination of leadership theory and activities with research and action on environmental issues. Course topics include public participation strategies, conflict management tenets, and social marketing theory. Guest practitioner input from local and state experts directly engaged in water resource and leadership disciplines reinforce theoretical concepts. The andragogical model utilized with the adult KELP was modified to meet a younger target audience. With roots in both transformational and adaptive leadership theories, the course couples theoretical foundations in civic leadership with practical, hands-on work to create effective experiential learning. Seven KSU students completed the first Environmental Leadership three-week summer intersession course. The class engaged students in hands-on service-learning at Sunset Zoo. The undergraduates constructed a portion of the outdoor Nature Play Space that is part of the new Nature Exploration Center at the Zoo's entryway. The play space features a rain garden and eco-friendly playground equipment for teaching youth about water resource issues. This was not only a valuable experience for the students, but provided a valuable service to the Manhattan City Zoo. Two forms of the course have been developed. The first is a May intersession format which was implemented in May 2012. The other form is a semester long course with a 16 week syllabus. Leadership Studies plans to offer the course one time a year in either of these formats. The timing of the course may depend on the community arrangement for an environmental service-learning project. The course can currently be applied to two of the Leadership Studies elective categories: Theories of Leadership and Organizational Behavior; Foundations and Applications in Leadership. With modification, the course can be submitted to the Academic Affairs committee to be considered as a substitution for a core course.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/10 to 08/31/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The Kansas Environmental Leadership Program (KELP) coordinator ended her work at KSU in December of 2010. A search committee was immediately formed to seek an individual to replace the KELP coordinator. Because of candidate interview schedules, the selection process was drawn through the year-end university break, and the new candidate was hired in mid-January. Brandi Nelson was hired for the KELP coordinator position. Brandi graduated from Kansas State University in 2002 with double bachelor degrees in Political Science and Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Brandi immediately began organizing the 2011 KELP class that was scheduled to begin in January, but due to the timing of the hire, began in March. Brandi has successfully coordinated and supervised the KELP 2011 class through 5 sessions. The 2011 KELP class had fifteen participants representing the Kansas Water Office, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, citizens serving on watershed protection organizations, the Sierra Club, the Kansas Biological Survey, and several business and industry representatives. The other significant hire in this time period is the instructor of record for the proposed class. Also a new hire to Kansas State University in the Department of Communications and Agricultural Education, Dr. Lauri Baker began her work at K-State in June of 2011. Dr. Baker received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida where she conducted research on stakeholder views of environmental and agricultural issues. Prior to her doctorate she worked with the Texas Wheat Commission to address water and agricultural issues with farmers and stakeholders. Dr. Baker has a strong grant history, and is excited about the potential of this class. Shortly after Dr. Baker's arrival at KSU, the leadership team supporting this proposal met to revise our plan of action for this project. We requested and received a "no-cost" time extension on the proposal. The leadership team consisting of the two new project faculty; Dr. Kris Boone, Director, Department of Communication and Education; Mary Kay Siefers of the K-State School of Leadership Studies; Dr. David Procter, Director of the K-State Center for Engagement and Community Development; and Dan Kahl, Extension Liaison, Center for Engagement and Community Development, met to develop a strategy for moving forward. It was determined that an outline of the proposed course would be ready for the full steering committee to review by November of 2011. At that point, the committee will provide resource and idea investment for the completion of the curriculum. With a solid curricular foundation for the class established, the committee will begin to recruit aggressively for student participation. The class will be piloted in the spring intersession, and will be added to the regular course schedule in the Fall of 2012. PARTICIPANTS: Participants on this project thus far include the original list of participants and several new members who have taken the place of those that have left. They include: PI: David Procter, Director, Center Engagement Community Development, KSU. Dan Kahl, Extension Liaison Center for Engagement and Community Development, Extension Agriculture and Natural Resources, KSU Mary Tolar, Director - School of Leadership Studies, KSU Judy Willingham, Project Coordinator, Kansas Environmental Leadership Program, KSU (2009 -2010) Brandi Nelson, Project Coordinator, Kansas Environmental Leadership Program, KSU (2011) Christopher Lavergne, Instructor of Record, Agricultural Communications and Journalism (2009 -2010) Laurie Baker, Instructor of Record, Department of Communication and Agricultural Education. (2011) Planning committee members include: Dan Devlin, Environmental Quality Specialist, Department of Agronomy Bill Hargrove, Director, Kansas Center for Agriculture Resources and the Environment Mary Kay Siefers, Senior Associate Director and Assistant Professor, School of Leadership Studies Laura Downey, Executive Director, Kansas Association of Conservation and Education Christa Smith, Evaluator, Educational Innovation and Evaluation, KSU Dave Steward, Associate Professor - Civil Engineering, KSU Nancy Muturi, Assistant Professor - Journalism & Mass Communication, KSU Matt Jordan, Director of Programs, Kansas Leadership Center, Wichita, Ks. Janice Cole, WaterLINK Coordinator Sondra Megrail, Water Quality Education Officer, Bureau of Water, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (2009-2010) Travis Sieve, Water Quality Education Officer, Bureau of Water, Kansas Department of Health and Environment (2011) Hank Ernst, Communications Coordinator, Kansas Water Office TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for the project have not yet been engaged. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: While there has been significant personnel change, the key partners of this project, the home department for the project, the Center for Engagement and Community Development, and the Leadership Studies programs are all still in support of making this class a reality. To that end, while work has been deferred, we are confident in the ability of the University to still be able to steer this work to a successful conclusion.
Impacts
Outcomes thus far, include securing a course line number and offering in the Leadership Studies class program offerings. A significant amount of work needs to be done yet to make advisers aware of this class offering to guide students, as well as informing student groups and colleges of this class offering
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 09/01/09 to 08/31/10
Outputs
OUTPUTS: This reporting period started out strong. The instructor of record for the proposed class met with water researchers across the campus, met with the Kansas Environmental Leadership Program (KELP) coordinator, and the director of the Leadership Studies department to get details and arrangements started. Early plans were developed to highlight key learning, resource people to assist with the class, and supporting resources for the class. In November, the KELP project coordinator determined that retirement was in the immediate future. In early December, the instructor of record announced they were leaving the University to work in Louisiana. This shift in personnel was a significant disruption of time and effort for the class. The class, which had been listed in the KSU courses for spring, 2011 - was withdrawn. Search processes for both positions were initiated. PARTICIPANTS: Participants on this project included all the initial identified project participants. However, Key participant Judy Willingham has resigned. Planning committee members initially listed have also been engaged with the exception of the following changes. Dr. Bill Hargrove has left Kansas State University, and is no longer involved in the project. Janice Cole has changed positions at KSU, and is no longer involved in the project. Christopher Lavergne, Instructor of Record for this class, has left KSU and is no longer involved in the project. Sondra Megrail, Water Quality Education Officer from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment has left her employment at KDHE and is no longer involved in the project. Each of these committee representatives has a new candidate in their old position, and will be engaged in Spring of 2011 to resume the forward progress on this project. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audiences for the project have not yet been engaged. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: While there has been significant personnel change, the key partners of this project, the home department for the project, the Center for Engagement and Community Development, and the Leadership Studies programs are all still in support of making this class a reality. To that end, while some work has been deferred, we are confident in the ability of the University to still be able to steer this work to a successful conclusion.
Impacts
Outcomes thus far, include securing a course line number and offering in the Leadership Studies class program offerings. A significant amount of work needs to be done yet to make advisers aware of this class offering to guide students, as well as informing student groups and colleges of this class offering. Loosing two of our key personnel has stalled our project. However, awareness has started about the class, and efforts to replace both positions were initiated at the close of 2010.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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