In Transit Vol 5 Spring 2011

Spring 2011 Executive Editor Bret Eynon, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, and Executive Director, LaGuardia Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) Editors Gail Green-Anderson, English Michele Piso, CTL Production Coordinator Roslyn Orgel, CTL Senior Copyeditor Louise Fluk, Library Designer and Production Manager Ethan Ries, grafilicious inc Cover and Web Design Priscilla Stadler, CTL With this issue, our founding editor, Professor Gail Green-Anderson, will leave In Transit to devote her attention to new responsibilities as the Co-Director of Composition for the English department. Launched in 2005, In Transit reflects Gail’s tireless work to sustain its mission to provide a space for faculty to share ideas about classroom work. The In Transit team wishes to congratulate Professor Green-Anderson on her new position, and we extend our gratitude for all that she has accomplished in these pages. We will miss her editorial skills, energetic commitment to supporting writers, and laughter. The poem “Cello” is reprinted from FACTS ABOUT THE MOON: Poems by Dorianne Laux. Copyright © 2005 by Dorianne Laux. Used with permission of the publisher, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. Copyright © 2011 by the LaGuardia Center for Teaching and Learning Contents Acknowledgements . i Syllabus Thomas Fink, English ................................. v Introduction Rosemary A. Talmadge, Office of the President .............. 1 The Sustainability Council A Report from the Field Anthony Lugo, Office of the Vice President of Administration and Judi O’Toole, Natural Sciences ....................... 16 Using the Sociological Imagination in the Classroom to Explore Green Consumerism Steven Lang, Social Science ............................. 31 The Human-Animal Bond Its Study in an Informal Setting by Veterinary Technology Students Robin Sturtz, Health Sciences ........................... 44 Confronting the Obesity Epidemic at Community Colleges Robert Jaffe, Office of the President ...................... 57 Talking Back to Nike Abigail Schoneboom, Social Science ...................... 73 Open Your Eyes Scott Sternbach, Humanities ............................ 88 Teaching Basic Skills Math as World Altering Knowledge Shenglan Yuan, Mathematics, Engineering, and Computer Science ........... 108 “Slowly Carving a Niche” Notes on Reading a Poem for a Month T. K. Dalton, English .................................. 119 Training to Notice, Learning to Care The Development of Place Attachment and Activism in an Introductory Psychology Class Miriam Shelton, Social Science .......................... 129 Inequities in Public Education Sustainability Threatened Janet Michello, Social Science ........................... 145 Mindfulness in the Arts A Conversation Hugo Fernandez, Humanities ........................... 158 Contributors . 171 About the Center for Teaching and Learning ................ 175 In Transit Call for Proposals, Volume 6 .................... 180 i Acknowledgements In Transit is an in-house publication. Its mission is to publish works-in-progress on classroom practice and the scholarship of teaching and learning, educational policy and philosophy, and short reviews of works related to the classroom. The papers presented in the current volume are offered by the authors and editors to our peers at LaGuardia Community College for critique and commentary. In prepa- ration for external, refereed publication, works-in-progress will be revised, often in the Faculty Workshop on Scholarship and Publication, a professional development seminar facilitated by faculty for faculty engaged in scholarship. Of the contributors to this volume, several have participated in the Carnegie Seminar on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and we are grateful for their contributions, in the Seminar and in these pages, to the awareness of teaching as acts of intellect, art, and justice. We wish to acknowledge all those who assist throughout the project. For their flex- ibility, positive attitude, and meticulous attention to detail, we thank Roslyn Orgel, production coordinator; Louise Fluk, copyeditor; Ethan Ries, designer and production manager; and Christopher McBride, print coordinator. Finally, the editors wish to acknowledge the peer readers. Faculty and staff from across the college, they are the first readers of In Transit’s works-in-progress. Their vital skills of reading closely and offering advice clearly are essential in directing the transit of papers from in- house readership to wider publication. 2010–2011 Peer Readers Evelyn Burg Thomas Onorato Communication Skills Natural Sciences Marina Dedlovskaya Ros Orgel Mathematics, Engineering, Center for Teaching and Learning and Computer Science Michael Rodriguez Dennis D’Amelio Humanities Humanities Victor Rosa Thomas Fink English English Shara Sand Ximena Gallardo Social Science English Serge Shea Les Gallo-Silver Pre-College Academic Programs Health Sciences Priscilla Stadler Carolyn Henner Stanchina Center for Teaching and Learning Center for Teaching and Learning David Styler Elizabeth Iannotti English The English Language Center Eduardo Vianna Matthew Joffe Social Science Office for Student Services and Jennifer Wynn Disabled Students Programs Social Science Danny Lynch English ii We are pleased to acknowledge the Visible Knowledge Project and its director, Professor Randy Bass of Georgetown University, for providing the funding that permitted the initiation of In Transit. We are most grateful to President Gail O. Mellow of LaGuardia Community College for her leadership in recognizing the value of the scholarship of teaching and learning and for providing crucial funds needed to sustain In Transit. Center for Teaching and Learning, LaGuardia Community College (City University of New York) http://www.lagcc.cuny.edu/ctl v Syllabus Would you consider this a hard workout? Plastic shadows. Stealth charmer. Insects are fond of the encyclopedia (pages). A responsible excuse list is circulating. We can play him, and he won’t know. What a nurse needs to know an accountant needs? The machine tells you if something has to be done. No, don’t pay attention; you must remain unmoved to stay on top. Disbelief seduces. Vigor united with prejudice. Distraction flowers. When brown rice is available, why fill up on white? Next, charm but authority: “Oh, by the by, you have to test.” A chance to rage less, be of desire curious. There is no plan to move the library. I shan’t crucify you; it’s not in vogue. What I don’t know is perennial as a stamp. Balanced, perhaps, on the tip of an aside, a small classic might be opening. When you hear or see or smell it, you intuit, finally, who. Together is often how. That raises the quality of our current – today. This could be the song that keeps her on the bridge. Thomas Fink Introductionr Rosemary A. Talmadge, Office of the President If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve (or save) the world and a desire to enjoy (or savor) the world. This makes it hard to plan the day. E. B. White1 It is early fall in North Salem and I am at my desk watching little birds land on the forsythia bush near my window to await their turns at the feeder stationed in the middle of the yard. Usually they come back to the branches, as one is doing now, to eat their nut or seed. Earlier a sparrow alighted and, for no apparent reason, broke into song, pausing between each riff as he waited for the melody to be echoed by his part- ner across the way. I could not help but think of the poet Mary Oliver’s poem, “How Everything Adores Being Alive.” In truth, while writing this essay, I have spent many hours appreciating the world outside my window – its beauty and fragility. As I thought about the natural world and our relationship to it, I turned to the literature on sustainability and mindfulness, drew mind maps and Venn diagrams, and thought about why the editors of In Transit may have joined these two topics. Teasing out the complexi- ties in the relationship between mindfulness and sustainability, I have reflected, too, on the connections among these concepts, our campus, and my own life. But in the middle of this cloudy morning, the sun has reappeared, interrupting my reveries and revealing the tiny pink and green leaves of the low bushes along the stone wall, and drawing my attention back to the story I want to tell. The significance of sustainability consciousness conveyed by In Transit’s call is central to the current debate about the proper role of education in creating a just and sustainable world. Bringing together the concepts of sustainability and mindfulness, the editors signal a conversation not just about widening sustainable practices on campus or increasing students’ awareness of environmental issues, though these are important pieces. Nor does the conversation center only on peda- 2 • In Transit gogy and curricula, though these, too, are essential elements. Rather, by linking sustainability with mindfulness, the editors invite us to embark on an even deeper discussion with far-reaching implications for our forty-year-old institution – and for the larger world of which we are a small part. It is a conversation that includes not only ecological awareness, sustainable practices, environmental curricula, and pedagogy, but also current thinking about such topics as ecojustice, intergenerational stewardship, contemplative education, and planetary consciousness. This volume

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