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The Living Laboratory Project
Campus Values
The educational initiative is one facet of Dickinson’s commitment to sustainability. Other facets of our commitment include sustainable campus operations, a campus culture for sustainable and responsible action, and community engagement. These different facets are working together to promote learning about sustainability, demonstrate feasible solutions, and help create a more sustainable future.
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Examining, shaping, and interacting with our physical and environmental surroundings as part of the learning process ensures the connection between ‘knowledge’ and ‘application’ is concrete, and provides an opportunity to benefit and shape their community. When the process of learning recognizes that our interactions with the built and natural world shape our values and understanding of those environments, the classroom becomes a place where students – as citizens – have the chance to grow and develop their sense of purpose in our community. These conditions inspire creative connections between the individual and his or her values, location, and responsibility to the world.
Where is the living laboratory at Dickinson College?
The initiative cuts across all three academic divisions of the college and incorporates a variety of community and institutional departments, resources, and projects.
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| The College Farm
The 6-acre College Farm involves students as workers, academic interns, and participants in interdisciplinary classes on agricultural systems. Students act as research partners with faculty to conduct research on pollinators, soils, and composting. >>MORE
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Center for Sustainable Living
The 'Treehouse' promotes sustainable living to the college community by providing tours and hosting speakers. Residents are also directly involved in building improvements, such as the installation and design of a solar hot water heater for the house.
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| Alliance for Aquatic Resource Monitoring (ALLARM)
ALLARM enables citizen groups in central Pennsylvania to monitor water quality in their watersheds through training of volunteers, community workshops, technical support, and data quality control. A dozen students perform these community services under the direction of two full-time professional staff.
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Renewable Energy
Renewable energy projects provide the opportunity to reduce the college's dependency on non-renewable energy sources. Students have designed a solar-tracking solar-thermal water collector, test wind turbines, two solar arrays on campus, and are involved in monitoring data.
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| Campus Buildings and Facilities
The 2009 Environmental Studies Senior Seminar participated in planning a major renovation of Kaufman Hall, home of the ES department, through group and individual projects. The goal of the renovation, which will include a green roof, solar arrays, geothermal, natural lighting, water conserving technologies, and other sustainable features, is to attain LEED Gold certification.
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The Biodiesel Shop
Founded and run by students, the Shop is used for producing and quality testing biodiesel fuel made from waste vegetable oil and researching and demonstrating environmentally safe and economically valuable uses of byproducts of the production process.
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