The Long Awaited CEAP Poster Session Post

IT"S FINALLY HERE!

The first blog post from Scott this year.

I wanted to debrief the happenings of the CEAP poster session that occurred last Dec. 3rd.

First of all, a little introduction to CEAP: CEAP (pronounced "seep") stands for the Calvin Environmental Assessment Program. Bi-yearly students and cooperating teachers collect data from environmental studies they've done around Calvin and the surrounding community. The studies are then published on posters and displayed in the Science Building for an event called the poster session.

This years poster session was kicked off with a lecture given by Prof. Keith Grasman. His speech, entitled, "Canaries in the Coal Mine: Lessons from Fish-Eating Birds about Pollution in the Great Lakes," described the many ways bird populations of the Great Lakes have been afflicted in the past decades. Chemical scares from DDT and PCB's have caused population depletion and reproductive problems in certain bird species. Although actions have been taken to reduce these chemicals and revive the bird populations, various other chemical pollutants still plague the Great Lakes. Prof. Grasman enumerated the problems bird populations face today and hypothesized several solutions. He also described some of the work he and his classes had personally done in this field of study. The speech was an hour long and very informative, accompanied by a detailed slideshow.

The poster session was next. A problem was suddenly presented for me though. The cookies and coffee the Catering Service had promised were not set up, and there were ten minutes remaining before people crowded into the Science Building Atrium for the poster session. I had to take drastic action. I ran up the stairs to the 2nd floor scanning up and down the hallways for any sign of the cookie and coffee cart. There was nothing in sight. So I briskly walked out the door and peered across Commons lawn for any movement. Nothing. It was over. There was no cart. There would be no cookies and coffee. Just when all hope seemed lost, I walked downstairs to find two nice students with gold Calvin College Catering name-tags setting up tables and refreshments. I was saved. With the refreshments set up, the poster session could go on.

At the poster session, over a dozen students presented on subjects ranging from the architectural development of the business districts on Wealthy and Cherry street to the energy consumption of Calvin College campus facilities. Spectators could wander around from poster to poster, asking questions, listening to the students talk, or just reading the posters. The posters were colorful and informative and the presenters were enthusiastic about their material.

Overall the poster session was great. I hope to advertise a bit better this coming semester to attract a larger audience. But I look forward to working on it again.

Is there a teacher in this classroom?

When we are practicing service-learning, simple understandings of server and servee dissolve. In service-learning practice there is a reciprocity that complicates general language labels. Should we then maintain the labels of teacher and student in a classroom that is oriented around service-learning pedagogy? It seems to me that if we are going to hope for a dynamic serving and learning experience for students in community organizations then we should emulate the same dynamic environment in the classroom. In the service-learning oriented classroom those traditionally labeled "students" should have the opportunity to offer input in course design and goals. Those traditionally understood as the "teacher" should leave the podium for a few moments and join the class in the growing process. But is this too much to hope for? Such a model or practice challenges long standing traditions in academia. The neat and easy to understand labels of teacher and student would become more vague, and perhaps most of all the obvious relationship of power between teacher and student would become something closer to equal. Service-learning can be something radical, can traditional academia handle it?