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Contact: Liz Carroll
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Release date: March 28, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Professor shares education approach at Washington conference

Angela Russek, Professor of Human Ecology, was invited to share her approach to learning with her peers as a presenter at the Washington Center for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, February, in Olympia. Russek's talk was entitled, "Human Ecology: Translating Field-based Education into the Community College Classroom.” "It was as much about offering my experience as well as conversing with others to hear what they do,” says Russek.

In her presentation, Russek focused on how she builds a "community of learners” in the classroom. The Human Ecology program at Greenfield Community College is designed to engage students with the dynamic interplay between environmental, economic and social issues. Before arriving at GCC, Russek spent 15 years with the Audubon Expedition Institute at Leslie University, a field-based experiential education program. At GCC, Russek strives to connect students with each other, and connect classroom learning to the real world.

"Every so often I do a ‘check-in' in the classroom,” says Russek. "I ask students a question that ties the class content into their lives at the moment. For instance, in my environmental ethics class, the theme was land ethics. I started off class by having everybody think about a place out of doors where they grew up or that's in their life right now that is meaningful to them. It may even be a place you went to just once. Everyone took a minute to think about it, and then shared that experience. In another class I challenged students to think about their own family's relationship to the land historically, in terms of immigration, farming, family life, and using that to build on the changing ways that we relate to the land.”

Experiential learning also involves the world outside the classroom. "So in my Strategies for a Sustainable Future class, there's a number of field trips,” says Russek, "for instance, to the Materials Recycling Facility in Springfield, to the Franklin County Community Development Corporation, to the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association. At the NSEA, we'll be talking about transportation, visiting their website, meeting with an expert who will talk about the current status of transportation; we may watch a film about cars, fuel and transportation. Finally, we'll follow up with a debriefing that integrates all the different kinds of learning students have experienced.”

Keynote speakers at the Washington conference provided inspiring messages and examples of experiential learning, such as using plays to help students grasp global perspectives. The most important message, says Russek, was recognizing the value of interdisciplinary education and learning communities, where two different disciplines are brought together. This fall, Russek will teach a learning community with English Professor Scott Melanson titled Human Ecology and the Impact of Language. "I see the movement at GCC to create learning communities as a really powerful tool for engaging students with their education,” says Russek.

The idea is that, as you bring people together in ways that transcend the traditional classroom, their capacity for learning is heightened by a sense of community. "That's one of the challenges of a community college,” says Russek, "because people go home, they have lives, they work, and any way that we can cultivate a sense of community and connection with the faculty, with their peers, is really valuable. That happens in many different ways at GCC, and learning communities are just one of those ways.”