Category / Environment & Sustainability

by shannonchance

Notes from Home

What Malahide Castle looks like from outside the fence. (Photo downloaded from Evergreen B&B.)

The Irish are typically this polite…. This sign announced the castle was closed for restoration.

Paper celebrating end of war in Europe.

I’m not wild about spending months apart from Dave, but there are so many fun ways to communicate theses days using the web.  They make it much more bearable than the year I spent working in Switzerland (1997) without him.

I thought I’d share some fun things Dave sent me this past week:

A photo from our March 2012 day-trip out of Dublin to see Malahide Castle (top).  It was, unfortunately, closed at the time. Wish we’d have had a closer view of the castle (below the castle).

Dave also sent this pattern he found:

May 7, 1920  birthday of the Uncle who Dave’s Dad was named after
May 7, 1945  date of German surrender WWII
May 7, 2012  date of Dave’s Dad’s death
In another email:
“Imagine my surprise…
davechance.com is a ‘premium’ domain name.
currently for sale for $1200….”
Yikes!  Guess that’s what happens when you have a “web presence.”  Companies buy your name hoping you’ll buy it back.
by shannonchance

Wrapping Up Tonight’s Meal at Thai Spice

Wrapping up tonight’s meal at Thai Spice.

One tiny little thing I do to help prevent needless waste is to carry a food storage container (i.e., Tupperware) in my purse.  That why went I can’t finish my meal, I don’t have to ask for a disposable take-home box.

Think how many plastic or styrofoam containers a person uses in a year… those containers will stick around in the landfill for centuries.

This method is painless and guilt-free.

So, why not stow a small container in your bag right now?

The one in my purse has a reusable shopping bag inside (the black one shown is a slingsax by Envirosax, I found my first one here in Dublin in March 2010).  That keeps things in my purse as compact as possible.

by shannonchance

From Theory to Practice

The class I taught this past summer at The College of William and Mary is being featured by the university’s public relations department for helping students move ideas into action and spurring environmental change.  Check it out at:

http://www.wm.edu/news/stories/2012/students-sustainable-dining-proposals-put-into-action-at-boehly-123.php

One of our many field trips in the summer “Educational Planning for Environmental Sustainability” class at William and Mary.  This one, to the campus herb gardens, was coordinated by student Justine Okerson and led by W&M’s current Sustainability Fellow, Patrick Foley.  The cafeterias at W&M get all the herbs they use from these gardens.

by shannonchance

Mixing Soup Under a Fine Dublin Sky

Fulbrighting is in full gear here!

The weather is grand — chilly but sunny.  And, surprisingly, it was a day without rain.  That hardly ever happens.  We usually get at least a few drops every day.  As they say, “if you don’t like the weather, just wait five minutes” … it’s certain to change.  They also say Ireland has four seasons in a day.  Dave and I have definitely experienced that.

I’ve learned never to leave the apartment without a small umbrella and a waterproof jacket of some sort.  There’s little humidity in the air here in Dublin.  Gavin joked yesterday that humidity tends to fluctuate between 0% and 100%.  (Scientifically speaking it’s probably more like 30% and 100% since 0% would be unGodly dry, but the idea is right on.  A hundred percent is, of course, when the air can no longer hold the water and it rains or snows.)  I’ll include a few random photos of the Dublin sky, snapped as I walked to various buildings at DIT today (the buildings are spread out all over town).

In the past couple of days, Sima, Gavin, Brian Bowe (their doctoral supervisor), and I have been trading articles on design theory, design process, and qualitative research methods in preparation for our work.  We’re exploring differences and similarities between phenomenology and phenomenography.  Fascinating, eh!?  Well, fortunately, we think so!  (I’m trying to make time to read a stack of articles and chapters while also preparing to give a conference presentation next week and making final reviews of the article that will be published next month by SCUP, the Society of College and University Planners.)

Among other activities today, I met with Gavin to discuss definitions of “design” and their relationship to epistemology (the way individual understand “knowledge” and what it means “to know”).

Computer Science lecturer Damien Gordan walked past and joined the conversation (see photo).  I’m looking forward to talking with him again soon.  So energetic!

Chatting with Damian Gordon from Computer Science, who, like us, also does educational research.

Everyone here is amazingly welcoming.  Gavin’s office-mate, Kevin, gave me a his own personal HP printer (his wife has just purchased a new one).  The librarian at Bolton Street, Brian Gillespie, checked me out a book using his library card, since mine’s in the works. The Head of Mechanical Engineering and Product Design asked me to submit a paper for his upcoming conference.

I could go on… but there’s even more exciting news.

In a few days, Gavin, the Dean of the College, and I will all fly to Thessaloniki, Greece for a conference sponsored by SEFI (the society of European engineering educators).  Gavin will be presenting two papers and I will be presenting two as well.  One of the papers we wrote together, so we’ve got a total of three presentations to deliver between the two of us.  Strangely, all three of these presentations fall in the same time block.  We’ll get to see exactly how many places we can each be at one time!

When the conference ends, Gavin will zip back to Dublin mid-week to teach classes.  I don’t have to be in a specific class next week, and my flight choices all required a lengthy stop-over.   So… I took full advantage of the opportunity.  I chose Rome as my through destination and I scheduled a stop over for three nights on the way back.  I’ll return to Dublin in time to work Saturday and Sunday.

I have a huge amount of homework to complete for the following week (the same week my Mom and her two neighbors are arriving for a visit).  But I can’t fall behind in my work.  Gavin and I must stay on our toes in order to complete our study in time for the January 7 journal deadline.

Oh, yes, Sima phoned today to discuss lecturing schedules and research plans.  She’s been following the blog and she called with a very excited tone.  She’d not noticed the BYOF sandwich board right outside their building, and neither had the other lecturers.  They learned about it from my blog and got a big laugh.

I should have taken a photo in the window of that pub yesterday.  The students were just back and they hadn’t packed lunches either.  So, there were plenty of students in the pub, but few had BTOF (Brought Their Own Food).

On a parting note, I also had to stop for some produce today and I leave you with the following delightful image+thought=idea.  The veggie assortment pictured below was labelled as “soup mix.”  How cool!

‘Course I’m gonna steam my veggie assortment instead… and I think I’ll do that right now!  Apologies for any typographical errors… but I need to go eat… and work on that SEFI presentation… YIKES!

Soup Mix — Irish Style!