MCC Daily Tribune

2020 State of New York Sustainability Conference Virtual Presentation

On December 3, Laura Penman, Associate Professor of Biology; Andrea Kingston, Digital Initiatives & Special Projects Librarian; and Christina Lee, Coordinator of Global Education & International Services delivered a 20-minute virtual presentation titled, "Creating Opportunities for Collaborative, Campus-Wide Global Learning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals" at the 2020 State of New York Sustainability Conference presented by the New York Coalition for Sustainability in Higher Education. As part of a conference breakout room titled, "Partnerships," the presentation described how the MCC Libraries and Global Education & International Services worked together to offer students, as well as faculty and staff, an opportunity to transform 17 library study rooms into sources of information about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and inspiration for everyone at MCC. Students in courses from multiple departments, the student Sustainability Club, and the college's Sustainability Steering Committee signed on to participate, each claiming an SDG-themed room. Participants were invited to use their creativity to offer information and a call for action to the campus community via displays or other installations in the rooms. The resulting self-guided tour of the 17 SDGs was to be featured in MCC's International Education Week activities. Unfortunately, much of the project was put on hold due to the campus building closures and subsequent reduced campus population caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, but we emphasized that our nascent SDGs in 17 Study Rooms project shows how exploring the SDGs with students can provide opportunities to incorporate global learning in both coursework and cocurricular activities. Laura Penman talked about how she incorporated this project into her Introduction to Sustainability course, and she shared samples of digital versions of student posters. She plans to continue using this project in her course for the foreseeable future. The project will be relaunched in the library when full on-campus operations resume, and Christina Lee and Andrea Kingston are hoping to facilitate other ways of exploring the SDGs at MCC.

Andrea Wade
Academic Services
12/08/2020