University of St. Thomas – Â鶹ĘÓƵ Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:58 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /wp-content/uploads/2019/04/cropped-favicon_logo-32x32.jpg University of St. Thomas – Â鶹ĘÓƵ 32 32 Developing Content for the University of St. Thomas Pollinator Path /projects/developing-content-for-the-university-of-st-thomas-pollinator-path-5/ /projects/developing-content-for-the-university-of-st-thomas-pollinator-path-5/#respond Wed, 01 Nov 2023 03:37:58 +0000 https://portal.epicn.org/case-stories/developing-content-for-the-university-of-st-thomas-pollinator-path-2/ Read More... from Developing Content for the University of St. Thomas Pollinator Path

]]> The Sustainable Communities Partnership is partnering with the Department of Biology’s Pollinator Path to add multi-disciplinary and community educational value to the pollinator path. Students in Theology 101 and Spanish 211 (paired courses) will develop content for the Pollinator Path; this project work will also provide a framework for discussion and practice of the courses’ learning objectives. Theology 101 students will identify quotes from Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si’, that interpret the Pollinator Path as an expression of care for creation from Catholic social teaching. Encyclical quotes will be included on the Pollinator Path website.

]]> The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization seeks to understand why and how residents within their watershed engage in urban agriculture, including motivations, barriers, and benefits, in order to more effectively engage other residents in urban agriculture. MWMO’s overarching goal is to improve water quality by reducing the volume and speed of stormwater runoff. Urban agricultural practices may reduce the volume and speed of stormwater runoff by changing compacted soils that cannot infilitrate water to healthier soils that can absorb stormwater.

Students will investigate engagement in urban agriculture through ethnographic research with residents of North Minneapolis. Based on this research, students will create narratives of residents’ stories of engagement with urban agriculture. In the process of writing these ethnographies, students will explore themes about motivations for and meanings of engaging in urban agriculture as well as barriers residents experience. This study will provide rich, qualitative data upon which a further study examining motivations to engage in urban agriculture can be developed and messages to encourage residents’ engagement in urban agriculture can be built.

]]> The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) seeks to more effectively engage culturally diverse residents in promoting water quality through programs that resonate with and are beneficial to residents in their daily lives. Students in Large Client Systems will create a logic model to guide MWMO’s outreach with culturally diverse populations that both benefits the community and advances MWMO’s mission of promoting water quality. MWMO will identify the community (or communities, depending on number of students) to create a targeted logic model for cultural engagement‌‌.

]]> The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) would like to better understand attitudes and perceptions about stormwater management practices and water quality of the Mississippi River in general. Students in Psychological Testing will design, create, and gather evidence of the validity of a new survey that addresses a specific question related to these general topics. Students will be provided with example survey topics; they may choose from these topics or seek to create their own topic within the MWMO’s general issues of interest. This is an optional project topic for their lab work to create a survey and assess its validity.

Project Overview Poster
Partner Outcomes
Discovering people’s attitudes about issues like water quality, stormwater management and the environment generally is a persistent need and challenge for the MWMO. The surveys designed by these students offer a blueprint for future research into these areas. The MWMO is looking at doing a survey in the near future about business owners’ attitudes about stormwater BMPs, and will design this and other future surveys with the students’ insights in mind. MWMO may also use the surveys about environmental attitudes with some of their outreach groups in an effort to gauge the attitudes of audiences like Master Water Stewards, grant recipients and other key audiences.

]]> The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) has a library of graphics for stormwater best management practices. The MWMO uses these graphics on signs, flyers, and other communication materials for the public; these communication materials seek to engage the public in implementing stormwater best management practices to promote infiltration of water into the ground and prevent runoff to the Mississippi River. Other watershed districts in the area are interested in collaborating with the MWMO to use this set of graphics across watershed districts so that they will become more recognizable to the public and so that watershed districts can build momentum around them. However, before the MWMO proceeds with this collaborative effort, the MWMO would like to assess whether the graphics are effective in achieving their desired responses/goals in different communication settings. Students in Environmental Communication will evaluate these graphics with respect to the MWMO’s goals and provide their analysis and feedback to the MWMO to inform their work.

Project Overview Poster
Partner Outcomes
MWMO staff met in May 2017 to review and discuss the focus group’s comments. The students’ feedback provided insights that challenged the level of confidence MWMO had in some of the symbols they had been using. It also gave MWMO a roadmap for improving those images and bringing a higher level of consistency to their iconography. MWMO plans to do additional research with other audiences and ultimately redesigning several of the icons.

]]> The Mississippi River corridor is an ecosystem of connected natural and urban habitats, which provides benefits to both wildlife and humans. The “Above the Falls” stretch of the Mississippi River shoreline has historically been industrial, but the Mississippi River Management Organization (MWMO), the Mississippi Riverfront Partnership (MRP), and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) would like to restore this area to provide habitat connectivity along the river corridor. Property ownership complicates this goal; property along this stretch of the river has multiple owners and uses (e.g., residential, industrial, parks, vacant Brownfields). “Postage-stamp” parks have been created along this stretch, as the MPRB and partners purchase land along the river in a piecemeal fashion, when available.

To achieve restoration goals in this context, the corridor as a whole needs to be assessed for wildlife function. For example: What wildlife species are currently present? What is a meaningful corridor (size/length) to maximize wildlife habitat and to provide habitat conveyance? Finally, the complexity of property ownership and public access needs to be considered. How can the corridor be restored considering the current context of multiple property owners along the river? How can restoration goals be achieved while still providing an accessible riverfront for the public?

]]> The Mississippi River Watershed Management Organization’s (MWMO) education and outreach program seeks to “provide information, services and products to promote responsible stewardship of water and natural resources by the watershed community.” As part of this goal, the MWMO seeks to promote community connections with and understanding of the Mississippi River system. The MWMO’s building serves as a learning center. In addition to permanent installations of stormwater best management practices and green infrastructure that promote water quality, the building has an exhibit space where they host art/writing installations about water and the river. Exhibits are created by local artists with the goal of fostering community connections with and understandings of the river and to engage the community in actions to promote river health.

English 121 students, in partnership with 6th grade students from College Prep Elementary, Saint Paul, will create an interactive exhibit (e.g., written pieces or other forms of artwork) that engage people around the concepts of river stories and sanctuary. College and elementary students will present their exhibit to family and friends at the MWMO to advance the MWMO’s goal of engaging people from diverse communities with the Mississippi River and fostering deeper understandings of and connections with the river.

]]> The Mississippi River Watershed Management Organization’s (MWMO) education and outreach program seeks to “provide information, services and products to promote responsible stewardship of water and natural resources by the watershed community.” As part of this goal, MWMO would like to develop curriculum units for stormwater management best management practices (BMPs) that can be shared with both formal and informal educators. Currently, MWMO shares general resources with educators (e.g., resources from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources or the U.S. Geological Survey), but MWMO does not have the capacity to develop curriculum units for specific BMPs in their watershed.

Students in Engineering in the P-12 Classroom will be invited to develop engineering design curriculum units for BMPs in MWMO’s watershed boundaries. Curriculum resources tailored to stormwater management BMPs that are installed on sites within MWMO’s boundaries may increase and facilitate educators’ and the public’s engagement with these sites and practices. Curriculum units that educators can use at specific sites in the watershed would also support the goal of place-based education.

]]> The Metropolitan Council is interested in an exploratory study on the urban tree canopy to inform their future work and research regarding the urban tree canopy. Possible student research questions could include assessing gaps in the canopy, developing community engagement initiatives, examining the relationship between the canopy and stormwater, examining the relationship between the canopy and socioeconomic factors, etc. Students from the Environmental Studies Field Seminar will develop and conduct a research project about this broad topic based in their disciplinary interests. The topic of the urban tree canopy offers an array of social and environmental questions to explore, engaging students in real-world research and problem-solving that draws together their curricular work in geography and environmental studies. At the same time, students’ research will inform the Metropolitan Council’s various areas of work related to the urban tree canopy across social and environmental dimensions.

]]> The Metropolitan Council operates several wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Twin Cities area. Most of the WWTPs are located adjacent to river corridors, and in some cases form portions of sensitive wildlife habitat and native vegetation areas. Landscape design at the WWTPs has traditionally consisted of traditional mowed turf, which requires constant mowing, occasional herbicide application and irrigation, and provides little benefit to wildlife or water quality. The Council is committed to developing strategies, guidance, and implementation plans to transition the landscaping to more natural systems, incorporating native tree species, pocket prairies, raingardens, swales, and other features at its seven WWTPs, one water reclamation plant, and other miscellaneous lift (pump) station properties.

The Empire WWTP has implemented several sustainable landscaping practices, including permeable pavement, raingardens, a green roof and more. However, they have a large area of mowed turf that they would like to convert to a sustainable landscape that provides ecosystem benefits. Students will conduct a social/economic/ecological analysis to examine the costs and benefits of converting this turf area to native vegetation. They will develop a report to guide stakeholders and decision makers through this analysis and to make a case for the implementation their findings.

Students will also analyze water quality, flow, and trout populations in the Vermillion River stretch along the Empire WWTP, prior- and post-effluent diversion from the Vermillion River to the Mississippi River. Students will develop a scientifically-backed proposal with tiered recommendations for MCES to identify and respond to temperature stressors in our reach of the Vermillion River.

PROJECT REPORTS:

Targeted Conversion of Turfgrass to Native Prairie in Grassed Swales, A. Gilmore and B. Mueller

The Business Case for Turfgrass Conversion at the Empire WWTP, JP Fischer and E. Zanoth

Exploration of Thermal Regime on Salmo trutta Populations

Read the final student report delivered to the local gov/community partner.

Sustainable Communities Partnership Contact Info

University Faculty Contact
Eric Chapman
Environmental Science

Local Government / Community Contact

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