Does green suit your city? Beth Osnes and Tara Riedl hopes it does! In Spring 2017, Student Fellow Tara Riedl worked with Dr. Beth Osnes (Assistant Professor & Director of Graduate Studies, Theatre and Dance) to support a participatory project for her course, called “Green Suits Your City.” Students dress in a quirky, green suit and take photos of themselves across the nation, chronicling their experiences via a collaborative Google map. This project was meant to be a conversation starter, as well as an embodiment of awareness to issues around climate change.
Dr. Osnes is co-founder of “Inside the Greenhouse,” an endowed initiative on the CU campus that promotes events and discussion about climate change. She teaches “Creative Climate Communication” (CCC), which is the second of a two course series. Through CCC, Beth encourages students to express stories about climate in a variety of ways, so the message about climate change is communicated to as many different people as possible. She found that many of her students were Environmental Studies majors that brought a lot of background knowledge to the class. Her hopes were that these students would be able to communicate that knowledge in a unique, and effective way.
Tara helped students taking CCC use Google map for Green Suits Your City, as well as Facebook Live for the comedy night. She provided both in and out of class support, teaching students how to use different features of the technology to help them complete their class assignments. When asked about the Teaching Technology Assistance Program, Dr. Osnes said, “In general I felt very well cared for, the larger staff beyond just you [Student Fellow Tara Riedl] was so attentive and really listened to the project we were trying to do and were really responsive.”
This partnership between a faculty member and Student Fellow is an example of the kinds of services that are provided with the Teaching Technology Assistance Program, which started in the Fall of 2016 as a new initiative. This program helps students and faculty think about technology in new ways, to help improve teaching and learning in the College of Arts & Sciences. If you’re interested in having a Student Fellow help implement a technology into your class, please contact ASSETT.
