Central Virginia a great place for green learning

With several colleges in and around Lynchburg, Central Virginia is well stocked with academic coursework anyone can access that focuses on the environment.

And not strictly in courses in the sciences.

In addition to green themes found in disciplines such as environmental science, biology, chemistry, oceanography and horticulture, colleges locally also are integrating environmental themes into nontraditional coursework.

“Our environmental studies program was deliberately set up to be a liberal arts-based program,” said Rick Barnes, chair of Randolph College’s environmental issues council.

At Randolph, students in that major are required to approach the coursework in an interdisciplinary fashion, with courses in philosophy, economics and psychology, among others.

Lynchburg College, which offers environmental science and environmental studies majors, has a variety of courses that address green topics. The school has sponsored several “green” initiatives, including designating 2007-08 the “Year of the Environment” on campus.

Greg Eaton, director of the college’s Claytor Nature Study Center in Bedford County, teaches “Sustainable Living,” where students examine the impact of personal and collective choices on natural resources, and how those decisions affect the sustainability of communities.

Even in an introductory environmental course, associate professor Dave Perault said students examine their impact on the environment. For example, students are taught how to be environmentally conscious shoppers. They visit grocery and department stores and do an “environmental footprint lab,” where they look at their impact on the environment and see what they can do to reduce it.

Sweet Briar College’s sustainability committee also is working this spring on how to combine social, economic and environmental concerns into more curriculum, said SBC spokeswoman Jennifer McManamay.

As a starting point for discussion, professors compiled a list of courses in which sustainability topics have been discussed.

It includes courses such as ecological anthropology, life science by inquiry, introduction to organisms, field natural history and environmental ethics.

And schools also are seeking to enrich those courses with public workshops on various sustainability-related topics.

At Sweet Briar, the school’s Tim Kasper, director of the community garden, has taught workshops on organic gardening.

Also in the gardening realm, Central Virginia Community College’s Bedford Center this summer plans to host a horticulture class.

Randolph College this summer also plans to host two free workshops on permaculture and organic gardening on May 30 and Aug. 22, from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. each day.

Students will explain how the use of a variety of organic gardening practices, such as composting, crop rotation and more.

E-mail kwarren@randolphcollege.edu for more information, to volunteer or to register to attend either workshop.