In the Classroom: Professor Wilson Teaches ENVS12: Energy and Environment

Students in Irving Institute Director Professor Elizabeth Wilson's ENVS 12: Energy and Environment class this winter explored energy, technology, environmental issues and their political context. The course gave students the foundational vocabulary needed to discuss energy in context (such as unit analysis and economic cost calculations) as well as a familiarity with system underpinnings (environmental systems, energy units, and infrastructure). The course also covered how humans use energy, transformations in the electric sector, and issues like energy transitions, energy poverty, and development. 

For their final projects, students demonstrated their ability to combine policy analysis, calculation, and communication skills by creating a short video and presenting a policy brief on an energy and/or environment issue. The goal of the project, explained Professor Wilson, is to help students prepare to communicate complex energy and environmental policy issues and gain a more nuanced understanding of policy tradeoffs. 

The groups identified their policy focus and presented during the final week of class. The topics ranged from a proposal to reduce the carbon footprint of the fashion industry to investing New Hampshire's Volkswagen settlement money in expanding EV charging stations on the I-93 corridor to efficiently installing micro-grids in Sub-Saharan African communities, to electrifying the Norwich-Hanover school district bus fleet. Students presented data, analysis, testimony from experts on campus and beyond, and made policy recommendations.
 

Student Videos

You can view two of the student presentations here:

"Fashion Forward" 

"New England Clean Energy Connect"