Students at KPU have been taking Climate+ Challenge courses since the Fall 2021 semester and report that their experiences in class have helped them develop more solutions-oriented attitudes about climate change and that they believe climate change learning should be incorporated into every program at KPU.

Mani Mann, a student who took John Singh’s MAMT 1300: Manufacturing Trends and Technology mechatronics course in the Spring 2022 semester, found that each topic and process was given ample attention and he was glad the climate change material was not rushed.

He learned that “every industry has to have a plan for environmental action, so they know how they are affecting the environment and how to minimize [that effect].”

Davie Hsu, another student who took MAMT 1300 in the spring semester, found more emphasis placed on climate change at KPU than the other post-secondary institution he had attended before transferring to KPU.  

Mann and Hsu describe a project from the class where they identified the many different environmental factors in an imagined manufacturing process, giving them a chance, as Hsu explains, to “look at what we were doing and think, how can we minimize the impact of something that has to be done?”

Zahra Khan, a political science major, said that to take Ellen Pond’s POST/POLI 4110: Applied Public Policy Seminar: Adapting to our Changing Climate like she did in Spring 2022, you don’t need a previous in-depth understanding of the intricacies of policy making. While POST/POLI 4110 was an upper-level course, she believes that the information presented and the skills they developed would be beneficial to a wider audience at KPU as well.

“It is sort of an essential course to the [Climate+] Challenge but also maybe to KPU as a whole,” she said. She argues that at almost any level of knowledge about policy making, “you can have interesting, productive, and certainly mature discussions about what’s needed in the climate crisis,” adding she enjoyed the class discussions encouraged after presentations and throughout the course.

All three students said their Climate+ Challenge courses helped them combat pessimistic attitudes around them about the climate disaster and gave them better tools to understand the sometimes sensational news coverage of its effects. Mann said his sister has asked him to not discuss the matter with her at times because she finds it upsetting, and that he has “read a lot of articles or [heard] politicians saying that we have crossed the threshold and we are not able to go back to how it was before. But I believe we have time to change that habit.”

Khan agrees that a more positive approach to the future of the planet is more helpful to promote, especially in learning environments.

“It’s nice to be able to solve problems together,” Khan said, adding she will happily take another Climate+ Challenge course if it is offered in her discipline, or even outside of it if entirely climate-oriented programs emerged at KPU.

Khan and Mann also both shared a wish that climate change learning was incorporated into all programs at KPU in ways that make sense for each field.

“If you can center action in each class but also center a baseline of climate knowledge… that is very, very, important,” Khan says.

The three students shared suggestions for how the project can improve as we move forward.

Khan suggests holding more public events on campus to increase student engagement, saying many students meet with their friends on campus to enjoy themselves. Mann said he would like to see more articles with statistical data available about the past and present of climate change as well as in-class outings to places where students can experience “practical immersion” in climate technologies. Hsu said he would benefit from better access to technology and data in the search to find creative solutions together, giving the example of carbon capture technology: “once you have that carbon, how can we use it?”

We look forward to another semester at KPU in Fall 2022, and to the growth and changes that are on the horizon. We hope to hear more from students as we continue to promote discussions about climate change on our campuses.