UF Faculty Department College
, Amanda Brinton
Tim Townsend 		Environmental Engineering Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering
Partner Faculty Department Partner Institution
Juan Fernando Saldarriaga Elorza Civil and Environmental Engineering Universidad de los Andes
Title:
International Perspectives on Behavioral Change
Project Description:

The students were separated into groups, consisting of students from each university where students had to go out on their own campus and select an issue related to solid waste management that could be improved through behavior change. The students then presented this information to their groups and then the smaller groups of students representing each campus created a plan to improve these behaviors for the other university campus. The groups met synchronously through Zoom and gave weekly asynchronous video meeting reflections through the platform Flipgrid.

Learning Outcomes:
  • Learn about each country’s culture through the lens of human behavior relating to solid waste
  • Compare and contrast how each country manages solid waste and the historical differences in this management
  • Develop an understanding of how behavior change programs/campaigns are communicated in different cultures and contexts 
Participating Countries:
Colombia, USA
Number of Participants:
19 UF students and 18 students from the partner institution
Discipline:
Engineering
UF Course Code & Name:
ENV 4932, ENV 6932 - Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries
Project Duration:
3 weeks
Activity Type(s):
Student-to-Student Project
Time allotted to each activity:
Synchronous Activities:3 hours
Asynchronous Activities:1 hours
Local group activities:2 hours
Individual Work: 2 hours
Technology Tools:
Videoconference: Zoom
Messaging Applications: Whatsapp
Collaborative Authoring Platforms: Google Docs
Message Boards/Video Boards:Flipgrid
Email
Sequence of Activities:

Students had three group meetings. The first meeting was introductions and discussion of culture of solid waste disposal and management. Then students identified a behavior change issue on their own campus and presented these issues in the second meeting where the students voted on what topic would be addressed for the final meeting for each campus in each group. Then between the second and third meeting the students from each group from the same campus met and created a plan to resolve the issue on the other campus that was voted on. In the third meeting each small campus group presented to the other campus group their plan for resolving the other university behavior change issue.