Keywords

1 Brownfields

Brownfields are a critical concern for environmental justice and sustainability. They are properties, often abandoned, where the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of the property may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of hazardous substances, pollutants, or contaminants. According to the EPA, there are presently over half a million brownfields in the United States, but this number only includes sites for which an environmental site assessment (ESA) has been conducted. The actual number of brownfields is certainly in the millions and brownfield remediation and redevelopment constitutes one of the major environmental issues confronting communities today. This importance is magnified by the disproportionate number of brownfields in economically stressed communities where revitalization is critical for jobs and economic growth as well as environmental justice and sustainability. Brownfield remediation and redevelopment have been identified as a priority by federal and state governments and constitute an important job focus for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers (Fig. 14.1).

Fig. 14.1
A drawing, with illustrations of buildings, factories, and the logo of Brownfield Action.

The Brownfield Action Logo

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2 Brownfield Action

Introducing students to the basic concepts of environmental science and justice, groundwater, and environmental contamination, including the authentic methods used to study and inclusive approaches to address environmental contamination, is the main goal of Brownfield Action (BA). Because brownfields are often a source of environmental toxification, they are also a concern for the environmental health and safety of communities, therefore civic engagement and inclusion are important components of BA.

BA is a web-based, interactive, three-dimensional digital space and learning simulation in which students form geotechnical consulting companies and work collaboratively to explore and solve problems in environmental forensics as they engage in an organic, evolving, semester-long, laboratory exploration of a simulated brownfield and its local community. BA marries a civic-minded, constructivist approach to learning about the environmental, economic, and civic importance of brownfields and the toxification of the environment. Created at Barnard College in collaboration with the Columbia Center for Teaching and Learning, BA has been used for over 15 years at Barnard College for one semester of a two-semester Introduction to Environmental Science course that is taken by more than 100 female, undergraduate, non-science majors each year to satisfy their laboratory science requirement. BA was selected in 2003 as a “national model curriculum” by SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities), an NSF STEM education initiative. What makes the BA SENCER model curriculum unique is that it includes a significant component of engagement with the civic dimensions of environmental contamination interwoven with the technical investigations being conducted by the students (Bower et al., 2011).

A signature feature of BA is its companion website at (Bower, n.d.) featuring information about BA and a guided walkthrough of the simulation. In the Registered Instructors section, instructors maintain profiles of their experiences with BA and add downloadable original curriculum materials for sharing with new BA users. Interested faculty can consult profiles, find and contact faculty with similar courses and interests, re-use or create derivative materials from the posted documents, and also become part of the collaborative network. A library of documents, maps, and images related to the simulation and its use in the classroom can also be found in the Appendix.

3 Pedagogical Rationale

The pedagogical methods and design of the BA model are grounded in substantial research literature focused on the design, use, and effectiveness of games and simulations in education. Benefits of a simulation approach to learning include increased engagement; adaptations for students with high or low prior knowledge; effective replacement for expensive/impractical field trips; control over the pace and direction of learning; increase in student participation over large lecture hall formats; effectiveness in representing complex subject matter; application to realistic situations; and the packaging of complex ideas into a consistent narrative. Much of the literature on computer-based simulations cited below is built upon the legacy of researchers such as Greenblat (1981), Lederman (1984), and Petranek (1992, 1994), who showed how paper-based educational simulations could motivate learners to be active participants in their own learning through individualized activities and immediate feedback. Many researchers are actively engaged in the study of particular teaching and learning strategies that employ a custom-created computer-based simulation or game similar to BA (Barab et al., 2000; Barab & Plucker, 2002, 2005, 2010; Dede & Ketlehut, 2003; Rosenbaum et al., 2007; Kim et al., 2009; Jacobson et al., 2009). A number of researchers have explored the use of simulation technologies in creating virtual field trips as a response to educational, logistical, and economic constraints (Arrowsmith et al., 2005; Whitelock & Jelfs, 2005; Ramasundaram et al., 2005).

Simulations allow the packaging of complex issues into consistent narratives, which can facilitate meaning-making (Bruner, 2002; Weinberger et al., 2005). Simulations have been found to be an effective way to represent complex systems and explore inclusive, multi-faceted socio-technical problems (Gee, unpublished; Squire & Jenkins, 2004; Barab et al., 2005; Rosenbaum et al., 2007; Herrington et al., 2007). Learners are able to understand educational content by exploring it within realistic situations, consistent with the principles of situated learning (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Barsalou, 1999; Pedretti, 1999; Barab & Plucker, 2002; Rosenberg, 2006).

Mayer and Chandler (2001) found that students who had more control over the pace and direction of educational simulations showed better learning outcomes than those who had less, or what Betrancourt (2005) has called the interactivity principle. Accordingly, engaging students with the educational content at hand is key. BA accomplishes this through the gradual unveiling of additional components as students learn more concepts and discover more of the town and its underlying hydrogeologic features and civic infrastructure. Student teams control the pace and direction of their explorations to varying degrees depending on the course level in which BA is implemented (Bower et al., 2011).

Some suggest that using simulations and educational games can be an effective way to engage the “video game generation” (Katz, 2000; Prensky, 2006). Researchers in recent years have also found that the learning and engagement seen in young people’s playing of video games, including simulation-based games, can be translated into meaningful educational gains in the classroom (Shaffer & Gee, 2005; Gee, 2007; Rieber, 2001; Rieber et al., 2004; Rieber & Noah, 2008; Prensky, 2006; Herrington et al., 2007; Van Eck, 2007; Chinn & Malhotra, 2002). Through its use of a complex narrative with interactive videos and maps as well as environmental testing tools and other game-based features, BA takes advantage of the motivational features of video games to engage students in the narrative of an environmental contamination scenario that weaves in a knowledge base of scientific skills and concepts.

Simulations also allow educators to move away from large lecture halls, where students are typically passive and increase participation through inquiry-based learning. However, the role of teachers in scripting and facilitating simulation-based activities remains crucial (Barab et al., 2000; Weinberger et al., 2005). While measurable benefits of educational simulations have been shown to vary according to prior knowledge, the medium has been shown to positively impact comprehension, cognitive load, and learning efficiency (Park et al., 2009). BA is inclusive and is adaptable to students with both high and low prior knowledge by modifying the amount of prior information and kinds of assignments given to the students and by tailoring contextual help provided by instructors to the appropriate level of the intended audience. While simulations have many positive aspects, negatives in general include the cost and expertise required for development, maintenance and updating., the time required for students to learn how to use the simulations and “buy into” its virtual reality, the inability of many simulations to deal with the ambiguity of dynamic, real-life situations, and the potential for some loss of control and flexibility on the part of the instructor.

BA is one of a small but growing number of computer simulation-based teaching tools that have been developed to facilitate student learning through interaction and decision-making in a virtual environment. In STEM fields, other examples include CLAIM (Bauchau et al., 1993) for mineral exploration; DRILLBIT (Johnson & Guth, 1997) and MacOil, (Burger, 1989) for oil exploration; BEST SiteSim (Santi & Petrikovitsch, 2001) for hazardous waste and geotechnical investigations; Virtual Volcano (Parham et al., 2009) to investigate volcanic eruptions and associated hazards; and eGEO (Slator et al., 2011) for environmental science education. These virtual simulations give students access to environments and experiences that are too dangerous, cost-prohibitive, or otherwise impractical to explore (Saini-Eidukat et al., 1998). Through directed role-play, they also provide opportunities for social interaction and student inquiry into the human element of technical analysis and decision making (Aide, 2008).

4 Simulation Overview

The heart of the BA simulation is a virtual world containing over 2 million hydrogeologic data points in a three-dimensional grid representing roughly 150 acres of land in a virtual town. The grid points contain many different types of natural data including surface elevation, depth to water table and bedrock, soil or sediment type, and vegetation. The town has a fully-realized human infrastructure (buildings, roads, wells, water towers, homes, and businesses) as well as a municipal government. There is a compelling storyline of economic development in the town involving individual people and their particular civic roles and life histories. The story (embedded and to be discovered in the simulation) is one of groundwater contamination caused by underground contaminant plumes stemming from the failure of underground infrastructure (pipes and tanks). As students become familiar with the simulated town and the history of its abandoned plant, the students gradually reconstruct the details of an all-too-familiar narrative. The “Self-Lume, Inc.” factory, which until recently manufactured radioluminescent signs, has been badly mismanaged and factory employees have dumped radioactive materials into a septic field. A gas station is also discovered to have a leaking underground storage tank. Both have contaminated the local aquifer and the town well.

At Barnard College, students in the BA laboratory form their own environmental consulting companies and work in teams of two. Each team views a video that sets up the background narrative, in which a developer (“Malls-R-Us”) plans to bring back an abandoned industrial brownfield in the town into commercial use. Each company signs a detailed contract with a development corporation to perform testing needed for a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA) of the abandoned factory and surrounding properties and prepares a report for the developer on the advisability of proceeding with mall construction. The contract summarizes the budget and obligations for each company as well as the goals for the semester-long investigation. Everything the student companies do in BA costs money and each company competes with the other companies to successfully complete its investigation and maximize its profit. While BA is a collaborative project, each student at Barnard must write and produce her own Phase I ESA report using the information acquired by the team. After the Phase I ESA, all student companies are hired by the EPA and work together in the Phase II Environmental Site Investigation, with each student preparing a Phase II report delineating the nature and extent of the contamination. Student companies work together as detectives to develop an understanding of the specific roles of individuals at the abandoned factory site. They assist local prosecutors with forensic evidence to help build both civil and criminal lawsuits against the responsible parties.

The digital space and supporting materials draw the students into a “real” integrated world with several mysteries to be solved. The tools required to solve these mysteries come from an interdisciplinary array spanning geology, environmental science, history, economics, civics, physics, biology, chemistry, and law. Each company must strive to obtain the maximum amount of information at the lowest cost, information that will help them make more important and expensive decisions later in the semester in order to fulfill their contractual obligations. Students may obtain historical and qualitative information by visiting the municipal complex or interviewing community members within the simulation. They can choose from an array of technical tools enabling them to determine surface elevations and construct a topographic map, find underground tanks or pipes using ground-penetrating radar, collect seismic data to find depth to bedrock, or drill to determine the depth to the water table and to take groundwater samples. As an example of authenticity, all tools, for example, ground-penetrating radar, can only be used after passing certification tests. As with any real-world professional investigation, students must keep in mind their budget, integrate a variety of information coming from multiple sources, and think strategically about the best way to run their investigation. As they learn critical concepts of geology, hydrology, and chemistry in lectures, students are required to apply this new knowledge to successfully pursue their investigation and to make sound scientific and budgetary choices. Finally, students research and prepare a Phase III ESA that presents a plan for the remediation of the site. Figure 14.2 shows a screenshot from the Brownfield Action software.

Fig. 14.2
A screenshot image highlights the key features of the Brownfield Action, in which the field includes a town complete with infrastructure (buildings, roads, wells and water towers).

Screenshot of Brownfield Action software in Site History mode

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The main learning goals for the use of the BA simulation at BC are:

  1. 1.

    To understand the interdisciplinary nature of the scientific process and the interconnections between groundwater contamination, toxins, human health, brownfields, government, economics, and law through a real-life simulation;

  2. 2.

    To work collaboratively in teams as environmental consulting companies and to develop strategic thinking while exploring and solving problems in environmental forensics;

  3. 3.

    To overcome uncertainty and ambiguity by engaging in action planning, networking, and negotiation; to learn to make choices, learn from the consequences, and develop self-confidence;

  4. 4.

    To develop and encourage civic-mindedness;

  5. 5.

    To collect and analyze data, critically review relevant documents, integrate interdisciplinary scientific and social information, produce bedrock, topographic, and water table contour maps as well as site maps, and write and communicate their results in three, professional-level Phase 1, 2, and 3 environmental site assessments;

  6. 6.

    To prepare these reports and fulfill contractual obligations while working within a budget and competing to maximize their company’s profit; and,

  7. 7.

    To increase student awareness of the constructivist learning environment of which they are a part and to promote “self-renewing intellectual resourcefulness.”

5 Assessment

Formative assessment strategies for the use of the BA simulation and curriculum at Barnard College were employed using a modified model of Design Research (Bereiter, 2002; Collins, 1992; Edelson, 2002), culminating in a qualitative ethnographic approach using monthly interviews to determine the impact of Brownfield Action on the learning process. Results of these ethnographies (see Kelsey, 2003) showed at a high confidence level that the simulation allowed students to apply content knowledge from lectures in a lab setting and to effectively connect disparate topics with both lecture and lab components. Furthermore, it was shown that BA improved student retention and that students made linkages in their reports not likely to be made in a traditional teaching framework. It was also found that, in comparison with their predecessors before the program’s adoption, students attained markedly higher levels of precision, depth, sophistication, and authenticity in their analysis of the contamination problem, learning more content and in greater depth. This study also showed that BA supports the growth of each student’s relationship to environmental issues and promotes transfer into the student’s real-life decision-making and approach to careers, life goals, and science (Bower et al., 2011). A recent Barnard graduate wrote:

Brownfields was one of the most beneficial and realistic courses I took at Barnard/Columbia. The course is an online simulation that takes students through the thinking, writing, interviewing, and sampling processes of Phase 1, 2, and 3 Environmental Site Assessments (ESA). Brownfields had a major impact on my job search and, ultimately, my career path. Brownfields gave me the confidence and the necessary terminology and skills to tackle environmental consulting interviews I had along the way. I am now a Field Hydrogeologist/Environmental Scientist for an environmental consulting firm. Brownfield Action prepared me for the interview process, many of the sampling techniques, and the creative mindset needed for tackling large-scale environmental and hazardous waste projects. Specifically, the interview process at many environmental consulting firms consists of questions regarding relevant courses. Of course, for me, Brownfields was the most relevant! During many of my interviews, I was asked to explain how I would go about analyzing water, air, or soil quality, how to balance data or information from multiple sources (i.e. interviews, lab results, documents, etc.), and how to conduct an ESA from beginning to end. Finally, I was asked to provide writing samples. I chose to submit my Phase 1, 2, and 3 ESA Reports written during my Brownfields course. I really think these set me apart from other candidates for the position I obtained because I know MANY qualified people that were being interviewed. Being paired up with a lab partner with whom I formed an environmental consulting company and collaborating collectively with the rest of the class has given me the necessary communication and teamwork skills that are imperative in this line of work. Furthermore, the course was taught in a way that gave just enough direction to get us (the students) started but not enough to eliminate the ambiguity of how to approach an ESA at a specific site, find contamination, groundwater contamination plumes and origins or the techniques necessary for analysis and removal of hazardous materials during remediation. It was up to the students to come up with a plan of action and discuss various strategies at each stage.

6 Collaborative Network of Users

The BA simulation is also unique in that it has been disseminated to twelve colleges, universities, and high schools where it is currently being used in the classroom and through the development of a collaborative community of users. BA is the only SENCER national model curriculum with a network of faculty collaborating in a community of practice. Moreover, this network has adapted the original simulation and its related products for use with a widening diversity of students, in a variety of classroom settings, and toward an expanding list of pedagogical goals (see Bower et al., 2014).

The collaborative network of users described in Bower et al. (2014) includes educators using the BA simulation to enhance environmental instruction at the high school level, to teach the fundamentals of hydrology and environmental site assessments at an introductory to intermediate undergraduate level, and to train both undergraduate and graduate students in advanced courses in hydrology and environmental remediation. Although many of the applications reported here apply to courses in STEM curricula, BA is not restricted in its utility to teaching students with advanced STEM skills. Rather, BA has proven to be equally effective whether it is used to introduce non-science literate students to basic concepts of environmental science and basic civic issues of environmental contamination (Bower et al., 2011) or to provide advanced training in environmental site assessments and modeling groundwater contamination to future environmental professionals.

BA has increased exposure to STEM education innovations and environmental science to historically underrepresented groups. BA emphasizes brownfields in environmental justice communities, as well as increasing participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM. Schools that join the growing BA network also commit to racial and gender diversity for this project. The 112 students who use BA at Barnard College as part of the Introduction to Environmental Science course reflect the overall composition of the college. Except for a few male Columbia students, all are women, 18% are African-American, Latina, or Native American, and 24% are Asian. Over 90% of these students are non-science majors taking the course to fulfill their science requirement. For most of these non-science majors, BA is their last academic contact with science. Several of the collaborators are inner-city institutions with significant minority populations. These include Wayne State in Detroit (nearly 30% Black with a significant Arab minority), California State University East Bay (61% female, 26% Hispanic, 11% Black, 26% Asian/Pacific, and 16% other and international), and City College of New York (with 38% Hispanic, 25% Asian and 15% Black). Other partner institutions include Kansas State University (25% Black, Hispanic, and Asian, including a small native American population, and 50% women), Connecticut College (60% women and 19% Black, Hispanic and Asian), Hofstra University (38% Black, Hispanic, and Asian and 53% women) and Lafayette College (47% women and 15% Black, Hispanic, and Asian).

7 Conclusions

Environmental science education plays a vital role in preparing a highly-qualified STEM 

workforce. Effective environmental science education requires students to collaboratively work together to solve complex problems. BA contributes to the transformation of environmental science education by the use of an adaptive and authentic, technology-rich collaborative learning environment that can enable tailored team-based problem-solving experiences that improve learning and collaborative engagement. As such Brownfield Action successfully incorporates authenticity, active collaborative learning, and justice in its pedagogy, as well as its user network of institutions and students.