1. Department of Geosciences Middle Tennessee State University
SURPRISING SERVICE: CAMPUS CLEAN UPS LEAD TO DISCUSSIONS ABOUT TOBACCO USE ON A TOBACCO-FREE CAMPUS, MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY, MURFREESBORO, TENNESSEE
Dr. Mark Abolins (PI)
Department of Geosciences
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, TN
This work is supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) collaboration between the
Directorates for Education and Human Resources (EHR) and Geosciences (GEO) under grant DUE

2. What’s surprising? Stormwater outreach actually about second-hand smoke on a tobacco-free campus(!)

3. Organization I. Context II. What is this talk about. III
Organization I. Context II. What is this talk about? III. Learning outcomes IV. Major characteristics V. Results VI. Whole-class discussion VII. Summative assessment VIII. Evaluation of activity IX. Conclusion
Curriculum
& Instruction

4. One of 16 single-year projects nationwide.
At MTSU, implementation involved:
5 faculty in 3 STEM departments;
1 professor in Dept. of Political Science and International Relations;
Courses at every undergraduate level;
General studies courses and STEM-major courses;
Non-honors and Honors courses.
At MTSU, implementation happened during the 2016 calendar year.
Context NSF Interdisciplinary Teaching About Earth for a Sustainable Future (InTeGrate) Implementation Project

5. What is this talk about? A single-class service learning activity embedded in a general studies Introduction to Earth Science course.

6. Scientific method. The student defines reproducibility and uses the activity
as an example.
Environmental regulation. The student describes positive
and negative aspects of tobacco-free policies from his
or her own perspective and from the perspective of classmates.
Environmental regulations: management of non-compliance.
The student proposes at least one solution.
The student identifies the solution preferred by the class as a whole.
Learning outcomes

7. reproducible and verifiable by other individuals.
“Scientific explanations can be inferred from confirmable data only, and observations and experiments must be
reproducible and verifiable by other individuals.
In other words, good science is based on information that can be measured or seen
and verified by other scientists.”
GSA GeoTeachersTM Educator Resources

8. Major characteristics
Why?
- An enduring legacy of the InTeGrate implementation project;
- Mission-appropriate for MTSU Stormwater Program.
- Contextualizes science as a part of environmental monitoring.
Who?
- Activity run by MTSU Stormwater Management Program staff.
- Participants are undergraduates enrolled in a general studies
Introduction to Earth Science course.
i) 1-2 sections per semester
ii) up to 103 participants per section

10. When?
- During the 3rd “quarter” of the course. Under the topic “water.”
- Implemented in conjunction with “Hazardous Waste and Love Canal”
unit of “Environmental Justice and Freshwater Resources” InTeGrate
module.
- Half of class participates in activity during one 55-min
or 85-min class period and the other half participates
during a second class period.
(The other half of the class participates in a different outdoor activity
led by the instructor.)

11. What?
- Essentially a trash cleanup, but students record items retrieved
(e.g., cigarette butts, wrappers, styrofoam cups, etc.);
- Students enter list of items into a Google form;
- Instructor uses a word count website to identify frequently-collected
items;
- Class compares results from pair of days (reproducibility).
- Class discusses prevalence of tobacco-related items
on a tobacco-free campus, and uses course response system to express
opinions.
Where? On-campus in the area surrounding the building
in which the class is taught.

12. How? Uses: Stormwater staff, waivers, gloves, trash bags, grabbers, buckets, Google forms, word count website, course response system.

13. Results
Spring 2016 – Day 2

14. Comparing data from the two days . . .
Tobacco-related items as a whole were most commonly picked up on both days during Spring 2016.
Combining data from the two days . . .
“Cigarettes” were the third most commonly picked up item during Spring and Fall 2016.
“Cig butts” were the fourth most common item during Spring 2017.

15. Discussion
In science, what is reproducibility and why is it important? (Spring 2016)
One student response: repeat an experiment and get same results.
Instructor: repeat observations under same conditions/at same location and get same results. Important because you’re demonstrating that your results are not due solely to chance.

16. Why is MTSU a non-smoking campus? What are the benefits?
What are the negative aspects of this policy? (Spring 2016)
Better for environment. Smoking not healthy for people. Perhaps both smoker and surrounding people are impacted. Negatives: Not enforced. Negative to smokers. Maybe not good for environment because no bins and yet [some] people smoke anyway and then put butts on ground.

17. Do tobacco free policies infringe on your personal freedom?
Some think they do.

18. In general, what makes regulations effective or ineffective
In general, what makes regulations effective or ineffective? (Spring 2016)
People have to want to go along with the regulations. Needs to be monitoring. Enforce rule or it doesn’t matter. Must educate people to make them aware why there is a regulation.

19. What can be done about the butts? (Spring 2016)
Have campus clean ups. Have fines and people who get fined have to pick up butts. Put bins out there. Fall 2016: have designated smoking areas.
Campus policy approved in June, 2017 does not provide for these, but does note that students can smoke inside private vehicles situated on MTSU property.

20. Should MTSU by a non-smoking campus? (Spring 2016)
a. Yes b. No c. Abstain
Yes No
Abstain

21. Should MTSU have butt bins? (Spring 2016) a. Yes b. No c. Abstain

22. Multiple-choice and true-false questions on an exam.
Prompts about data.
Prompts about opinions of class as a whole.
Summative Assessment

23. Trash clean up questions (Spring 2016)
31. Preliminary analysis of the clean-up data suggests that _______ was the most commonly picked-up item in all three zones on both days.
a. cigarette butts and related trash b. styrofoam cups
c. candy wrappers d. fast food wrappers
32. One way to explain reproducibility is that two different people make observations at the same location under the same conditions but at two different times, and they come up with approximately the same results on both occasions.
a. true b. false
33. Which of the following best-describes student opinions about placing “butt bins” (cigarette waste receptacles) around campus?
a. All voting students supported this.
b. Most voting students supported this.
c. Fewer than half of voting students supported this.
d. No voting students supported this.

24. Evaluation of activity (Spring 2016)
After completing the clean ups and a rock weathering exercise at a nearby cemetery, the introductory Earth Science students were asked to either write (a) a 2-page mock sustainability project proposal or (b) a 2-page mock undergraduate rock weathering research proposal, and 71 of 75 chose sustainability.
Also, the responses of 54 undergraduates to a clicker survey indicated that 76% thought the campus clean ups should continue and only 13% thought they should not. (The rest abstained.)
During the Fall 2016 enactment of the cleanup and module pairing, an additional writing option was offered. Students could create a watershed environmental education brochure, and a few did, although most chose to write a sustainability proposal.
Evaluation of activity (Spring 2016)

25. Conclusion Continue use of activity because:
majority of students voted to continue it;
MTSU Stormwater Program wants to continue it;
activity provides a model sustainability project used by many when preparing class writing assignment.
Conclusion

26. Acknowledgements NSF InTeGrate supported this project through a sub-award to MTSU and other assistance. The MTSU Stormwater Program contributed human resources and supplies. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.