Enviropedia is an innovative system that emphasizes the connections between science and society by focusing on a simple decision that people make every day: what beverage containers to use.

Enviropedia login page

Enviropedia

The purpose of Enviropedia is to teach concepts of materials science to undergraduate students at a variety of levels. At the introductory level, students learn that materials science and engineering plays an important role in decreasing (or increasing) society’s impact on the environment. At subsequent levels, we envision this system being an integral part of the materials science curriculum, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Our system includes a casual game called Container Chaos, a carbon footprint calculator, and a wiki that students work on in teams.

Enviropedia is available online at http://129.49.33.247/enviropedia/tiki-index.php. Only students registered for the 5 affiliated sections can login at this time.

Container Chaos

Container Chaos is a casual game that can increase people's awareness of the impact that their simple choices have on the environment, and reinforce their recognition of what good choices are. This game focuses on the carbon footprint – from both the manufacture and transporting – of various materials commonly found in beverage containers. Other factors – such as air, water, and ground pollution – will be considered in future versions.

As containers fall from the sky, players click on them to prevent them from adding CO2 to the environment. The game is over when maximum pollution (carbon) levels are reached. Players earn points for each container removed. It is advantageous to focus on eliminating those that add the most CO2, as it gives the player more time to earn more points. Learning to quickly recognize what the better choices are will help players to improve their scores as they play the game over and over again.

To play the game, go to http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~lori/ContainerChaos/.

Container Chaos in play

carbon footprint calculatorCarbon Footprint Calculator

This calculator enables student to see the precise carbon footprint associated with various types and sizes of beverage containers, along with their accessory items (lids, cardboard sleeves, and straws). The carbon footprint is based solely on the estimated amount of CO2 emitted during the manufacture and transport of a single container.

To use the calculator, go to http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/~lori/EnviroCalculator/.

Wiki

The Wiki provides a space in which student teams can compile and present their own research on materials used for beverage containers. During the spring 2013 semester, we had over 200 students in 5 undergraduate classes working in teams of 3 on over 60 different wiki pages. The results are being analyzed to determine how participation and engagement with social media can be improved in educational settings.

Because working on a wiki can be confusing, we created a set of instructional videos to walk students through the process. These are available on our YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/EnviropediaSBU.

YouTube videos on how to use the Wiki

Interdisciplinary Team

Enviropedia represents a collaboration among Technology & Society (Lori Scarlatos, David Tonjes, and Kwami Nti, technical development), Materials Science (Alexander Orlov and Jamie Ging, content development), Sociology (Arnout van de Rijt, Michael Restivo, and Hyang-Gi-Song, experimental design) and Computer Science (Mindy Mosher and Noerah Alvi, digital media) at Stony Brook University.

This work is being supported by an Innovative Instruction Technology Grant from SUNY. It was presented in April at the Sparks of Innovation workshop at SBU in April, 2013.

For more information contact Lori (dot) Scarlatos (at) Stonybrook (dot) edu.