Free Norway of Plastic: Co-developing local solutions for a global problem
Villages in English
List includes only EiT villages with English as the language of instruction
Free Norway of Plastic: Co-developing local solutions for a global problem
How many things in your daily life do not contain plastic? A metal spoon that I bring for my lunch or my coffee mug, but then I run out of ideas. Nearly everything else that I use daily is made of plastic or contains plastic in one way or another. Can you imagine life without plastic or where plastic is handled responsibly?
In this course, we provide insights from environmental psychology and lifecycle thinking in relation to project work. And design thinking – “Yes, and …” mentality – and EiT materials for working in teams.
Students can come from any discipline. Bringing together a multidisciplinary perspective, we would like to co-develop local solutions for a global problem – plastic pollution.
Marine litter, including foreign bottles & cans along Norway’s Arctic coastline outside Tromsø. Source: Bo Eide under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Introduction
Since the introduction of plastic in industry and private households during the 1950s, its image has changed significantly from a jack-of-all-trades to a problem child. Plastic, a “fantastic” material, is making our lives easier. However, the fact that plastic is durable, useful, and versatile has its downsides: polluted beaches, forests, oceans, and deserts; animals die of plastic, and it is also dangerous for our health.
In this course, students will receive information on plastic litter in Norway as well as existing interventions – effective and non-effective ones. We will explain how to create effective interventions from environmental psychology and system-based perspectives.
Every team will work on a specific product area, briefly research its lifecycle, and ultimately, envision interventions based on their disciplines and focus on one for implementation. Representatives from businesses will be invited to collaborate with students.
We will support students in brainstorming, discussing, and gathering data.
Let’s get our hands and brains on plastic pollution!
Relevant competency
Students from all disciplines are welcome. Creative thinking, collaboration, and ambition are key skills we are looking for in this EiT village. Students should be interested in moving on from problem focus towards envisioning solutions and exploring opportunities on how to tackle plastic pollution through collaboration with other disciplines. Bring your curiosity and your expertise we need all diverse perspectives. Context-specific knowledge and methods will be provided in the course.
Master's students at Experts in Team in 2017. Photo: Vibeke Ann Pettersen/NTNU
Learning environment
All lectures, presentations, and team discussions will be held in English. Village interactions will primarily take place “in person”, combined with online external partners’ presentations and digital tools.
Assessment
In this village, the project report and the compulsory presentation of the project is replaced by an oral exam that counts for 50% of the grade. The oral exam is assessed according to the same criteria as the project report.
The oral examination is supported by a poster created by the team. Project posters from previous EiT course: https://www.ntnu.edu/web/marine1/eit-posters under “Free Norway of Plastic 2023”.
Facts
- Course code: PSY3816
- Type: Intensive
- Language: English
- Village supervisor: Isabel Richter, Natalya Amirova
- Contact information: isabel.richter@ntnu.no, natalya.amirova@ntnu.no
Semester: Spring 2024 - Location: Trondheim
- Host faculty: SU