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Dr. Steve Cook, a senior instructor of geosciences, has taught the popular GEO 300 class on Environmental Conservation and Sustainability at OSU for 11 years.

Geoscience professor gets students psyched for conservation

Steve Cook teaches popular GEO 300 class, gives students community projects, not exams

By: Gail Cole

Posted: 5/27/08

Many professors teach through lectures and multiple choice exams, but Steve Cook does things his own way.

Cook is a senior instructor of geosciences and teaches GEO 300, Environmental Conservation and Sustainability. This class teaches students to make a positive impact on the environment.

GEO 300 is a Baccalaureate Core course that attracts students from many different majors. Approximately 200 to 300 students take GEO 300 each term, but John Klock, a teaching assistant for the class, says Cook is able to connect the topic to many students and learning types.

"I think the key to his approach is that he has the energy," Klock said. "It's really hard to do that when you've got so many students and so many classes."

"It's a challenge for me to engage students, and I find it a continuing challenge," Cook said.

However, one of the several reasons Cook enjoys GEO 300 is because he can teach on a variety of topics relating to conservation and sustainability. He said this allows students from all disciplines to apply what they learn to their majors and lives.

"Occasionally we need classes that allow students to make connections," Cook said of the wide range of topics he covers.

"It's fun - I get to talk about the things I'm interested in."

Cook has been teaching GEO 300 at OSU for 11 years. He said he had "done a million things" for jobs before becoming a professor later in life.

"I decided when I was 40 years old I wanted a Ph.D. so I could teach at the college level," Cook said. "I like being around young people."

Klock said that Cook's interest in helping students learn is what makes him stand out.

"He's a student professor," Klock said. "He follows all types of active learning for students to get them involved in things."

Each term, students from all sections of GEO 300 participate in 35 to 40 service projects. Students dedicate four hours per term to their project, then in a group write a paper and prepare a class presentation about the experience.

"I feel really strongly that we all should be giving back," Cook said. "I've taken it down to the level of students."

Cook designs a wide variety of projects at various dates and times throughout the term.

"I identify the project, and they pick the one that suits them best," he said.

According to the class website, examples of the projects include everything from removing English ivy from campus to gathering signatures for the Sustainable Forest Initiative for Oregon's November elections.

Other projects included collecting and transcribing children's books that will be translated and sent to Albanian kindergarten classrooms.

"It's really been a rewarding thing for me, and it turns out [the students] enjoy it," Cook said of the projects.

Klock calculated that OSU and the Corvallis community save approximately $30,000 a term through these service projects, mostly in labor costs.

Beyond the community, students benefit from the projects through active learning.

In addition to service projects, GEO 300 requires four critical thinking papers, which Klock said is a way Cook lets students apply the material to their own lives.

"If you're an economics major, you can write a paper on some aspect of international economics related to the environment," Klock said.

Though students spend time on the service project, papers and quizzes, there are no exams in the class.

"I never liked exams so much anyways," Cook said in reference to his own college days.

Cook places importance not just on the big picture, but also on the small-scale effort that can be made to help the environment.

"If you only talk about the big stuff, everyone just says, 'We're screwed,'" Cook said.

He devotes much class time to explaining how students can impact the environment based on the choices they make. In one popular lecture he teaches on how choosing a particular brand of toilet paper can make an impact on the environment.

"Every day in class he provides solutions to problems," Klock said. "He provides optimism."

And Cook practices what he teaches to students. He says that his home uses relatively little energy because of the use of a wood pellet stove, non-incandescent lights and solar collectors that help heat water.

"I think if you talk about it, you're going to have a whole lot more credibility if you do it," Cook said.

An interest in learning more about the topics he teaches is what brought Cook into the field.

"I'm a curious person," he said. "Geography seems to be the field to be in for curious people."

Over the course of the 11 years Cook has taught GEO 300, much of the material covered has remained the same, yet he adds new topics to lectures as they gain importance in society, such as the use of synthetic chemicals.

The impression Cook makes on his students becomes clear as he relays a story about a former engineering student who switched his career aspirations from designing weapons systems to designing renewable energy systems after being inspired by the class.

"The impact that I'm having makes a difference in the world," Cook said.

Gail Cole, staff writer

news@dailybarometer.com, 737-2231