North Carolina’s Code Green Super Curriculum Improvement Project (CIP)

This project is upgrading curriculum in all community colleges in the state of North Carolina in five sectors: energy, transportation, engineering technology, environment and buidling.

– Read the Info Sheet on the Code Green Super Curriculum Improvement Project
– Read the August 16, 2012 Press Release: State Board Makes History with Approval of Curriculum Changes

The following is an article written for the SEED Center Newsletter, April, 2012.

Holly Weir
Environment Sector Project Director
NCCCS Code Green Curriculum Improvement Project Davidson County Community College
Office: 336.224.4832
Fax: 336.751.1459
hmweir@davidsonccc.edu

Curriculum Improvement Projects, known as “CIP”s, are common in community colleges as methods to improve curriculum content. In 2010 the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents’ requested a two year Code Green Super CIP to integrate sustainability skills across the curriculum beginning with curricula and continuing education programs in the areas of energy, building, environment, transportation, and engineering technology. This request was based on the desire of colleges to jointly address this issue in a systematic manner that will result in uniform program improvements and a more streamlined program planning process.

The primary reason for undertaking a Code Green Super CIP is that North Carolina’s economy has changed to include a greater concentration of sustainability products, processes, practices, and technologies (good for the environment, business, and society). New and proposed changes in federal and state laws and policies have created a climate conducive to sustainability. The job growth would come from the application of new technologies as well as from supply chain work required to serve the new technologies.

The outcomes of the Code Green Super CIP will result in revitalized applied science programs and courses with specialized credentials in both continuing education and curriculum, continuing education to curriculum articulations, and students skilled in the sustainability technologies. This will also result in a more efficient curriculum inventory process that eliminates redundancy and proliferation of continuing education and curriculum programs.

As we come to the end of the project, a few key factors were vital to the success of the project. First, the forward-thinking of the North Carolina Association of Community College Presidents in conjunction with the leadership from the North Carolina Community College System President, Vice President, and senior staff identified sustainability and curriculum improvement as a priority across the 58 community colleges in North Carolina. Second, the redesigned curriculum structure allowed for incorporation of emerging sustainable technologies into technical core classes shared by several curriculum programs. Lastly, the faculty-driven curriculum changes were supported by professional development funds updating current technical education faculty on emerging sustainable skill sets.