MIT’s Climate CoLab and the City of Cambridge are currently running a contest that seeks fresh, innovative approaches on what to do about the urban heat island effect in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Category: Contests (Page 2 of 9)
Knowing that the MassCommute Bicycle Challenge is coming up, I decided to do my part and register for the Tufts cycling team. Being fully away of how difficult it can sometimes be to register for large events such as the Challenge, I decided to document the process in hopes that it would serve to be of some use for interested Jumbos looking to ditch the car and grab their bikes for the week.
After typing in the URL, I was met with the MassCommute Bike Challenge main page. It was incredibly simple to read, easy to navigate, and fairly minimalist. The sections were displayed on the left and were short and sweet. Below the main “Welcome” message was what looked like the log data for the upcoming event, and the tab “Register for the Challenge Today!” was directly in front of me.
Clicking on it led me to a page that asked me to type a username and come up with a password. I used my email for the username, jotted down a password for the website, and clicked continue.
The information page loaded after this. Being familiar with registration sites, I was prepared for copious amounts of information to be asked (Email, phone number, home address, blood type, mother’s maiden name, work history, your kindergarten teacher’s best friend’s third cat’s middle name) and feared for the worse. I was surprised that, much like the other pages of the website, it was incredibly simple and uncomplicated It asked me my affiliation, so I selected “school” and picked Tufts from a drop down menu. I was also asked my age, gender, typical bike mileage, and reason for registering. It took me two minutes to give them the information before I continued to the next page.
I agreed to the Terms and Conditions after that and was told that my registration was complete. “That was it?!” I thought to myself. “Really?!”
I was fascinated by the expedient nature of the website, how easily I was able to prepare to cycle for Tufts, and how ready I was to grab my bike and hit the road. The takeaway from this is: Signing up for the bike challenge is simple, painless, and takes less than a few minutes. If you want to represent the school, its as easy as that.
-Tim
The second edition of the Sustainable Campus International Competition (SCIC) is open for free registration online. This is an opportunity for students worldwide to transform their academic learning into real world actions and impacts. They are invited to design and apply a tool, system or practise that addresses sustainability issues relevant to their campus.
SCIC is designed as an 18-month competition. Students are asked to develop a sustainability project they can implement within their campuses and communities within one academic year. The strongest projects will forecast tangible impacts by the end of the academic year, though the projects may and are encouraged to continue in the future. The student teams will be judged for their ability to improve sustainability impacts
based on specific metrics, the strength of their engagement strategy with stakeholders and the overall quality of the project presented.
The SCIC 2014 international jury panel will be presided by the CEO of the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges (EAUC) Iain Patton, and he declares that: “Revolution is in the air and the SCIC is at the heart of the new student-driven and staff-supported sustainability mandate that is empowering students to unleash their transformative potential”.
Students will receive online support and mentorship throughout the development of their project. The top three finalist teams will participate in an online final presentation and judging session. The SCIC will award $CAN 3,000 to the team that is selected by the judges as the strongest project. All teams are encouraged to implement their projects and submit a project assessment by July 2015 for a chance to gain further recognition.
YOU’RE INVITED… TO TAKE SELFIES!
Who: Tufts University students, staff, and faculty
What: A contest involving selfies, sustainability, and prizes!
When: All semester long!
How: IT’S EASY! Each week on Monday, we’ll post a prompt on Facebook (“take a picture of yourself negotiating a climate change action treaty” – they’ll be a bit easier than that). Post your selfie to our Facebook page, then encourage your friends, family, colleagues, pets, etc. to like your photo. Whichever photo gets the most likes before the next prompt will win one of our weekly prizes! Plus, whoever takes the photo with the most likes over the course of the semester will win our GRAND PRIZE!
So just to reiterate: snap the selfie, post it to Facebook, accumulate likes, win big!
Why: Prizes! Glory! Plus you’ll learn a ton about sustainability at Tufts and beyond in the meantime.
Some logistics: You need to be in each photo (it’s a selfie!), but feel free to do group pics. Also, you can only win one weekly prize, but make sure to keep participating for the GRAND PRIZE!
GET STARTED NOW: Like us on Facebook for the latest info. The first prompt will be up on Monday, February 3rd! Get your polaroids/digital cameras/phones/Google Glasses ready!
Here are some of the prizes at stake:
Spaghetti Scrub
Black + Blum lunch box
Citrus Zinger
Hi everyone! The Eco-Reps program is proud to welcome four new reps for the spring 2013 semester. Vishakha Ramakrishnan is in Bush Hall. Charlotte Clarke is taking over Hill. Norihito Naka is joining Haskell Hall. You can find out more about our lovely new members here.
Spring events preview
This past week all the Reps hosted “meet and greets” in their dorm. We run these events every semester to get to know some new residents and reconnect with others. Each rep offered a unique event featuring everything from baked goods to recycling pledges to green dorm room surveys!
This semester we have some big events we’ll be working on as a group. For the first one we are teaming up with Tufts Recycles to work on Recyclemania. Recyclemania is a national competition to see which university is the best at recycling. The grade scale focuses on the percentage of recyclables thrown in the trash can. At Tufts, we will also be doing an inter-dorm competition. Be sure to look out for grades posted in your building and around campus. The Eco-Reps kicked off the event in Dewick dining hall last wednesday passing out candy and information regarding the event. You can track our national progress and learn more about the competition at http://recyclemaniacs.org/.
A team of our reps met with David McGraw at the Office for Campus Life this past week to talk about making Spring Fling more sustainable. We’ll be working more on this during the upcoming weeks.
Last but not least, Meatless Meals will be happening in Dewick dining hall Wednesdays from 6-7 pm.
Vishakha
Carolyn
Charlotte
Norihito
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