PSY3816

Free Norway of Plastic: Co-imagining local solutions for a global problem

How many things in our daily life do not contain plastic? A metal spoon, a ceramic coffee mug, what else? Nearly everything that we use daily can be made of plastic or contain plastic in one way or another. Can you imagine life without plastics or where plastics are handled more responsibly?

Marine litter, including foreign bottles & cans along Norway’s Arctic coastline outside Tromsø. Photo: Bo Eide under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Introduction

Since the introduction of plastics 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 life easier. However, the fact that plastic is durable, useful, and versatile has its downsides: polluted ecosystems including beaches and oceans; animals die because of plastics, and it is also dangerous for our health.

In this course, we will provide insights from environmental psychology (value theory) and future thinking in relation to the project work. Thus, every team will work on applying this knowledge on envisioning alternative plastic-free futures in Trondheim based on their discipline and skills

Relevant competency

Students from all disciplines are welcome. Creative thinking, collaboration, proactiveness, and some degree of independence are key skills for in this EiT village. Students should be interested in moving on from problem focus toward 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 theory will be provided in the course.

Learning environment and assessment

All lectures, presentations, and team discussions will be held in English. In this village, evaluation of the project (50% of the grade) is based on oral presentation supported by a poster created by the team (instead of a written project report like in most other villages). Another 50% of the grade is based on the written process report. Please read more in the "Formal framework for Experts in Teamwork" under “Final reports".

To get inspiration for the structure, project posters from previous EiT courses can be found here under “Free Norway of Plastic 2023 and 2024”. However, this year the project task will be different.

Attendance

IMPORTANT! First day, second day, and the presentation day are REQUIRED to attend for this course. Specifically, during the first and second day (from 9:00 to 15:30) the group formation and team cooperation agreements will take place, therefore if one or two members of a group are missing it would be unfair to the rest of the group to fulfill these tasks. Please be mindful of that, there won’t be any exceptions. If one of these days or parts of these days are missed, we will advise to deregister for another village.

Additionally, please also be mindful of when you register for a Norwegian course, so it does not overlap with the EiT village. This EiT is an intensive village, and it will require daily and full workday commitment to the group work, so be conscious of the workload. With that said, we will offer open air breaks and a lunch break daily, so it will not be as tiring.

Based on previous years, these measures are taken to be fair with all students and to ensure fair contribution from all group members based on each group’s agreed expectations.

How do I register for EiT?