Augustana College students will help four cities become more sustainable. On Friday, the school announced they will work with Davenport, Rock Island, Morrison, and Geneseo on 15 projects. It's the third year of the Sustainable Working Lanscapes Initiative.
Professor Michael Reisner says the college's resources will help solve real-world problems.
"It partners city-identified projects, so their initiatives and their priorites, with classes across campus that we're already teaching already. So it takes those resources and combines them together."
Over 200 students will spend one to two years researching and solving problems associated with flood damage, diversity, greenhouse gas emissions, and other issues. For example, in Geneseo, students will study setting up a stormwater utility, and marketing small businesses.
"It's one thing to learn it in the books and to spit it out on a test. It's a whole other thing to try to put it in context, where you have to actually take those theories and methods you've learned and apply them in a real-world context, and all of a sudden, the complexity comes to the surface. And it's fun to watch the students really engage with that."
Representatives from Augustana were joined by community leaders from Rock Island, Davenport, Morrison, and Geneseo to announce the partnership.
Last year, Augustana students studied water quality in Scott County, including measuring the amount of lead.