Dr. T.H. Culhane rang in the 2022 New Year with unmatched optimism and hope, despite the ongoing pandemic, thanks to a hugely productive end to 2021 that included the following milestones:
1) An early November trip with colleague Dr. Brooke Hansen to launch a Sustainability Education Exchange and Sustainable Tourism Plan in Serbia with Belgrade-based PCGS student Marko Bajic, the Serbian Government, and the Royal Crown Prince along with faculty of Novi Sad University.
2) The writing and performance of a new Culhane "Melodic-Mnemonics Science Education Song" called "Food Waste to Fuel and Fertilizer" at the PCGS alumni dinner
3) The hosting of PCGS's first graduation ceremony at the Rosebud Continuum Eco-Science Field Education Center, sponsored by Green Clean Energy ally Byron DeLear, where the Dean, Faculty, Students and even local political figures and industry supporters were able to dine on vegan "Impossible Burgers" and other sustainable food fare cooked on Biogas supplied by students' food waste.
4) The design and construction of a novel state-of-the-art Mobile Disaster Resiliency Solar Power Station with lead engineer and PCGS supporter Michael Kozdras of NASP Solar and PCGS students with generous funding from the Elizabeth Moore Foundation, deployed at the Rosebud Continuum in time to give solar tours of the property to the Dean, Faculty, and Students at PCGS's first field center Graduation Ceremony, demonstrating how we can take reliable weatherproof "power to people" in case of storms and blackouts,
5) the purchase and implementation of a "Precious Plastics" Shredder, through the generous gift made by the Elizabeth Moore Foundation, and the purchase of a matching "Precious Plastics" Granulator by Rosebud's founder Maryann Bishop which now make possible the complete elimination of wasted plastic material at Rosebud by turning it into precious raw material feedstock for recycling operations. By the start of the new semester, Dr. Culhane was able to shred and granulate 100% of the more than 400 gallons of stored plastic residuals he had been accumulating for more than two years in anticipation of the acquisition of these technologies.
6) The acquisition of a Matterport 3D camera and software license with Dr. Hansen from funds supplied by the Dean of PCGS for scanning and modeling Egmont Key, Rosebud Continuum, and the Serbian Royal Palace to create VR/AR experiences for geo-referenced online sustainability education tied to real geographical locations of significance. Students were trained in both Sustainable Tourism and Envisioning Sustainability Classes to use the latest Virtualization technologies at these locations in the service of sustainable design. for the new "Metaverse".
7) The acquisition of 7 Oculus Quest 2 VR headsets, funded by the Stavros Center for Economic Education's Sustainability Superheroes Grant through Debra Kozdras in conjunction with Dean Govindan Parayil, to enable full immersion and real-time interaction in the geo-referenced 3D landscapes created by students in the classes of Culhane, Hansen and Dorsey. In the Fall Semester Dorsey and Culhane created Alt-Space VR versions of Rosebud and PCGS and Peace Corps locations in Africa and students met with other students and faculty from around the world in these interactive social VR spaces to discuss Sustainability.
8) Culhane was able to secure a Gravity Sketch VR enterprise/education Collaboration software license (a partnership between Ford Motor Company and Gravity Sketch Corporation) and a Flipside Studio VR collaborative and Unity 3D education license that enabled PCGS students to meet in real-time with engineers and faculty in Fiji and Serbia and with the students of former PCGS Climate Director Dr. Seneshaw Tsegaye at FGCU to collaboratively build an interactive model of a novel biomass gasifier that can now be taught to villagers in remote areas through immersive online instruction. This was a fulfillment of a hypothesis Culhane and Tsegaye published in a scientific paper last year on the role of VR in improved Sustainability Education.
9) Culhane was able to create with his students two professional videos on these subjects for National Geographic Learning and for HomeBiogas and presented them at National Teachers conferences for Cengage Learning both on-line and live in Orlando. Culhane was also featured this semester as an Explorer in Circular Economy/Zero Waste research in Nat Geo/Cengage World Geography and World History books.
10) Finally, Culhane and several other faculty at PCGS began a partnership with Globe-Eco, (http://Globe-Eco.com) a Tampa/St. Petersburg company with factories in the Phillipines and Indonesia to investigate and educate the public about their unique process for creating plywood-substitute and other hardwood timber replacements out of waste coconut husks and fronds. An unexpected result of this partnership was the demonstration by the company that they could take Culhane's shredded #7 plastic waste (mostly food packaging and aluminum mylar coated bags and wrappers and other wastes considered "un-recyclable") and embed it in the lignin structure of the coconut fibre boards, creating wood replacements that are water resistant, insect proof, and stronger than wood products, use no toxic glues and that can be infinitely recycled. Culhane plans to replace the rotting floor boards of his off-grid RV with the coconut-plastic boards this year and joined Dr. Brooke Hansen and students as volunteers at the Egmont Key beach cleanup to gather the coconuts husks and palm fronds and plastic debris from which the new boards will be made. The company plans to do research with PCGS to see if the native Cabbage Palm found in abundance there has sufficient lignin content to substitute for the proven coconut husks. National Geographic Learning will be publishing the results of these experiments in future textbooks.
