About AoC
Introduction
     
         
 

AoC Pilot Workshop
Milwaukee, WI 2001

Testimonials - click here

Paul Zeigler, director of engineering and technology for the Governor's Green Government Council— I was absolutely blown away by the presentation boards that I saw … featuring green building projects and studies and research projects actually done by the students. These boards were deeply into some very technical and complex issues-things like daylighting design, acoustics design, alternative materials, mold and mildew, and indoor air quality...[T]his was mind boggling that students were so sharp and so on top of current state of the art technology and building comfort and health and air quality issues.

 

Agents of Change was funded by the U.S. Department of Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) 2000-2005, to better prepare students as future teachers, architects, and stewards of the built environment. Over the 5 years (two consecutive grants) and via 7 training sessions, more than 170 faculty and teaching assistants from 42 accredited architecture programs (and 13 non-accredited institutions) were trained to investigate actual buildings, conduct post-occupancy surveys, and develop exercises to implement at their home institutions.Agents of Change has generated an ever-increasing library of case studies published on the Web; 30 case studies have been generated from the workshops alone. The project also surveyed over 1000 architecture students to ascertain changes in their attitudes, perceptions, and learning from the AoC curricular infusion. Agents of Change has increased the pool of qualified architectural technology and motivated graduate students to enter the teaching ranks; helping further the goal to ultimately train future generations of designers to create buildings that provide for human health and well-being while using energy responsibly.

We thank the Society of Building Science Educators and the University of Oregon Graduate Teaching Fellows for their support and extensive experience in the procedures to lead teams through exercises, protocols, and the case study approach drawn from the Vital Signs Project. Thirty- one participating schools have borrowed Agents of Change Toolkits through our toolkit loan program to conduct case studies in building near their home institutions. The program has made over 75 toolkit loans. In addition to equipment, participants have taken advantage of Teaching Toolkits containing tool exercises and guidelines for conducting case studies.

The Agents of Change project continues to evolve, spawning the Greenteem project, with the goal of engaging professional designers in the investigation of existing building performance. In addition, the Agents of Change toolkit loan program will resume in Fall of 2006 (pending funding) and this website will remain available as an archive.

 
 
     
  The activities of this project are developed under a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), US Department of Education. However these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.