A Guide to my Journey with The City of London and Class 3377


Written + created by: Elise Woodward

PART ONE - THE DREAD

After enrolling in 3377 in the summer of 2020, I really only felt dread. Business was never my strong suit, and project management seemed to combine all the things I hated, managing people and managing time. I knew little about the course but assumed it would include lots of handling money, people, and time. As a physics student, I had had little exposure to any form of social science and felt I was really in for it. First semester rolled past and I grew more and more nervous.

PART TWO - THE INTRODUCTION

Sitting in class the first day (virtually of course) I felt slightly better. The course instructor sounded nice and he was very organized. He promised to be there for us as students, and introduced us to an energy efficiency project. I was so excited to be able to work with the city of London on this project and was delighted when we had our first chance to speak with Greg Sandle from the City of London. After our weekly check-in that night, I felt confident that this class would equip me but still nervous about the task ahead.

PART THREE - THE PROJECT

For the project with the City of London, we needed to come up with various elements to improve the efficiency of dwellings in London. Choosing one address, we needed to come up with 20 items and their costs that would improve energy efficiency. The first part of this project was easy! I had already made an effort to improve my home in London, with simple things such as programming the thermostat and improving the toilet and showerheads. I was able to combine my passion and knowledge of the environment with something that helped the city. Since it was a group project, we worked together to create several project management documents, a work breakdown structure, a timeline (often called a Gantt Chart) and many other calculations on cost and payback time. This course was turning into something I looked forward to and enjoyed, and as it turns out, I was actually good at!

PART 4 - GROWTH

I learned so much over the course of the project and I have been grateful to be able to work with wonderful groupmates, an excellent community partner and a helpful professor. I learned about all different types of project management, and have come away with best practices for the field. Most importantly, I feel confidence that my work will in some way help the City of London and their quest to improve the efficiency of dwellings in London. I look forward to the change to present my research to the city of London at the end of the semester!











 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Check out more EL Storytelling blogs:

Prescription for Nature: ParkRX in The Heart of Georgian Bay

Learn about the power of nature as Mais reflects on their CEL experience.

Music Education in the Community

Learn about the power of nature as Mais reflects on their CEL experience.

Helping the Community Through Science Education

Read how Kayleigh's passion for science transformed into helping the community.


Published on