BU URBAN Internship Course
BI/EE/EH 795: Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health: From Research to Policy
Spring 2025 meetings Fridays 10:30-11:30am
Download Syllabus
Course Description
This course prepares graduate students to address urban environmental challenges through hands-on training in a semester-long internship with the government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and/or the private sector, to learn how cities are tackling environmental challenges, including but not limited to mitigation and adaptation to climate change, protecting vulnerable populations from air pollution, and issues related to water quality and quantity.
How to Register for the Course
If you are a GRS student:
- In MyBU, register for GRS BI/EE 795: Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health: From Research to Policy. Unless otherwise instructed, sign up for 2 course credits if you are devoting 6-11 hours/week to your internship, or sign up for 4 course credits if you are devoting 12 or more hours/week. (If your internship is more than 12 hours/week but for fewer than 6 weeks, consult with the instructor.)
If you are an SPH student:
- If you are in the first two years of your PhD, register for SPH EH 795: Urban Biogeoscience and Environmental Health: From Research to Policy. Unless instructed otherwise, sign up for 2 course credits if you are devoting 6-11 hours/week to your internship, or sign up for 4 course credits if you are devoting 12 or more hours/week.
- If you are in the third year or later of your PhD, you will take the internship course as an independent study for 1 credit. Please complete the form linked here and email it to Jon Levy (jonlevy@bu.edu), Birgit Claus Henn (bclaus@bu.edu), and the URBAN Program Manager (urban@bu.edu). You do not have to fill out the Project Proposal section.
If you are unable to register for the course directly, contact your departmental administrator.
Course Materials
Please note that sessions are subject to change, and you will be notified of any changes made.
Session 1: Orientation
December 6, 2024
- Share internship status/progress
- Review Syllabus and discuss timing
- Identify interested partners/stakeholders/experts for informational interviews.
- Assignment(s) for next class:
- Complete pre-internship self-assessment if you have started your internship already
- Readings on developing sustainable cities. Read one of the papers below and be prepared to discuss:
- Egerer, M., et al. (2021). “Urban change as an untapped opportunity for climate adaptation.” Nature Partner Journals, 1(22). pdf
- Harman, B.P., et al. (2015). “Urban partnerships and climate adaptation: challenges and opportunities.” Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 12: 74-79. pdf
- Ramaswami, A., et al. (2016). “Meta-principles for developing smart, sustainable, and healthy cities.” Science, 352(6288), 940-943. pdf
- Templer, P., et al. (2024). “Strengthening graduate education and addressing environmental challenges through solutions-oriented partnerships and interdisciplinary training.” Sustainable Earth Reviews, 7(3). pdf
- Brainstorm three individuals you would be interested in inviting for an informational interview. Who may be interested by your internship work, and what you would prioritize communicating to them? Consider organizations, community groups, impacted parties, offices, or individuals that are doing (or might want to do) similar work. Try to find specific people that you could connect with – who you could imagine sharing a policy brief with, inviting to a meeting, or calling for an informational interview. Send the names (or at least the organization) to Emily sometime on or before the day of the next class session.
Session 2: The Big Picture
December 20, 2024
- Share internship status/progress
- Share what your internship deliverable(s) will be/were
- Discussion of the Big Picture: How do public-private partnerships contribute to ecologically sustainable and healthy cities? What are key challenges, gaps in knowledge, and areas of opportunity? How does your work fit into the big picture?
- Assignment(s) for next class:
- Review resource on the elevator pitch and complete all six steps (come ready to share your elevator pitch). Email Emily a written version of your elevator pitch before the next class session (date TBD).
- Optional: Review the Message Box Science Communication planning tool to tailor your message to a specific audience
- Directions for using the Message Box (click on the different parts of the blue message box to find out more about each section)
- Explore examples
Session 3: Elevator Pitches
January 24, 2025
- Share internship progress
- Workshop prepared elevator pitch(es)
- Discuss purpose of elevator pitches and communication of scientific ideas generally
- Science Communication Assignment: Effective science communication includes concise, well-packaged statements about the who, what, why, and how of a project that can be conveyed to various audiences. Students should create an elevator pitch, policy brief, white paper, or something similar to meet this requirement. Due before last scheduled class.
- Assignment(s) for next class:
- Complete the following readings:
Session 4: Policy Briefs
February 7, 2025
- Share Internship Progress
- Discuss purpose and structure of policy briefs (given examples assigned above)
- Assignment(s) for next class (pick one):
- EITHER… Write a draft policy brief on an issue you are working on.
- Additional resources related to policy briefs to help you:
- OR… Find an example of a policy brief that is relevant to your field (or internship); send to urban@bu.edu with a written reflection:
- What makes this policy brief effective? (What do you like about it?)
- What could you achieve with a policy brief that resulted from your internship? Who would you share it with and why? You may want to speak with your internship host to find out if they are planning a policy brief or anything similar from your work with them, and who they think are relevant stakeholders.
Session 5: Introduction to Stakeholder Presentations
February 28, 2025
- Share Internship Progress
- Presentation Overview
- Identifying key audience: Who are the key audiences for your URBAN internship project? Considerations of power, equity, inclusion.
- What information should be included? What is the story you want to tell?
- Discussion: Best practices for presentations to non-experts
- Lightning Talk Assignment: Prepare a 3-minute lightning talk about your internship. We will practice the lightning talks during Session 7 and you will record your talk so we can share it with incoming trainees in advance of the Intro Workshop. Your recording will ultimately be public – posted on the URBAN website and our YouTube channel. Plan accordingly. If there are things you can’t share or aren’t ready to share, aim for something higher-level that still explains the problem and that you did something useful. Please send presentation to urban@bu.edu Due by April 4.
- Create and share a draft storyboard for presentation and exchange feedback.
- Assignment(s) for next class:
- Work on internship lightning talk (create slides and/or practice) – due April 4
- Complete the following readings:
- White Papers Overview from the Writing Center at George Mason University
- “Eight lessons on how to influence policy with evidence” Brief Summary
- Optional: “Using Evidence to Influence Policy: Oxfam’s Experience,” Nature, 2018. Full Article on which the summary above is based
- Smith, I., et al. (2022). “On the use of ‘cool roofs’ to reduce residential heat exposure disparities in Boston, MA.” pdf
- Optional: Smith, I., et al. (2023). “Urban green space and albedo impacts on surface temperature across seven United States cities.” Science of the Total Environment, 8(3), 1-12. link to pdf (Full article on which the white paper above is based)
Session 6: White Papers
March 21, 2025
- Share Internship Progress
- Check in on internship lightning talk progress (due next class)
- Discuss White Paper examples:
- What is the purpose of a white paper?
- How does it differ from a policy brief?
- What made the example white paper effective?
- Assignment(s) for next class:
- Review this explainer on Public Policy Communication from the MIT Policy Lab
- Check out the following resources on Data Visualization:
- Data to Viz Tool link
- Kelleher, C., and Wagener T. (2011) “Ten guidelines for effective data visualization in scientific publications.” Environmental Modelling & Software 26.6: 822-827 pdf
- Optional additional resources:
- Making Data Meaningful. Part 2: A guide to presenting statistics link
- Johns Hopkins Data Visualization Guide: Guide for technologies, techniques, and best practices for data visualization link
- Making Data Meaningful. Part 3: A guide to communicating with the media link
- Finish your Lightning Talk slides and be prepared to practice next class. Send a copy of your slides to Emily (urban@bu.edu)
Session 7: Practice Presentations
April 4, 2025
- Give practice lightning talks
- Assignment(s) for next class:
- Complete post-internship survey (if internship work is completed)
- Record a video of your internship lightning talk (can also record your in class presentation)
- The easiest method is to start a new meeting with your personal zoom account, hit “Record on this Computer,” and send the video file to urban@bu.edu. Please set up the recording so that we can see the slides and your face while you are presenting and please watch the video first before sending it, in case you wish to make updates and re-record.
Session 8: Internship Impacts
April 18, 2025
- Reflect on lessons learned from the internship, and where or when you might use some of the communication techniques discussed in this course.
- Review Internship Write-Up – please complete and send to Emily (urban@bu.edu) at your earliest convenience.
- Complete Course Evaluation (below)