Focus Frostburg Schedule

Wednesday April 17, 2024

Sessions take place in or near Lane University Center

Poster Presentations
Lane Manicur Hall and throughout Lane Center and FSU Locations

Poster presentations on topics including invasive species created by students in Introduction to Environmental Science and SUST 155 student posters on female sustainability leaders who have worked or are currently working in areas that support the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals.

10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Sustainability Film Festival
Lane Manicur Hall

Films featuring environmental and sustainability themes will be shown throughout the day. Grab a snack and watch a film.

10 a.m., ARISE: Women Healing the Environment – On every continent, women are taking the lead to protect and restore the natural environment and are empowering others to respect the earth.

11:30 a.m., Inferno – The apocalyptic 2019-2020 Australian bushfires were a dire warning: respect the environment and listen to indigenous wisdom, or our world will become a living hell. Inferno Without Borders raises awareness of a climate solution and serves as a call to action to prevent the atrocities of Australia’s bushfires.

12:30 p.m., Atomic Hope – This film follows a tiny global movement of unpopular pro-nuclear activists, who strongly believe nuclear power is needed to decarbonize energy systems before catastrophic climate change occurs. Intimately filmed over a 10-year period, these advocates for nuclear energy come from all over the world, from Japan to Switzerland, America to Australia. But these individual activists face clashes and opposition at every juncture.

2 p.m., Gringo Trails – This feature-length documentary raises urgent questions about one of the most powerful globalizing forces of our time: tourism. Spanning South America, Africa and Asia, the tourist pathway known as the Gringo Trail has facilitated both life-altering adventures and the despoiling of many once-virgin environments. The film follows stories along the trail to reveal the complex relationships between colliding cultures: host countries hungry for financial security and the tourists who provide it in their quest for authentic experiences.

3:30 p.m., Chasing Carbon – The U.S. recently set an ambitious climate change goal: net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to achieve that, slash emissions in half by 2030. Is it possible? And what kind of technology would it take? Meet scientists and engineers who are convinced carbon zero can be achieved in time to avoid the biggest impacts of climate change.

10 a.m. Film: Renewal
Lane 113

Renewal captures the vitality and diversity of today’s religious-environmental activists. From within their Christian, Jewish, Buddhist and Muslim traditions, Americans are becoming caretakers of Earth. Their stories of combating global warming and the devastation of mountaintop removal, of promoting food security, environmental justice, recycling and land preservation and of teaching love and respect for life on Earth are the heart of Renewal.


11 a.m., Zoos are Doing More Harm Than Good: Why We Should Work to Get Rid of Them and Create Healthier Alternatives
Elizabeth Wyrostek
Lane 113

We as humans all agree that we deserve to have freedom and be able to do and go wherever we want, so why don’t we have the same ideas when it comes to the rights for animals? Animals placed in zoos are ripped from their homes, forced to live in small habitats with multiple other animals and forced to reproduce. This presentation will persuade you that we need to put this kind of torture to an end and replace it with healthier alternatives such as wildlife rehabilitation centers, bird observatory centers or farm sanctuaries.


11 a.m., Regenerative Agriculture
Sam White
Lane 111

How food is produced must change. Regenerative agriculture is a growing movement within farming. It is considered an essential component for mitigating climate change. Local regenerative cattle farmer Sam White will discuss how this new practice sequesters carbon, increases biodiversity and creates healthier food.


11 a.m. to 1 p.m., Register to Vote 2024
Women’s Action Coalition
Lane 109

If you are a Maryland resident and US Citizen, you can register to vote in the upcoming 2024 primary election (Tuesday, May 14) and the general election (Tuesday, Nov. 5) regardless of the county where you live. All you need to bring is your current, valid Maryland driver’s license, and members of the Allegany County Women’s Action Coalition, who have been qualified as voter registration volunteers, will assist you in applying. Your vote is your voice!

Noon, FSU Tree Campus Arbor Day Celebration
Clock Tower

FSU Tree Campus Higher Education group will proclaim Arbor Day in celebration of how important trees are to our campus, state, country and world.


Noon, Scaling New Heights: How Rock Climbing Sparks Economic Renewal in Rural Communities
Dr. Phillip Allen
Lane 111

This presentation will look at the impacts of rock climbing on the local economy and environment and the potential in this area, including Wills Mountain State Park.


1 p.m., Meet the City of Frostburg’s Green Team and Frostburg’s Habitat Store
Lane 113

Free clothing and furniture swaps, native edible plants in parks, community building through sustainability and partnerships, and more! Come meet the City of Frostburg Green Team, learn about what we’ve been up to, and most importantly how YOU can be a part of this meaningful community work too!


1 p.m., GMOs: How Will They or Should They Fit Into a Sustainable Future of Our Food?
Dr. David Puthoff
Lane 111

Come hear about the latest developments in genetic engineering – how it works, what does it mean. Specific attention will be given to CRISPR gene editing, virus-induced gene silencing (VIGS/RNAi) and other modification techniques. Discussion will center on how this technology may fit into the future of our food supply.


1 p.m., Against Absence: Writing on the Rare, Threatened and Endangered Species of Allegany County, Maryland.
Jennifer Browne
Lane 108

Come hear about the Center for Literary Arts’ Against Absence project, and write (and read) a poem or brief essay on one of Allegany County’s rare, threatened or endangered species.


1 to 3 p.m., EcoBricking Intro and Workshop (drop in when you can)
Lane 109

Learn more about EcoBricks and how to make them. Join in FSU’s efforts to construct an EcoBrick bench – a visible reminder of how much soft plastics are in our lives and biosphere when we don’t work to remove them. Meet Sydnie Scire, event organizer and current president of the Sustainability Awareness Society. Learn how you can get involved with EcoBricks and other campus and community sustainability initiatives.


2 to 3:15 p.m., U.S. Market System Teach-In
Students in ECON 490
Lane 113

Will Blandford, Zach Brady, Anthony Cameron, Jerome Dance and Alex Marquis
Students will educate participants about the advantages, misconceptions and failures of the U.S. market system. Markets foster innovation and competitiveness that benefit the environment. However, the threat of externalities calls for regulation and effective policies.

2 p.m., Empowering Universities: Simple Strategies for Energy Efficiency and Growth
David Roop
Lane 111

Image a future where universities can reduce their energy consumption and redirect the savings towards valuable research, new community programs and expanded facilities – all made possible through effective energy-saving strategies. This presentation will cover the various energy efficiency investments that FSU has implemented through provided incentives from Potomac Edison’s Energy Solutions for Business Program, including relamping the football stadium. Topics will include facility improvements, energy savings and greenhouse gas emissions avoided through completing these projects.

3 p.m., Enhancing Student Participation in Outdoor Recreation: FSU CANOE Initiatives
Dr. Natalia Buta
Lane 111

Discover how FSU CANOE, a dedicated program at FSU, engages students in outdoor recreation activities. Learn about the center’s initiatives to provide resources, experiences, education and opportunities for personal growth through outdoor recreation and industry interactions.


3:30 p.m., What Does a 250-Million-Year-Old Fossil Cycad Tell Us?
Dr. Hongqi Li
Lane 111

Modern cycads are a group of seed plants with unique characteristics. They were widely distributed during the Mesozoic dinosaurs’ time, and numerous fossils exhibit minor evolutionary changes. Previously, only three earlier and anatomically preserved cycad stems were reported from the Permian period. Now, Dr. Hongqui Li has collected a fourth Permian cycad from China by. How much similarity will it show to modern cycads?


3 p.m., Sustainable Smart Grid Technology Option to Resolve Operations and Control Challenges of the Electrical Power System
Tariq Masood
Lane 108

Electricity is fundamental to world civilization; it conveys energy and information, delivers power to the user with no emission at the point of use and provides an increasing array of innovative products and services. On the other hand, the electric power system, by all measures, is a very complex “machine” that consists of various significant sources of power generation, vast transmission networks and local distribution systems. Among the attributes of this complexity are inadequate power flow control, inadequate reactive power management, power angle and voltage instabilities, inadequate training for planners/operators, inefficient use of collected data, etc. It is, therefore, imperative to constantly look at the development of new “smart” technologies to be implemented on the grid to improve grid performance and provide reliable and quality power delivery. The complex infrastructure of the transmission grid requires innovative and intelligent solutions.


4 p.m., Co-stewardship: Native Americans and Public Land Partnerships
Dr. Kara Rogers Thomas
Lane 113

This presentation will offer an overview of case studies representing revived efforts of Native American tribes to partner with the federal government to sustainably manage public lands in alignment with indigenous cultural values.