Examples of Living Laboratory projects

Living Laboratory projects are offered as part of undergraduate or postgraduate courses or postgraduate research, in spaces both on- and off-campus. Here are some examples.


First-year ecology students get some fantastic hands-on experience at our Arboretum.

ECOL103 Ecology I: New Zealand Ecology and Conservation

There is an outdoor class session in the Arboretum where students do some weeding and prepare an area for some fresh native plants.

RECN213 Event Planning and RECN343 Sport and Recreation Management

Over the years, the course examiners in the Sport and Recreation Management Degree have spent many hours of networking in order to collect a long list of professional contacts in the sport and recreation sectors. Currently there are over 1200 people on that list! Many of these professionals are graduates of the Sport and Recreation Programme and are part of our unique Lincoln whānau. From this list, the examiners have highlighted a cohort of 90 professionals in Canterbury and throughout NZ who have agreed to be interviewed by Lincoln University students.

In Semester One 2022, students in RECN213 completed an assignment where they had to contact an event professional on the list and conduct an interview to learn more about the “day in the life of an event professional”. In RECN343 students interviewed a sport or recreation professional and then had to give a presentation to the class so that all students could learn more about professionals. These living lab projects provided students with a networking opportunity with professionals and better knowledge of the sector.

LASC211 Planting Design and Management

There is an outdoor class session in the Arboretum where students do some much needed weeding. The timing of this Living Laboratory is important because it is in the autumn and the weeds are usually overgrown after the summer season.

LASC216 Site Design

In Semester Two 2021, students did one of their projects in the Arboretum where they had to come up with design solutions around the native section. We had a great set of projects with students focusing on the experience of walking through the area, understanding its cultural and ecological values while promoting educational activities.

ERST620 Environmental Management Systems

In Semester 1 2022, a group of students from ERST 620 undertook a sustainability analysis of the Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF), which entailed gathering data on farm operations and assessing this against several sustainably frameworks in order to suggest future actions that would improve environmental performance.  A big thanks to Jeremy Savage for assistance with data and insights into the LUDF.

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