Architecture and Urban Planning Professor Douglas Kelbaugh installed solar collectors on a school roof in Guatemala with group of engineering and urban planning students over the 2011 Winter break. They also designed a passive solar domestic hot water heater, night insulation curtains for windows, and built a traditional "bajarecki" wall of bamboo, mud, cactus twine, stones and lime stucco. The trip was organized by Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC) Executive Director John Barrie (BS LSA '79, BS Taubman '83, M.Arch '85). ATC creates sustainable technologies that promote economic growth and improve the quality of life for low-income people worldwide. ATC has ongoing relationships with people, villages and NGOs in Guatemala and villages and slum cities in Nicaragua. In 2011, ATC and the University of Michigan BLUELab engineering students collaborated with women weavers in Guatemala in order to create new technologies and new markets for women artisans.
 
To read more about ATC: apptechdesign.org/

More than one-third of Taubman College students are using spring break 2012 for experiential learning.