A new class this semester focuses on one specific kind of horticulture: green roofs.

Jennifer Bousselot, master garden coordinator with ISU Extension, is the instructor for the new eight-week, one-credit online course that started Monday, Sept. 3.

The class cover design, installation and management of high rise gardens, otherwise known as green roofs.

“I have been interested in green roofs now for 10 years,” Bousselot said, who has her graduate dissertation on the subject of green roofs.

There are nine green roofs located across Iowa State’s campus. The first one was built in 2009, located on King Pavilion in the College of Design.

“I managed the first project on campus and have been involved with every installation since then,” said Kerry Dixon, facilities project manager. 

The remaining green roofs can be found all across campus, including the recently opened Troxel Hall.

“In the first week of the course, I have a guest lecturer from the facilities department at Iowa State, Kerry Dixon, and she does a great lecture on the nine that are on campus,” Bousselot said. 

A green roof is simply an elevated vegetated surface but having a fairly complicated system, she said.

“It’s going to take the full eight weeks of this course to explain all of the contingencies that can happen on a green roof,” Bousselot said. 

Green roofs are rising in popularity. More and more cities are taking rooftops to the next level. Green roofs are known to decrease air pollution and increase sustainability.

“It was good to have somebody on campus with that kind of expertise,” Dixon said. 

The horticulture department, where Bousselot used to instruct, is responsible for a green roof that is outside of the Memorial Union.

“A bunch of students from the horticulture department, and anyone else who was interested, came and installed a green roof on April 13, 2011,” Bousselot said. 

This course is coming at an opportune moment. More and more areas are building green roofs due to their positive impacts on the environment.

“We have I believe to date 38 four-credit students participating in the course,” Bousselot said. 

Bousselot will be teaching the online course from Colorado. Despite the distance, she is still the primary contact for the students taking the course. She previously taught on the ISU campus for the horticulture department.

“When we are done building [the Agricultural Biosystems Engineering buildings’s] green roof, we will have about 50,000 square feet of green roof on campus,” Dixon said.