3) Project Delivery (power point slides/oral presentation)
The final delivery will consist of a well documented and professional set of slides using a suitable presentation and delivery format (i.e., powerpoint, etc). This project requires that at least you use five (5) references (including at least two (2) government citations), use government books, or websites. The use of more references is always encouraged and will probably enhance your message and information for the receiving audience. A maximum of two (2) website references can be included as references in the Reference section of the paper. The presentation slides and the oral delivery are due at class during week 8. Notice that an oral delivery is not necessarily possible in the online format. Therefore, you should work on writing a script that accompanies your presentation and explain each of the slides. This script is what you should use if you were doing this presentation in front the class and should explain the concepts or ideas presented.
Project Description
Research Project – Resource Management, Pollution Prevention and Control, and Sustainability
The project involves the selection of a suitable environmental/sustainability management topic. Students will be asked to properly describe the selected topic, conduct a suitable research, write a draft manuscript and effectively turn the gathered information into a powerpoint slides presentation that could be used to support an oral presentation. The topic may be selected from a wide variety of sources ranging from an environmental problem in any place in the world, real-world case studies, to the use of energy sources and alternative energy sources at a community. Students will select one TOPIC and conduct preliminary research using the University library and local libraries. A short list of topics is included below to assist you in the selection of your topic. Subtopics are in parenthesis. You can select one topic within the parenthesis, not all of them! Again, this list is provided here to help you with the selection process. However, you may select other related environmental topics, not necessarily included in the list.
– Overpopulation (i.e., country, region, or city, resources, distribution)
– Consumption and resource depletion
– Renewable energy (i.e., wind, solar, biomass, thermal, hydropower, tidal, etc.)
– Fossil fuel (gas, coal, or petroleum consumption, distribution)
– Nuclear energy (i.e., radioactive waste, Yucca Mountain, decommissioning, etc)
– Water as a Resource (i.e., surface or groundwater pollution, drinking water sources, water conservation, industrial uses, water rights, global water problems, watersheds, wastewater treatment methods, or community problems)
– Soil Preservation (i.e., soil erosion, nutrient depletion, world soil problems, agricultural problems, soil pollution, crop rotation)
– Minerals (i.e., extraction, processing, depletion, or environmental problems)
– Wildlife Conservation (i.e., National parks, wetlands, suburban sprawl)
– Air Pollution (i.e., global pollution, urban air pollution, control equipment, indoor air pollution)
– Noise Pollution (i.e., urban noise pollution, controlling noise)
– Pesticides (i.e., Uses, risks, laws, or environmental impacts)
– Solid and Hazardous Wastes (i.e., open dumps, sanitary landfills, incineration, composting, recycling)
– Environmental Justice (i.e., low income communities, poverty issues)
– Local environmental issues in your community (i.e., Maryland, Virginia, DC)
– Active Natural Resource Management
– Political Environmental Issues
– Environmental economics
Other Sources of Information for Your Project
Alaska Wilderness League (www.alaskawild.org/about_awl.html) American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (www.aceee.org) Beyond Pesticides/National Coalition Against Misuse of Pesticides (www.ncamp.org) Center for Environmental Citizenship (www.envirocitizen.org) Center for Environmental Health (www.cehca.org) Center for Health, Environment and Justice (www.chej.org) Children’s Environmental Health Network (www.cehn.org) Clean Water Action Project (www.cleanwateraction.org/) Conservation International (www.conservation.org) Earth First! (www.earthfirstjournal.org/efj/contact.cfm) Environmental Defense (www.edf.org) Friends of the Earth (www.foe.org) Greenpeace USA (www.greenpeace.org) Izaak Walton League of America (www.iwla.org) League of Conservation Voters (www.lcv.org) National Audubon Society (www.audubon.org) National Park Foundation (www.nationalparks.org) National Resources Defense Council (www.nrdc.org) National Wildlife Federation (www.nwf.org/) The Nature Conservancy (www.tnc.org) North American Association for Environmental Education (www.naaee.org) Organic Consumers Association (OrganicConsumers.org/) People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (www.peta-online.org/) Physicians for Social Responsibility (www.psr.org) Planned Parenthood Federation of America (www.plannedparenthood.org) Population Action International (www.populationaction.org) Population-Environment Balance, Inc. (www.balance.org) The Population Institute (www.populationinstitute.org) Rainforest Action Network (www.ran.org) Sierra Club (www.sierraclub.org) Tree-Sit (www.tree-sit.org) The Wilderness Society (www.tws.org) World Wildlife Fund (www.wwf.org) Worldwatch Institute (www.worldwatch.org) Zero Population Growth (www.zpg.org)
The Project addresses outcome 2:
– apply scientific reasoning to recognize the connection between human population growth, lifestyle choices, and environmental impacts
You may choose a topic from the provided list or propose a topic for approval.
To help you plan, organize, and write the content of your selected topic for the project, you may follow the suggested stages shown below:
Stage 1: If you need to consult, you may contact your instructor to seek guidance in the selection of your topic. You do need to submit your topic for approval, but you are always welcome to consult ahead of time.
Stage 2: UMGC or public library research for information literacy
Stage 3: UMGC Effective Writing Center conference for submission of thesis statement, outline, and introductory paragraph for critique
Stage 4: Finalize and submit your Outline for grading (week 3)
Stage 5: Submit of work to Turnitin.com and subsequent paraphrasing of verbatim text
Stage 6: Submit final project for grading (end of course)
You will be expected to actively participate in all stages to gain an appreciation for the expected content and coverage of the written assignment project.
You must select a topic that is relevant to environmental sustainability. Your topic must address one of these phrases:
an environmental issueits causes, current state, and solutions the role of economics, technology, or industry in your environmental issue the impact of the environmental issue on ecosystems
Example of past topics:
Disappearing tropical rainforests (Explain what is happening. Why should we be concerned?)
Compare and contrast China’s and India’s efforts at slowing their population growth.
Report on the decline of honeybees. Why should we care? What difference will it make to our lifestyle?
Explain Iceland’s plan to be the first country to run its economy on 100 percent renewable energy.
Carbon trading (What is it? Why has it been established? How will it benefit the Earth?)
Harmful algae blooms (HABs) (What are they? What causes them? Are they harmful to humans?)
Global water scarcity (How bad is it? How is it linked to global crises and conflict?)
You will be evaluated on:
content: clear and accurate knowledge of your topic and how your topic relates to human impact on the environment with emphasis on sustainability and global citizenship
references: proper quantity and quality of APA citations
effective writing: grammar, spelling, punctuation
following directions
Grading Rubric for the Project
Assessment: The grading weights for the four assessment areas are: directions (10 percent), scientific content (60 percent), scholarly references (15 percent), and effective writinggrammar, spelling, and punctuation (15 percent).
90-100 percentoutstanding: Writing excels far above established university standards. Marked by superior readability and competent handling of content. Submission could be used as an example of outstanding work for other students to emulate.
Directions: All general directions followed. No direction errors.
Content: Facts, organization, and conclusions follow a clear, logical sequence that supports the thesis statement. Citations of scholarly references support scientific content. Accurate scientific information. No text has been copied verbatim without proper source recognition. Outstanding treatment of applicable course outcome.
References: All are properly cited using in-text and reference list citations. Significantly more references used than required. Many different types (e.g., textbook, scientific articles, encyclopedia, reputable Internet reference, etc.) of references are used.
Effective Writing: No errors. Words are chosen and sentences are constructed to make the information understandable.
80-89 percentsuperior: Writing is above established university standards. Characterized by distinguished writing but contains minor weaknesses.
Directions: Contains one direction error.
Content: Nearly all directions followed. Although the writing is essentially well organized, the audience analysis, the statement of purpose, or the handling of the content is flawed. Ambiguous or vague wording hinders precise communication. Contains one to two science content errors. One to two statements (or significant phrases) have been copied verbatim without proper source recognition. Superior treatment of applicable course outcome.
References: Most are properly cited using in-text and reference list citations. Only one to two minor citation errors. More references used than required. Several different types of references are used.
Effective Writing: Contains one to two errors. Although sentences are grammatically correct, their structure or length, or both, sometimes causes the reader to work unnecessarily hard. Grammar, mechanics, and format flaws interfere with reading and comprehension.
70-79 percentgood: Writing meets established standards. Generally effective but contains weaknesses.
Directions: Contains two direction errors.
Content: Although satisfactorily written, the body of the assignment is not clearly organized, or some material is not clearly explained. The audience and purpose are not clear. Wording interferes with readability, but the reader can still glean the meaning; rereading is often required. Contains three to four science content errors. Reasoning is sound. Arguments are supported with adequate evidence. Three to four statements (or significant phrases) have been copied verbatim without proper source recognition. Good treatment of applicable course outcome.
References: Most are properly cited using in-text and reference list citations. Contains three to four minor citation errors. Quantity of references meets required number. Meets reference types required.
Effective Writing: Repeated grammar, mechanics, or format errors mar the paper. Contains three to four errors.
More detailed information on the standards for a C paper is listed in paragraph 2.
60-69 percentsubstandard: Writing is below established standards. Paper struggles to communicate information and contains weak writing. In a professional working environment, such writing would be considered incompetent.
Directions: Contains three to four direction errors.
Content: Unsatisfactory or incorrect content. Serious wording problems, such as garbled wording, give the reader repeated and serious difficulties in understanding. More than four science content errors. Content is largely unsupported generalities. Points are inadequately developed; few specifics. Poorly organized; difficult to follow. Overdependence on one or two references; inadequate in-text citations. Four to six statements (or significant phrases) have been copied verbatim without proper source recognition. Inadequate treatment of applicable course outcome.
References: Most are improperly cited with more than four citation errors. Does not meet reference types required.
Effective Writing: Serious sentence problems such as run-on sentences, fused sentences, and comma splices, damage the work’s readability. Contains five to eight errors; errors distract the reader. Problems create frequent obstacles to understanding.
0-59 percentfailure: Writing does not meet minimum standards and/or the student has committed plagiarism by submitting another person’s words or ideas as if they were the student’s words or ideas. Failure to reference correctly. In a professional working environment, such writing would be considered incompetent.
Directions: More than four direction errors.
Content: Unsatisfactory or incorrect content. Many content errors; content is largely unsupported generalities. Points are inadequately developed; few specifics. Poorly organized; difficult to follow. Does not meet minimum length requirements. Substantial text (e.g., more than six statements or significant phrases) has been copied verbatim without proper source recognition. Significant overdependence on one to two references. Did not satisfy applicable course outcome.
References: Most are improperly cited with more than four citation errors. Quantity of references does not meet required number. Does not meet reference types required; failure to use in-text APA citations.
Effective Writing: Contains more than eight errors (9-10: 55%; 11-12: 45%; 13-14: 35%; 15-16: 25%; 17-18: 15%; 19-20: 5%; more than 20: 0%; percentages are based on a five-page paper). Many serious errors significantly distract the reader from the content. Language is used inaccurately.
