Proposal
Before undertaking the actual case study, you will submit a proposal in the Semester Project Proposal assignment folder. Your proposal must include a minimum of one paragraph on: (1) the environmental issue that you will investigate, including general background about your selected topic and the geographic area in question, (2) an explanation of the controversy (i.e. 3 cons (or the opposing views) and 3 possible solutions to the cons), and (3) list of the suitable references you will use to construct your case study.
Consider the references you will use in this project carefully! Although it is acceptable to use encyclopedia-type resources (such as Wikipedia) to get ideas, these should not be used to write the case study itself. Use and citation of such encyclopedia articles in the case study and/or presentation report will be penalized. The resources you use in writing should be from reputable sources, such as reputable news publications and government (.gov) websites. You may also use sources such as your textbook, environmental organizations (whose websites generally end in .org), but remember that information they publish cannot be considered bias-free. For help in selecting references, contact your school librarian, and/or you may want to look at:
Once your proposals grade is posted, you can work on the actual case study.
Presentation
Once you have submitted your case study, you need to work on the next part of the assignment. You will need to present your case study in an organized manner. The class will be divided into groups and you will be assigned to a specific group, so as not to have to read and respond to all of the class projects. Your assigned group will be the only one visible to you. Within your assigned group you will be able to view the other students’ presentations.
You will need to use PowerPoint or another presentation program to create an attractive presentation about your case study. If you do not have access to PowerPoint, then you may use free software such as to construct a slide presentation. This may seem like a daunting task, but it is actually very simple to upload your information to D2L!
Your presentation should include at least, but not limited to:
- Introduction
- Explanation of the environmental issue
- Opposing views on your topic
- Possible Solutions
- Conclusion
- References (especially if you are using pictures that are not your own)
- A slide with 2 discussion questions about your topic that students from other groups will have to answer
While you will not be formally presenting it, your presentation should be the same as one you would use if you were asked to orally present your project. Therefore, it will need to be thorough, complete, attractive, flow, make sense, etc.
You will be graded on the presentation (see the presentation grading rubric) and responses to your classmates’ presentations (see below).
