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The personal project requirement, worth 25% (250
points), has three learning objectives:
1) to learn more abut a topic of special interest to you related to
sustainability,
2) to write an analytical paper on that topic complete with literature
citations and your own opinions,
3) to gain experience in presenting material and sharing ideas with
the class.
Select a Topic:
Think about aspects of sustainability of special interest to you, especially
in those areas most related to a potential direction of professional
work that you may be considering. Please do not submit a paper that
you have already written for another class. Your contribution should
be uniquely suited for this capstone course. Select a topic of interest
to you that is related to sustainability and that you can effectively
address in a paper of 15-20 pages (literature cited section included).
Write a Proposal:
Once you have selected a topic for your paper, please write a short
proposal for the paper defining the topic or issue, stating the objectives
of your paper, and indicating the sources of information you will be
using. The proposal should be _ to 1 pages in length and will
be due during the February 20 class meeting. I will return it to you
with comments the following class period.
Presentation and Paper:
The presentation, which should be created using Power Point, will be
scheduled between April 10 and April 24 and should be approximately
15 minutes in length. Papers will be due on the date of the presentation
in hard copy. In addition, you will be given instructions about how
to add your paper to the course’s web site.
Assessment of Paper: your final paper should have the following sections
and will be assessed as follows:
1) Introduction Section
a. define the topic or issue of your paper in a paragraph or two with
appropriate citations,
b. state the objectives of your paper by specifying, in a paragraph
or two, what aspects of the topic you will be discussing
2) Methods and Sources Section
a. discuss the general methods that you used in obtaining the information
for this report,
b. mention the general sources of information that you used such a library
research, Internet research, or expert interviews
3) Results Section
a. present information that you have discovered making certain that
you document sources,
b. conduct an objective analysis of the information you have presented
4) Discussion Section
a. discuss your thoughts and ideas about the meaning of the information
and analyses in the results section
b. present your recommendations for resolving/addressing the issue or
topic you have selected
c. this is probably the most important section of the paper and it is
important that your thoughts and ideas are well organized and logically
presented.
5) Conclusions Section
a. present overall conclusions relating the objectives of the paper
mentioned in the introduction with
the information and analyses in the results section, and your thoughts
and recommendations in the discussion section.
6) References Cited Section
a. full citations should be presented on all literature, Internet, or
expert sources of information cited in the text.
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