ENV109 The Future of Sustainability Class Projects
Group projects are a major part of this course. Students will work in groups of 2-3 on the project. Groups will hand in their project the final day of class and present their results the last week. The project must involve working with actual environmental data relevant to the class and have a strong quantitative aspect. Groups may come up with their own project or select from the list below. Please consult with the instructor for assistance in selecting a topic.
Paper Requirements:
 | Minimum of 15 pages of text, 12 pt font double spaced, 1" margins |
| Most project should contain at least 10 figures - mostly constructed by the group |
| Update presented on January 13. |
| Style - A specific bibliographic style is not required for the paper, but it must be consistent and be an accepted style. We recommend following the guidelines from the Gustavus library Environmental Studies section. Proper referencing is essential. I prefer the APA style, but will accept others. Rely on the guidelines at the library web site. |
| All projects must discuss sustainability in some context. |
Final Presentations:
| Final presentations must be done on PowerPoint and should be a maximum of 15 minutes in length. |
| A general guideline is one slide per minute. You may be able to do more if you have several pictures, but be careful, one of the worst mistakes in a presentation is trying to cover too much material. |
| Presentation guidelines |
Potential Projects:
| Wind energy potential on campus - download wind speed data from our wind monitors and determine how much energy could be produced from different sized turbines |
| Campus electrical use - download data from the physical plant and examine electrical usage patterns by building |
| Campus water use |
| Campus natural gas use |
| Campus waste generation or recycling rates |
| Building a "green" dorm at Gustavus |
| Electrical use in Minnesota - trends in usage |
| Energy balance for ethanol or biodiesel |
| Winter temperatures trends in Minnesota |
| Calculate mass of sediment, phosphorus, nitrogen, or herbicides that flow past St Peter each year via the Minnesota River |
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Analyze census transportation and commuting data to examine transportation-related effects on the environment |
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Analyze sprawl or an aspect of sprawl in the Twin Cities metro area |
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Analyze energy sources or carbon emissions and trends for Minnesota |