Environmental Science project assignment 60 points
For this project, you’re going to choose an environmental topic and then work on becoming well- informed on it and reading critically about it. Please read and follow these instructions carefully as you carry out the steps in the assignment.
Assignment Due date and time
Choose a current issue in environmental science that you think is important. It shouldn’t be too broad (“air pollution”), but it should be comprehensive enough that you will be able to find articles and opinions on it. You will submit (through Blackboard) a brief statement (a paragraph or so) describing your topic and why you are interested in it. I will promptly review these and get them back to you with either approval to proceed or suggestions on modifying your topic. (5 points)
End of day Sunday Feb. 19th
Next, you’ll work on writing a short background paper on your topic. The paper should introduce the topic to the reader and bring them up to date on the current issues surrounding the topic. This should be around 3-5 double spaced pages in length, and should correctly cite at least five good, scholarly references (books or journal articles, not magazines, not newspapers, not websites) on the topic. I’ll post instructions for citing references on Blackboard for you. This is not optional! YOU MUST CITE REFERENCES AND MUST USE THE POSTED FORMAT!! (20 points )
End of day Sunday, March 26th
You’ll also submit two critiques, each of which will critically analyze a current news article (from within the past year, from either print or online) that you’ve found on your topic. (These should be different articles than the more scholarly ones you cite as references in your paper—popular press items are fine for this.) Each critique should contain:
• A brief summary and citation information for the article.
• Your comments on the source of the article. Is the article from a balanced
source, or does the author/publisher of the article have an agenda?
• Your critique of the article, based on what you know. Did the article get the facts straight? Are any opinions offered in the article well-supported
by the facts?
You may conclude that your article is unbiased and accurate, from a biased source but accurate, or even wildly inaccurate. It doesn’t matter—the important thing is to practice critical reading and thinking! I will post an example on Blackboard of what I’m looking for. (10 points each, 20 total)
End of day Sunday, April 16th
The final part of the project will be to make a brief presentation during our final. This can be in form of a powerpoint presentation, a poster presentation, a handout you give to us or whatever format you like. Present what you think we should all know about your topic. This should be around 5-10 minutes in length. (15 points).
Wednesday, May 3, 8:00 – 10:30 am FINAL