Assignment:
Final Report of Experiment in Reducing Footprint
In Unit 3, you began your project log to keep track of your progress on the footprint assignment for this course. A template was provided in Course Resources. You should have at least two observation dates per week in the template (for a minimum of eight observations). Use the template to help you submit this report.
One of the cornerstone concepts in environmental science is global warming and climate change. Throughout the term, you learned numerous ways in which human behaviors can modify ecosystems. For your Unit Assignment, you will put together a final report that describes how you attempted to reduce your own footprint.
Use the progress report logs and the background research you conducted to help you write your summative paper. Be sure to include your original hypothesis and methods used, and discuss any unexpected observations. Find three reliable, peer-reviewed references that relate to your chosen lifestyle change. Potentially good sources would include your local power company's website information, your community air pollution standards, your water company's information, and scholarly journals which focus on energy conservation or management. Visit the PG Library and the Writing Center in the Academic Success Center for assistance. The following resources from the Academic Succes Center may be particularly helpful:
• Using Sources
• Online Research Sources
Finally, reflect on and report your final results. You should include actual numerical data (and respective units) where appropriate (i.e., before and after usage of water/gas/oil). Assess the influence this change had on your carbon output and the attendant effect this had on the environment.
In your essay, do the following:
1. Include an introduction to the research you have conducted.
2. State your hypothesis, recap the methods, and outline the project design of the behavior change challenge assignment.
3. State your independent variable, dependent variable, and control.
4. Talk about any unexpected observations and challenges you encountered during the course of your project.
5. Using three peer-reviewed references, reflect on how your footprint affects aquatic environments, the organisms that live in aquatic environments, and impacts on human health. Summarize your sources to support your ideas.
6. Compare your hypothesis to the end result of your behavior change.
- Do the results support or refute the hypothesis? How?
7. Did you adjust your methods to reduce your footprint? Explain why or why not.
8. Finally, explain the effects of your behavior change plan on your footprint to the other people within your community (stakeholders).
- Identify community stakeholders who may be impacted by this change.
a. Evaluate what their positions might be on the effects.
9. From the results of your behavior change plan, explain how they can be used to identify how you can continue to monitor the effects that humans have on their environment through research.
Basic Writing Expectations:
1. Your report should be approximately 750 words, not including the title or reference pages.
2. Include an introduction and conclusion.
3. Include a title page, double-space your paper, and use a font size of 10 or 12.
4. Include a highly developed viewpoint/thesis, purpose, and exceptional content.
5. Demonstrate superior organization - use logic.
6. Make certain that your paper is free of grammar and spelling errors.
7. Avoid plagiarism.
8. Use APA style for the body of the paper, all in-text citations, and references.