Research Paper/Case Study:

Each student will do an independent research project related to sustainability and/or pollution prevention, write a research paper, and prepare a presentation. The topic for the paper will be how a government, private business, educational institution, or private individual carried out a project involving sustainability and/or pollution prevention.  Presentations should be prepared using Powerpoint so that they can be easily posted to the course website. The oral portion of the presentation can be included using Powerpoint's Notes feature or can be recorded for playback over the Internet (similar to the course lectures).

A standard research paper format should be used.  This includes sections with descriptive headings, proper referencing of material, a literature cited section, and a discussion and/or conclusions section giving your analysis of what was learned from the project.  The research projects will be graded on Research, Analysis, and Style.  Research involves how much information was obtained on the topic and how it was used.  Research materials will almost certainly include web pages but may also include books, journal articles, magazine articles, and so forth as appropriate.  Material consulted should include the company being examined but also industry groups, competitors, technology providers, etc.  Analysis involves how well you were able to synthesize the information you obtained and communicate it to your target audience, subsequent EnvS 428 classes.  Style involves how well the case study is written and includes organization, grammar, spelling, punctuation, and so forth.