This is a collaborative effort. You will work in groups of 5-6 students on a particular environmental issue of your choice. Within certain parameters, your group will define the problem, outline its major components using the systems approach, research the details, and present your project to the class. Finally, each member of the group will write a final report on her/his component of the project. The environmental issue(s) of interest will be determined later in the semester. The project will account for 20% of the grade, which will be a combination of the group and individual contributions to the project.
Begin the process by identifying the important questions for your system. Use those questions as a basis from which to build a STELLA model for your system. Each subsystem must contain: stocks relevant to the major question flows of materials, or influences, among the stocks inputs from other subsystems outputs to other subsystems. The format of the final project is based on a Stella model with the above elements. You should maintain a workable number of stocks (fewer than a dozen, and more than four). You also must focus on the major flows and influences (not every conceivable one). So you must prioritize.
You will use STELLA as a basis to understand your system and to explain it to the class (and me). STELLA will let you export your model diagrams to files that can be imported to PowerPoint. You can use PowerPoint to build your presentation to the class. If you would rather use STELLA for the presentation, you can do that, too. Details of using STELLA's presentation features can be found in the online manual.
Each group will present its model to the class. The presentation will last about 15 minutes, after which there will be 5 minutes of questions from the audience. Your presentation should include enough background information about the problem so that the listener understands why you are modeling it all. You should explain the logic of the model – describe the stocks, flows, and influences you chose and why you chose them, as well as how they interact. You will use PowerPoint to present your ideas. In general, I want you to use the STELLA model you developed to explain to the audience/reader the logic of your system. Even though I don’t expect you to have a working model, you might give us an idea of how stocks might rise and fall given your influences, etc. When possible, include real data in your model. For example, if you were modeling the question of whether oil drilling should be allowed in ANWR and had a stock called “caribou”, it might be useful to at least tell us how many caribou live there at this time. You should also try to make some educated guesses as to what may happen with the real-world problem given your understanding of the model you have built.
Your final Presentation should include a section explaining who did what in your group. Your grade will be based both on how the group did as a whole and on your individual contributions. If each person wanted to add a button to a “credits” page that has a pop-up explaining her/his contribution individually, that would be acceptable, too. It is up to the group.
Finally, you will want to store your PowerPoint presentation in an accessible place. You should use P:\class\envs\ENVS112 2005\projects to store your project and all of its supporting files. You will store your model there to get to it on presentation day. Be sure to store a backup copy on your own H: drives.Three important suggestions:
1 - BACK UP YOUR FILE – always have at least one spare copy in a safe place
2 – MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR MODEL IS SAVED
3 – DO AT LEAST ONE PRACTICE RUN BEFORE PRESENTING TO THE CLASSOne tip:
1 - Use the Stella Help function – it tells you everything you would want to know about Stella, including how to include pictures, buttons, etc.
The Group report should include an overview of your system/topic, which very well might include a general Stella model. It also includes the group's PowerPoint presentation (provided to the instructor in the Public drive ENVS folder - P:/Temp/ENVS 112) and a single text report explaining the rationale behind the model. Each group’s text report should contain:
- Title Page with group member names
- Background on your system – why is this an important issue
- A short description of each sub-topic
- Why you chose these sub-topics and not others - justify your choices
- Which sub-topics have the greatest effects on the whole system?
- Some conclusions from a general perspective about the system/
In summary, the text report constitutes documentation and defense of the entire topic you chose to study. The text report should have one final section which lists each group member’s responsibilities within the subsystem model. The group report should be about three (3) pages (double-spaced). If it is shorter than that and still covers all the necessary ground, that is fine.
In order to allow for individual integration and interpretation, each class member should submit a three to five page (double-spaced, typed or word processed) overview of his/her part of the class project. Evaluate the important issues in your sub-topic and how it relates to the entire system. Evaluate the effects of changes in your sub-topic/sysem (i.e., what will happen if you remove a dam from a river vs. not removing it). Your paper also should include details for your sub-topic/system on the following points:
- Background on your sub system – why is this an important within the whole - place it in context
- A short description of each component of your sub-topic
- If you did not build a STELLA model as part of your individual work, report the following:
- Rationale for each component of your sub-topic - why did you choose them? why are the important?
- What did you learn? What data did you find that helped you answer your questions?
- If you found two sides to an issue, describe them both. Which makes more sense? Why?
- What more would you need to know that you couldn't find out that would help you make important decisions about these issues?
- If you built a STELLA model, describe the stocks in your model
- Rationale for each relationship (flow or influence) and how they will change the stocks
- What data would be needed to make a working model
- Where data are available, assumptions or ranges of data (including numerical or qualitative relationships for stocks and flows)
- Suggestions for sources of missing data, or attribution of sources for the data you have been able to find (this is a bibliography or "Literature cited" section. Thus, you need to cite your references in your text, like this (Mauck 2003)
Since I will have the entire group's individual reports and the group report and any STELLA models, you can assume I know something about your entire system from those sources.
You will be graded on your oral report to the entire class and the written reports. Your grade will be a combination of the grade for the entire group (30%) and from your individual report (70%). Both of the above will include my review of your Stella model saved on the P: drive.
May 8 by 5PM.Turn it in to my office (Higley 202) or put it in my mailbox in the Biology office (Higley 212). The group can turn in all the reports as a group, with the Group intro, or individually. If the latter, one member of the group should turn in the group section with his/her individual report. Ideally, the entire group's papers will be turned in together.