This is a collaborative effort. You will work in groups of 5-6 students on a local 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 (right after spring break). 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, to plan what you need to learn about the issue, 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 will use PowerPoint to build your presentation to the class. For detailed information about how to move model diagrams out of STELLA, you can consult the online manual.
Each group will present its model to the class. That presentation will be a poster session. Poster presentations will be Tuesday & Thursday of the last week of class. Each group will prepare posters that give the following information:
- Background information about the problem so that the listener understands why you are modeling it all
- The methods you used - study site, dates observed, number of animals observed, observations per animal, duration of observations, etc.
- Logic of the model – describe the stocks, flows, and influences you chose and why you chose them, as well as how they interact.
- How the important components of the model interact and how they may change over time.
- Relevant data you have collected to understand the problem
- Conclusions - what does the future hold? What are the important components that can be controlled or changed? Not changed?
Obviously, with limited space, you don't have much room for any of these. Concentrate on the important points. Pictures really do tell a thousand words, especially pictures that are data driven. Use charts to communicate your results (i.e., show the data you have collected in a visual format).
To learn more details on how to prepare your poster, follow these links:
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:\temp\envs 112 posters to store your project and all of its supporting files. You will store your model there so that I can view it. Be sure to store a backup copy of everything on your own H: drives.Four important suggestions:
- BACK UP YOUR FILES – always have at least one spare copy in a safe place
- MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR MODEL IS SAVED
- START EARLY
- Meet with your instructor to help get you started in the right direction
The Group report is your Poster.
In order to allow for individual integration and interpretation, each class member should submit a 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. Your paper also should include details for your sub-topic/system on the following points:
- Background on your sub system (i.e., your part of the project) – 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 did 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 poster, the poster presentation 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 poster saved on the P: drive.
Group Presentation: Last Week of Classes
Schedule to be determined and will be posted on this website.
Written Report: May 9 by Noon.Turn it in at your instructor's office (JO: Higley 301, or RM: Higley 305) or put it the appropriate mailbox in the Biology office (Higley 212).