UNST 124K

Fall 2014
PROJECT #2:
Act Locally
Due: THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, in class
Portland State prides itself on being a laboratory for sustainable practices
and on Integrating sustainability into curricula, campus, and community
partnerships. (You can see a summary of PSUs green campus operations
at http://www.pdx.edu/planning-sustainability/greencampus). Portland itself,
more broadly, has a reputation as one of the countrys greenest cities. As
we consider the evolving meanings and implications of sustainability as a
talking-point and goal, well turn now to analyzing, and helping to reshape,
our campuss and our citys green practices.
One of the questions we are engaging all year, and which confronts many
thinkers and activists in the field of sustainability, is how best to approach
the challenges of global environmental crisis. Should we be deploying science
to understand and predict the crisis? Should we be reading and writing poems
or other creative works to express the emotional and cultural impact of waste
or climate change? Should the effect of environmental crisis on human
society, or the economy, or individual bodies, be our focus?
For your first major project this term, we will try to integrate these
approaches, though quantitative inquiry will be our focus. This will also be an
opportunity for you to practice communicating your ideas, orally, visually,
and in writing.
You will work in assigned, randomized groups of 3-4 to:
Select one specific aspect of PSUs or Portlands sustainability
efforts, perhaps an issue, an initiative, or a practice, that you can
take a stand on. We will spend some time in class and in mentor lab
brainstorming possible topics, though some may occur to you
during our tour of PSU or the Metro Transfer Station.
Undertake a review of the literature: research in the library
databases, online, and in printed books, to help you understand the
background to the local issue you are focusing on, and the existing
arguments for and against. What are the debates? How do experts
and concerned citizens make their case? What are the alternatives
to PSUs or Portlands approach? What are the pros and cons? PSU
Recycles! Is a valuable resource, so visit their website and/or
interview staff for on-the-ground perspectives:
http://www.pdx.edu/planning-sustainability/waste-reductionrecycling.

 Determine your research questions and hypothesis: what is it that

you, as a group, want to determine with this project?
Plan your research design. Will you be surveying randomized
subjects about their opinions? Will you be collecting data? What will
you need to create an effective study?
Implement your study. We will dedicate several mentor lab sessions
to this work, but you will likely need to continue your investigations
outside of class time.
Finally, you will present the results of your study to the class, using
both visual and oral communications. Your visual report may be a
research poster, a website, a series of ads, or perhaps a video that
combines visual and oral communications. Whatever format you
choose, it must include
o

an abstract or short, succinct summary of your research;

the results of your quantitative inquiry study, in graph, chart,

or other visual form;

striking images, designs, or other visual elements to help

make your case;

short written reflections, summaries, discussion and

conclusions;

You must also be prepared to answer questions or provide other oral

responses to engage your audience. Every group member must be
ready to speak fluently about the project, your methods, and your
conclusions.
Remember to choose something as specific as possibleyou only have a few
weeks to cover this issue! Possible topics may include (though you should
feel free to develop your own!):
-

How effective is PSUs food composting system at reducing the

campuss waste stream? Why do consumers throw away unused food,
and what might encourage them to change this behavior?
What proportion of coffee sales in the Student Union involve disposable
cups? Why dont consumers use more re-usable cups? What would
encourage them to change? Undertake a study at the coffee shop in
the union (count disposable cups, interview consumers, etc).
Choose a patch of the Park Blocks and measure how many cigarette
butts you find on average; then extrapolate that data to estimate how
many there might be on the Park Blocks as a whole. Interview smokers

and ask how they dispose of their cigarettes and why. Study some
possibilities to discourage cigarette butt litter.
Design several public service announcements, ads, or flyers about an
environmental issue at PSU, and test their relative effectiveness on
random subjects. What is the best approach to get people to change
their behavior? Does individual behavior change really affect global
sustainability issues?
Remember the experiment with litter on the Park Blocks that Tony
showed us? Do something like that, chart peoples responses, and
interview bystanders or participants to test their attitudes toward
waste and recycling on campus.
Many of you hypothesized that doing the garbage experiment (like we
did this term) would encourage people to create less waste overall.
Test this hypothesis by having random subjects spend a day with their
waste and complete a questionnaire before and after (and perhaps a
week after).
Should PSU follow NYUs example and organize a weeklong No
Impact experience (www.nyu.edu/sustainability/pdf/ffw.pdf)? How
could you organize such a project?