Project Work in ERS

Course Information

• Course calendar
• Grading and Description of Assignments
• Organizing Your Proposal: A Sample Table Of Contents .
• WWW sites of interest for this course.
• This year's (97-98) 390 projects.

ERS 390 Course Description

Thus far in your ERS program, you have learned: some theoretical approaches to analyses of environmental issues; the nature of group work; methods for data collection, display, and analysis; approaches to systems analyses; and, design and performance of a project. Now, you are about to take on your own self-defined project. This project will allow you to pursue concerns and activities reflecting your own interests, understanding, and commitment related to environmental issues. The course aims to encourage careful deliberation about the context, rationale, methodology, and strategy involved in each case, and to foster skills in proposing a project and reporting results.

Each student designs and performs a self-selected project, either individually or in a group. The range of project possibilities is unconstrained, except that each project must have:

• a defensible environmental purpose (with "environmental" defined broadly);
• an intellectually demanding analytical component;
• results that are demonstrable and amenable to evaluation; and,
• a willing supervisor.

• an independent scholar investigating a subject of strong personal interest;
• a member of a research team carrying out studies for some agency or environmental group;
• a consultant who will advise some client (real or hypothetical) on how to address some problem or opportunity; or,
• an advocate marshaling evidence and argument in favour of some position concerning an environmental issue.