Social Issues and Psychology:
Psychology & The Environment
Fall, 1997

Web Assignments

GO TO CURRENT ASSIGNMENT
RESULTS OF COMPUTER QUESTIONNAIRE (Temporarily unavailable)
RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTIONNAIRE (Temporarily unavailable)
RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL VALUES ON THE WEB PROJECT
RESULTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION WEB PROJECT

1. Due Thursday, August 28th.

Spend about 45 minutes to 1 hour exploring the class website (don't get lost in following external links -- for now, just get a feeling for what's "out there"). In particular, complete the following before class on Thursday:

• Fill out two on-line questionnaires. The first deals with computers. The second deals with environmental issues. Make sure you have time to complete each questionnaire at a single sitting and make sure you submit each one electronically (you'll get a message on your computer screen if you're successful).
• Examine the "Who Cares about Hawaii?" page and read the newspaper articles that you find there. Come to class prepared to discuss your initial reactions to the issues that the articles raise -- what are the issues, as you see them? What information would we need to have to understand the issues and suggest solutions?

2. Due Thursday, September  4.

• Spend about 30 minutes exploring the Tools page of our website.  In particular, examine the links to environmentally relevant sites.   Spend about another 30 minutes looking at the summaries of capstone projects from previous offerings of the course.  Send me an email message no later than Thursday morning 9:00 a.m. in which you (a) identify by name 1 or 2 of the "tools" sites you think might be particularly useful and explain why (a couple of sentences will be adequate for this) and (b) identify 1 or two capstone projects that you thought were particularly interesting and explain why (again, in a couple of sentences).
  
• Go to the "Who Cares about Hawaii?" page.   There you'll find a new link called "team assignments."  Read it carefully, because it contains an assignment that involves your team getting together outside of class to make a selection of tasks (and the sooner you get together, the more choice you'll have).  I should have the assignment posted by 5 p.m. Monday afternoon (Sept. 1).

3. Due Friday, October 17.

As discussed by the text and by our supplemental readings, values and ethics may contribute to both the creation and the solution of environmental problems. A number of ethical positions are identified in our readings, and this assignment is designed to give you a more thorough understanding of what they entail, how they differ, and how they might be recognized in the communications of other people and of groups. Your assignment is to locate two environmental web sites that seem to embody different ethical or value orientations. A good place to start is our tools page where there are a number of links to environmental sites.  Also, you might look at some examples of pages and values that students have found in the past (note:  you can't use these for your report, though, unless you think the sites have changed in their value orientations, or unless you disagree with the previous analysis).

By 5 p.m., Friday, October 17th send me a 1-2 page report in electronic format that contains the following:

• The name or title of the organization or group's website and the exact url where it can be found on the WWW (be careful in entering the url to make sure it is correct).
• Specifically identify the ethical or value orientation(s) each seems to embody, as discussed by the text or by one of the supplemental readings.
• Explain what led to your identification (i.e., what information in each site specifically seems to portray a particular orientation?)

I will combine your reports (under your authorship) as a page on our current class website, and I may call on a few students at random to discuss their selections.

4. Due Friday, October 24th.

The World Wide Web seems to offer a great deal of information that might be helpful in environmental education. This assignment is designed to explore the potential of this technology as an educational tool.

• Select a topic, such as energy, pollution, conservation, rainforests, toxic waste, ecosystems, recycling, etc. Choose only one topic, and keep it fairly focused. Some examples can be found from previous students' education projects. Again, you can get an idea of the kind of projects that are possible, but you can't use the exact same project as a previous student (the topic can certainly be similar, but not the details of the approach).
• Spend about an hour exploring the World Wide Web, and locate four or five websites that all deal with your topic in an informative, educational way. The sites should each contribute in a different way to educating or informing someone about your topic -- they should not be redundant. A good place to start from is E-E Link, and there are other starting places on our tools page. 
• Record the name and exact url of each of the sites, and annotate each one with a sentence or two that indicates what kind of information each site contains and how it contributes to understanding the topic. Your selections should all be appropriate for the same age level.
• By 5 p.m. Friday, October 24th,  send me via email the topic, the age level your information is aimed at, the names or descriptive titles of the sites and their urls, and your annotations of the websites.

I will combine your reports (under your authorship) as a page on our current class website, and I may call on a few students at random to discuss their projects.

5.  Due Friday, November 7.

One approach to the solution of environmental problems is a progam called The Natural Step, which began in Sweden in 1989 and has now spread to other countries, including the US. The current President of Natural Step US is Molly Harriss Olson, who recently chaired the US President's Council on Sustainability, and who spoke at Miami October 29th of this year.

• Spend about 1 hour exploring the Natural Step website.  In particular, (1) carefully examine the four Natural Step principles that are briefly described in the introductory page, (2) read through the paper by Dr. Karl-Henrik Robèrt that describes the process of arriving at those principles (Note: click on the title of the paper), and (3) examine the description of the recent case study that took place on Maui at the Grand Wailea Hotel.
• By 5 p.m. Friday, November 7th,  send me via email your responses to the following:
  • How would you characterize Natural Step's four principles in terms of the value orientations and world views that we have studied? Briefly explain your assessment.
  • What action does Dr. Robert's recommend when confronted by "enemies" of the Natural Step/Sustainability idea? Why does he think this will work?  Do you agree?  Briefly explain why or why not.
  • Of the impacts achieved in the case study of the Grand Wailea Hotel, which impressed you the most?  Explain why.

  A high quality report can probably be produce in one page, providing it is clear, insightful, and well-informed by our course materials and activities.

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