Environmental Studies Research Seminar

Earth Day Tweet Up Schedule

2009-04-17T05:56:00.000-07:00

ITSRG and Environmental Studies Research Seminar are organizing a Tweetup on Earth Day! The Event is being co-sponsored by the Center for the Humanities at Temple, CHAT.

See: http://itsrg.org/itspace.html for a full description of the event.

Click here for a list of Temple University student social media projects related to environmental concerns in Philadelphia that will be showcased for the event.

Click here to access the Philadelphia Green Blogs Project.

Check below for schedule updates throughout the week.

Our Tweet up for Earth Day is from 12:00 am through 11:59pm 0n Wednesday April 22.

Our prime time for the Tweet up begins at 8 pm on the evening of April 22 and continues until midnight, Eastern Standard Time - USA.

Here is a working schedule of Tweetup Activities:

Throughout the Day

ITSRG staff will tweet throughout the work day from Starbucks on N. Broad Street on Temple's Main Campus; tweets will focus on green events in Philadelphia

Temple University students will tweet live from the Center for the Humanities at Temple University all day from the 10th floor of Gladfelter Hall on Temple's Main Campus.

Scheduled Events

8:00 - 10:00 am - http://twitter.com/greenphilly Tweets visual images of public spaces using recycled art throughout the city of Philadelphia

10:00 - noon - http://twitter.com/itsrg @ITSRG launches Twitter contest to select new student service learning student work team. Details will be Tweeted on Earth Day!

Noon - 3 pm http://twitter.com/ewasted E-Wasted Tweets from Temple University's Ambler Campus, Main Campus, and the Neighborhood of Fairmount in Philadelphia related to our city's recycling scene.

2:00 - 4:30 pm http://twitter.com/envirosavvy The Repurposing Life team tweets about reuse as a strategy for environmental sustainability.

@envirosavvy is sponsoring a competition for an ecofriendly giveaway, details to come on
Repurposing Life Blog: http://repurposinglife.blogspot.com/

4:30 - 5:30 pm http://twitter.com/ecovillages The Ecovillage Evolution team shares tweets on local ecovillage sites

5:30 - 7:30 pm Temple University Environment and Society Students will tweet live from their classroom in Temple's Center City Campus in Philadelphia on Urban Food systems related to their Do One Thing to save the environment challenge.

http://twitter.com/greengertrude @GreenGertrude tweets from the ecoroof at the
Philadelphia Public Library on Earth Day events in the city of Philadelphia

8:00 - 11:59 pm http://twitter.com/greenlifephilly Green Life Philly is the moderator of our class Tweet Up reviewing Earth Day happenings across the Philadelphia area

10:00 pm: @ITSRG announces the winner of the Service Learning Work Team competition!

Social Media Presentation Guidelines

2009-04-14T06:05:00.001-07:00

Students from Environmental Studies Research Seminar will present social media projects during class time, from 1:10-3:30 in Tuttleman Hall, Room 401A.

Each group must select one person to represent the whole project followed by individual presentations of each social media project. Group presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes each and individual presentations should be no longer than 5 minutes each.

Here is the order of groups and links to project social media that will be presented:

Tuesday, 4-21-09

1:15-1:45 - Green Life Philadelphia

2:00-2:30 - delAWARE

2:45-3:15 - Ecovillage Evolution

Tuesday, 4-28-09

1:15-1:45 - E-Wasted

2:00-2:30 - Sustainable Housing Techniques

2:45-3:15 - Philly Green Vision

Presentation Format

15 minutes, One individual presents for the group
Describe group social media project, including following elements:

Project theme
Research process related to depicting this theme
Sources of information, including online, archival, original data, visual media, social media sources
Group process - how were decisions made, tasks delegated
Largest challenges to overcome
Most significant accomplishments
Discuss design of social media related to content selected, approach for updates and social networking, visual design, and interactive features
Discuss how you would approach the project differently
What are your plans for the sustainability of the project in the future?

Individual social media project presentations
5 minutes each, each individual presents

Explain how the individual project contributes to the group project
Explain what is unique about the individual project as compared with the group project
Discuss your strategy for balancing between group and individual activities
Discuss your plans for the further development of your individual social media project

Urban Environment Blog Adapted for Course

2009-03-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

The ITSRG Urban Environment Blog is being redesigned to reflect input of blogs that have been created by students in this class. You can find it at: http://urbanenvironment.wordpress.com. Some blogs have already been integrated via their RSS feeds, others will be featured in posts during the coming week. The timing of updates is meant to coincide with the Earth Day Tweet up planned for the course. You can see updates on the tweetup at: http://itsrg.org.

Make a concept map of your social media project

2009-02-24T11:33:00.001-08:00

Creating a concept map of your individual social media project can be a useful way of keeping track of the progress you are making on your project over time. The basic purpose for creating one is to establish a benchmark that depicts a way of thinking about a problem that can be referred to again as the project develops. It is also a useful way to assess the degree to which your activities are aligned with your project goals. For this class create one that incorporates answers to these questions:

1. What is the core content of your social media project?
2. What is your strategy for building a social network?
3. What research procedures or methods are you using to create/generate content for your project?

What are the goals of your project in terms of the following matters:

1. audience - who is the primary audience(s) for your content, social network
2. magnitude - what is the scale of audience you anticipate for your work
3. impact - what are the effects you hope to achieve related to your project for these audiences

How will you know if you achieve these goals?

Interpretating Information

2009-02-24T09:25:00.000-08:00

Interpret this:

http://flickr.com/photos/dreamindly/2440538959/

http://flickr.com/photos/andreasnilsson1976/375995413/sizes/l/

http://flickr.com/photos/gleon/463729716/in/photostream/

http://flickr.com/photos/michellemtucker/2796919893/sizes/o/in/photostream/

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/fish/image_gallery/data/media/19/leveeshed_and_levees.jpg vs
http://www.imperialcatfish.com/Arial72.jpg

http://sustainabledesignupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/02/solar-panels.jpg
http://www.flickr.com/photos/marie-2008/3147237981/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/48135670@N00/97951579/sizes/o/ and
http://www.photosfromkatrina.com/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lovelydays/752250961/

http://www.visual-literacy.org/periodic_table/periodic_table.html

Team Building

2009-02-17T07:37:00.000-08:00

One of the most challenging aspects of participating in a group is the difficulty of balancing individual effort with those of the group as a whole. A number of strategies can be helpful for accomplishing this balance. First, it is important that everyone in the group shares an understanding of the overall goals, activities, benchmarks and performance quality of the group. Second, individual members need to be accountable to their team members for their respective roles in terms of the magnitude of the effort, quality of individual contributions, and timeliness of input to the group tasks. Finally, it is important for group members to establish and maintain clear communication about individual progress and how individual contributions relate to the group's effort.

Here are some web resources you may find useful for developing an effective project team:

12 Steps for Building an Effective Team:

http://humanresources.about.com/od/involvementteams/a/twelve_tip_team.htm

M.Masucci
Temple University

Course Syllabus

2009-01-27T09:19:00.000-08:00

Course Syllabus

ES 4198 Senior Research Seminar

Instructor: M. Masucci, Ph.D., Associate Professor – Geography and Urban Studies
Email: masucci@temple.edu
Phone: 215-204-3596
Office Hours: By appointment, T 3:40-5:00 pm
Office Location: USB 111
Course meeting time: 1:10 PM - 3:40 PM
Room Location: 401 A Tuttleman Learning Center

Undergraduate Bulletin Description

4198. Senior Research Seminar (3 s.h.) S. RCI: WI.

(Formerly: EVRN ST W300.)

Prerequisite: Senior status required.

Students engage in research projects, either as individuals or part of a team. Seminar meetings are devoted to analysis of a small set of readings, common discussion of research issues, and preparation for life beyond the baccalaureate.

Note: Open only to CLA Environmental Studies students.

Course Overview

This course is designed as a seminar that provides students with research experiences, opportunities to develop presentation skills, and fostering information technology skills that will prepare them for work in professional settings. Students will develop a project as part of a team throughout the semester. Seminar meetings will provide a context for monitoring the progress of those projects. Students will participate in an end of semester event to showcase their group projects developed during the semester.

Course Policies

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the use of other people's words or ideas without acknowledging that you have used them. It is unacceptable and will lead to failure in this course. Temple University’s policy student rights and responsibilities including plagiarism are found at:

http://www.temple.edu/bulletin/Responsibilities_rights/responsibilities/responsibilities.shtm.

Please review the policy carefully.

Dates of Importance

• Last day to Drop: Monday, February 2, 2009
• Beginning of Spring Recess: Monday, March 9, 2009
• End of Spring Recess: Monday, March 16, 2009
• Last day to Withdraw: Monday, March 30, 2009
• Last day of Class: Tuesday, April 28, 2009
• Last day of Semester: Monday, May 4, 2009

Attendance

Class attendance and participation is mandatory. Your grade will be lowered solely on the basis of missed classes. Please adjust your schedule to prioritize attendance and preparation for this course. Late assignments will not be accepted. This policy will be strictly enforced.

Electronic Communication and Access

Email communications related to the course needs to be signed by the student and include the course title in the subject heading.

A course website with relevant readings posted online and associated course blog has been established. All posts must be signed. You are responsible for all Internet-based readings assigned in class.

If you do not have adequate access to the Internet at home to support the heavy use of the Internet required in this course, please arrange your schedule to use university facilities such as the Tech Center. In addition to the Tech Center, there are a number of high-speed accessible labs located on campus. Please consult the Computer Services website for more information:

http://www.temple.edu/cs/students/index.htm.

Required Readings

Readings and interactive discussion will be posted online weekly at:

http://

Evaluation of Student Work and Grading

Class Participation and Assignments – 50% of final grade
Group Project Presentation – 25% of final grade
Individual Final Project –25% of final grade
Final Grade – The final letter grade you receive will be calculated as follows:

A = 93-100%
A - = 90-92 %
B+ = 87-89 %
B = 83-86 %
B- = 80-82 %
C+ = 77-79 %
C = 73-76 %
C- = 70-72%
D = 60-69%
F = 0-59%

Attendance Impact on Final Grade

Final grades will be adjusted according to attendance in this class. Your final grade will be lowered one letter grade for the second week missed and one additional letter grade per each week missed thereafter.

Course Topics

Week 1 Course Introduction

• Research Project Teams, Assigned Topics
• Discussion of Team Project Format
• Individual Blog Activities
• Discussion of Team Responsibilities and Tasks

Week 2 Project Format, Presentation formats

Week 3 Group Report on Topic

Week 4 Group Discussion of literature for topic

Week 5 Group Reports on methods – problem statement due

Week 6 Group Reports on data usage – methods report due

Week 7 Group Reports on visualization of data and findings – data report due

Week 8 Group Reports on information technology trends for research topic, visualization report due

Week 9 IT reports due

Week 10 Field Report due

Week 11 Personal Statements Due about connection of project to future goals and directions

Weeks 12-13 Group Presentations

Week 14: Projects Due, Final Assessments