Mini-poster project

Learn about a topic that came up in our course in more detail. Mobilize your curiousity!

Combine pictures, diagrams, graphs, and words to explain what you have learned to an audience (of your peers in this class).

This may take the form of a paper poster, or a deck of 6-10 slides (excluding title and reference slides) (Google Slides or Power-Point). Or alternatively, come up with a *lesson plan* to teach your topic.

Use several sources for your mini-poster. Reference your sources.

Pictures can be diagrams that you make, images that you modify with your own additions, or even cartoons that you draw. Make sure to reference the sources of any images you use!

You'll present your miniposter in small groups (of 3-4 people) during the first part of the final exam period.

You'll hand in a proposal, a draft, and a final version.

Possible topics

Below are several possibilities. But you may suggest one of your own.

From Climate of Man

Sliding ice sheets - How do glaciers / ice sheets on Greenland melt?
Climate feedback cycle - There are many. Pick one.

From Collapse

Saline seep (Montana). How does it come into being? Why does it have consequences for neighboring landowners?
Winter temperature inversions (Montana). For a city like Missoula--in the bottom of a valley--the air quality suffer when this happens. What is it?
Water quality of streams and fish (Montana). What causes sedimentation? What can change the temperature of the water? What happens when new species of fish are added to a stream?
Palynology - pollen analysis (Easter Island). How can you use ancient pollen to study climate/ecological conditions?
Dendrochronology (Anasazi). Explain how you can use trees used in building to date the structures that they're a part of.
Packrat middens (Anasazi). How can they be dated. What do they tell us?
Arroyo cutting (Anasazi) contributed to the Anasazi's collapse. What is it and how does it work?
The process of making charcoal (Greenland) is necessary to make iron (used by the Vikings). How did that work? Why was it so energy intensive?

Solutions

Project Drawdown lists a wide variety of solutions to address climate change. Pick one to explore in more depth. Find examples of one of the solutions in action already.

Electric Cars
Reducing food waste

Rubric for grading

(10 pts) Useful pictures/diagrams which contribute to your explanations.

(6 pts) Effort/artistry Did you execute the visual parts of your explanation well? Did you just use a diagram you found somewhere on the Internet that relates partially to your topic? Or (better) did you take a diagram and adapt it for your uses: Cutting out the pieces that don't relate to your topic, adding legends or explanatory pieces yourself. Or did you produce your own diagram (which can be very well adapted to your purpose). This category refers less to how "professional" your diagrams look, and more to how much they contribute to your project.

(10) Explanation / coherence Did you explain terms you used which might be less familiar to your audience (your peers in this class)? Did the words you used compliment and enhance the diagrams you used in your project? Was your presentation well organized or did it appear more like a random collection of factoids?

(10) Accuracy Was your explanation actually correct?

(6) Spelling/Grammar writing mechanics

(3) References Did you cite the sources for all the facts / diagrams / images that you found and did not create yourself? What was the quality of your sources?