General Guidelines for Projects:

• Your project topic and date of oral report must be approved no later than Nov. 6.
• The written report and oral report must be presented no later than Dec. 9 at 2 p.m.
• A conference with one of the professors before your oral report is recommended, to review plans for your class presentation. Come in as often as you like to consult on progress on your project.
• Your oral report time will be restricted to 10 minutes per person. (Be sure to plan carefully so that you cover your topic within the time limit, rather than being cut off unfinished.)
• The project must integrate principles of environmental science with resources or methods from at least one area of the humanities or arts.
• Any pertinent format or media may be used in the oral reports: give an overview of the work you did on your project and/or use handouts, blackboard, recordings, videotape, overhead projector, etc. Be sure to arrange in advance for any equipment or photocopying you may need.
• The audience for your project is this class. Feel free to bring in guests; engage the class in discussion or debate; or ask us to pretend we are a special kind of audience, such as a first grade class. The class will be asked to offer comments and questions after your report.
• You may suggest readings to the class that would help us prepare for your oral report ahead of time, but do not assume that we have done extra reading on your topic or that we will want to hear lengthy summaries of books the class has not read.
• The project grade (25% of course grade) will be based on your submission of one of two types of report: (1) If you project involves mainly reading and book or library research, you may turn in an essay with at least eight pages of discussion. (2) If you are submitting an original story or poem or play, or producing something in another medium (music, art, puppets, performance, etc.), the grade will be based on your original creation and a report of about three pages describing your project. (Use the guidelines for lab reports to describe your methods, results, and discussion of what you produced.) With either type of report, you must attach a written list of sources used for your project (including any people you consulted). If you have any questions about how to write and document a formal report, ask the professors before the report is due.

Topic Suggestions for Projects:

• These are all general ideas, and you will need to develop your own specific focus.
• You may also propose a topic not covered on this list.

1. Develop a lesson plan for using literature or art to teach an audience (any age group you choose) something about the environment.
2. Discuss various work(s) by, background on, or essays by a writer or illustrator we are studying, or one not on the scheduled readings for the class. Either report on an author or illustrator who deals directly with the environment, or discuss parallels you see between ways of viewing or studying the environment and ways of reading, writing, or creating or understanding art.
3. Create an artwork that reflects an idea or feeling about the environment and present it to the class. See sample of student artwork at http://www.ferrum.edu/thanlon/ecology/courses.htm.
4. Compare book(s) about nature or the environment for children with adult book(s) that have parallel themes. How is the same issue handled differently for children and adults?
5. Report on some type of music that reflects ideas or feelings about the environment, or develop a lesson plan or musical program to present ideas about the environment to students or an audience.
6. Write your own original story or poem(s) about the environment.
7. Write a play or skit or make a video that relates to environmental issues, or work on performing a play or skit or puppet show or some other kind of performance involving an environmental issue.
8. Report on a specific environmental issue as it has been reported in the mass media, or the way it has been handled (or mishandled or not handled, perhaps) by a state or national government (e.g., news articles on recent weather and global warming), or censorship of environmental books.
9. Develop or demonstrate an interactive game or experience that could be used to teach a science lesson (e.g., an activity in which participants become the parts of a tree).
10. Examine a specific literary or artistic technique or theme or pattern used in several books or poems or articles and relevant to studying the environment. Examples: books that use questions and answers, true and false ideas, conflicts or contrasts between adults and children, fantasy vs. reality, dream visions, imaginary experiences as a nonhuman creature or thing, optical illusions, visual puzzles or hidden images, cumulative effects in rhymes and tales, puns or other word play, before-and-after images, alphabet or counting books, patterns of repetition, pop-up books.
11. Focus on attitudes toward the environment reflected in the traditions of a particular national or regional culture, such as a Native American culture.
12. Compare the concept of change in ecology and literature, and analyze the “recycling” of motifs by comparing variants of a folk motif or myth as found in different cultures. There are many, many variations on Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, the girl vs. the wolf, the young giant-killer, the dragon slayer, the creation of the earth and people, the Flood, the forbidden door or room, the clever wife or daughter, the toy that becomes “real,” animal trickster tales, etc.
13. Discuss and/or demonstrate storytelling techniques or other methods of oral interpretation or leading discussions with children, or adults, with a focus on an environmental theme.
14. Report on a controversy about adaptations of traditional material in a book for children (such as Brother Eagle, Sister Sky by Susan Jeffers), or debates about how much realism children should be exposed to and whether children should be protected from harsh realities about social issues.
15. Report on how and where children’s books about science are reviewed or guides to selecting children’s books about science.
16. Report on a film, TV program, audio recording, video, or computer program that relates to the environment. This could involve comparing a work of literature with a film or cartoon version; discussing the pros and cons of using different media to teach about the environment; analyzing the historical accuracy and attitudes conveyed in movie such as Pocahontas, etc.
17. Report on one or more science magazines for children or adults (such as Ranger Rick or My Big Backyard), or on coverage of environmental issues in more general magazines.
18. Report on modern retellings or revisions of traditional literature that have some relevance to study of the environment, such as modernized nursery rhymes, new retellings of folk tales, and new types of fairy tales (e.g., Dr. Hanlon has recent adaptations of “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Three Little Pigs” in picture books that focus on the environment of the Southwest U. S.)
19. Report on the use of satire to convey ideas about the environment, in stories or poems or articles for children or adults, or in cartoons or comic strips (such as Far Side) or TV or radio shows.
20. Investigate methods for developing a museum display and create a display or bulletin board for our campus, with a particular environmental theme.
21. Report on ecocriticism or ecofeminism, new movements in literary and cultural criticism.
22. Compare an older work of literature or art with a more recent one that contains a more contemporary view of the environment. What does this comparison reveal about how attitudes have changed (perhaps attitudes in a particular culture or region or among a particular group)?

Resources:

• Use textbooks, anthologies and teaching guides, their bibliographies and subject indexes, lists of award-winning books, reference books, or consultation with professors and other experts to develop ideas for topics and find other important resources not included in the readings for this class. For example, the library and Dr. Hanlon have copies of Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children by Caduto and Bruchac. Drs. Hanlon and Thomas have copies of Eco-Inquiry, and Dr. Thomas has materials from Project Learning Tree.
• See bibliographies Nature and the Environment in Appalachian Literature and Picture Books about the Environment.

This page created 6/10/02. Last update: 06/17/02
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