Final Project Purpose
The purpose of this project is for you to research and analyze a topic in order to help solve an environmental justice issue in the United States. You will accomplish this by publishing your work in this college-level open access e-book. This book is an open educational resource (OER), which you will learn more about in the next section. You will learn how to do this from previous class projects and your instructor will provide you with a highly structured set of assignments to help you support your success in this project. By completing this project you will contribute to scholarly work and knowledge about environmental justice to the broader community and build your academic confidence. This process you will engage in is called open pedagogy[1], which we’ll learn more about in the next sections.
Your work can be created in your choice of media and will be shared with peers during the final exam period.
Examples from past students include (but are not limited to):
- GoogleSlides
- ArcGIS StoryMap
- A case study
- A short narrative topic/analysis
- Game
- Podcast
- Comic strip**
- Infographic**
- Song**
- Painting, Sculpture, or sketch**
- Poetry**
- Original research on EJ using Geographic Information System like EJScreen
- Interviewing a local EJ activist, tribal member, government official, scholar
If you have another media that you would like to present your project in, just run it by your instructor!
* You may choose to make your work “anonymous,” use a pseudonym, or use your own name.
If you decide that your work will not be available to future students, this will not affect your grade.
**These types of projects also require a short “artist’s statement” that allows you to explain how you have synthesized course concepts in your creative process.
Knowledge and Skills You Will Use:
- Analyze and synthesize course concepts.
- Apply course concepts to real-world situations.
- Create learning materials that can be used to benefit future students and the community at large.
- Choose an open license so your work can be used by future students.
Tasks:
- Choose a topic related to environmental justice in the United States that you are interested in. You can view some examples of possible topics here.
- Feel free to consult with Deron while you are choosing the topic!
- Submit proposed topic and format (Week Seven). Research tools from the LBCC library will be introduced Week 7 in class.
- Draft an outline/rough draft/raw footage/and submit it on Moodle (Week Nine). This is your chance to draft your ideas, identify sources, and consider the best format for your project
- Cite your sources using any citation style (such APA or MLA). If you are unclear about how to do this, please ask your instructor for guidance.
- Upload your final product to Moodle. Share your work with students during the Finals period (Week Eleven).
- Learn about different types of open licenses and choose how you would like to license your work.
Note: student/creator may decide at any time that they do not wish to publish final project work, and grade will not be affected.
Final Project Rubric
Criteria |
Weight |
Doesn’t |
Partially meets |
Fully meets |
Exceeds |
Excels |
| Topic is defined and relevant to course | 5% or 2.5 pts. | Does not submit work | Topic is not clearly defined and/or lacks relevance to course student is enrolled in | Topic is clearly defined and relevant to the course the student is enrolled in. | Topic is clearly defined and relevant; course concepts are integrated | Topic is clearly defined and relevant; course concepts are integrated seamlessly or other above and beyond work |
| Who is affected/intersectionality | 30% or 15 pts. | Not attempted | Describes population but does not elaborate on which groups are disproportionately affected. | Describes population and includes where it is, its demographics and which groups are disproportionately affected. | Describes the population: where it is and demographics. Applies course concepts to explain why groups are disproportionately affected. | Describes the population: where it is and demographics. Analyzes which groups are disproportionately affected and why they are impacted using data, historical examples, and/or institutional/policy factors. |
| Completion | 30% or 15 pts. | Not submitted | Partially completed. | Project completed in a surface way. | Project thoroughly completed. | Final project reflects thoughtfulness and intentionality; the student follows through on agreements with Instructor. |
| Uses data and evidence -based reasoning | 30% or 15 pts. | Not included | Few sources of evidence and/or data.Sources are not clearly linked to the topic. Sources are not cited. | Adequate sources of evidence and/or data included. Sources are clearly cited if not the student’s own work. | Multiple sources of evidence and/or data included. Sources are clearly cited if not the student’s own work. | Multiple sources of evidence and/or data included that are used for analysis. Sources are clearly cited if not the student’s own work. |
| Conventions and Licensing | 5% or 2.5 pts | Unreadable | Readable, but with errors and/or lacking citations. | Few errors and all sources acknowledged; uses open sources or all original work. | Error-free and sources fully cited; uses attributed open sources or all original work. | Error-free; excellent use of selected citation style; uses attributed open sources or all original work. |
Final Project Checklist
- Turn in the final project on Moodle and present it to students during finals period.
- Sharing your work may vary based on project format. For example,
- If it is an infographic or cartoon, make six copies and bring those to class (or email it to the instructor who will make the copies for you.)
- If it is a narrative (e.g. mostly words) select about one page double spaced (about 300 words) to be shared. Make six copies and bring that to class(or email it to the instructor who will make the copies for you.)
- Be ready to talk about the purpose behind your project, what your experience has been, and give feedback to other creators.
- Sharing your work may vary based on project format. For example,
- Make sure to openly license your work.
- Select the license you want to use.
- Copy and paste the license icon onto the first page of your project.
- Here is an example icon for a CC-BY license.
- If you are presenting art, like a painting, you are welcome to handwrite your license and attribution on the back of your painting, and include it in your artist statement.
- Include an attribution statement, “by your name-license.” Example: “by Deron Carter, CC-BY.”
- Share your final project with the instructor in google doc editable version by placing it in this folder. Be sure it has your name and topic title at the top.
Grading distribution:
| Points | What | When | Grading |
| 10 | Topic Proposal | Sunday night, November 12, Week 7 | Completion |
| 20 | Outline | Sunday night, November 26, Week 9 | Qualitative grading |
| 10 | Present and participate in others’ presentations | Tuesday, December 5,, 2:30, Week 11 | Completion |
| 50 | Project submission | Tuesday, December 5, 2:30, Week 11 | Qualitative grading |
- https://www.lib.iastate.edu/research-and-teach/teaching-class-support/use-open-educational-resources ↵
ourse materials that are shared with an open license so that faculty can do the 5 R’s: revise, remix, reuse, redistribute, and retain
the practice of engaging with students as creators of information rather than simply consumers of it. It's a form of experiential learning in which students demonstrate understanding through the act of creation
