3-credit Research Project

Optional

The goal of this project is to carry out an (approximately) semester-long study in an area related to one of the themes of the workshop. 

For example, you might wish to investigate the effects of ozone in your vicinity. You might hypothesize that tree damage you’ve seen in a ravine to the east of town is caused by ozone. Perhaps pollution from traffic on the major roads in town often collects in that area. You might study the trees themselves to determine whether the damage is characteristic of ozone damage and compare these trees to trees in surrounding areas where there is less damage. You might carry out a series of measurements in this region and neighboring regions on a variety of dates to determine if the ozone levels are indeed higher there. This might include students helping you to carry out simultaneous measurements in several locations. You would record and report on any differences in other variables that might affect the plants. After making measurements on a series of dates and under a range of different weather conditions, you would write up your results with a description of similarities and differences from your initial hypothesis, as well as summarizing the existing ideas about your subject of inquiry.

The project should incorporate all of the following elements:

• collecting data over  more than a month or over a large geographic region
• a clear description of your experimental design, including a set of controls
• carrying out measurements and recording them in an electronic spreadsheet
• graphical presentation of your measurements to illustrate relationships between variables and measured data
• a literature review of existing knowledge about the subject of your study (this should make up about a third of the final report)
• if possible, inclusion of your students or class in some aspect of your project.
• pictures of every phase of the project

Deadlines:

• An initial hypothesis should be about some aspect of the Earth or earth systems of personal interest to you which is subject to experiments you might be able to perform.
•  A one-page project proposal of your hypothesis and explanation of the experiment you plan to perform must be emailed to HOLLY at holly@umassk12.net by October 1st. The staff will review this and get back to you about a plan of completion. A staff member will be assigned to oversee your progress. 
• Project proposals received after October 1^st will not be considered for this extra credit option.
• Update reports on progress on the project must be emailed at least monthly, including copies of data files collected to date, to the staff member assigned to you.
• For credit, you must register by the deadline of all UMass spring courses.  We will send you this information later, once your project has been approved.
• Send your completed report and all accompanying documents to STEM Earth Central, c/o Morton Sternheim,  Hasbrouck 229 University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003 by May 1^st, 2007