PHIL320

Forum 5 – Final Paper/Project Topic ProposalView Full Description and Attachment(s)

INITIAL POST:

For your initial response this week, post your final paper/project proposal. See the syllabus for complete details.  If you can find a short educational video online that describes your particular case study or topic, please include the URL in your post (or embed it using the “Source” button and code) so that the Instructor and your classmates can view it.  Most students are able to find suitable videos on YouTube or Ted.com or other video hosting sites.

Your proposal should be about 250 words, and you should relate your case study or environmental topic to one of the environmental ethical theories that we study in this class, as described by Rolston and our primary readings (see the Course Guide of our syllabus for the week-by-week readings).  At least 1/3 of your paper should be the application of one of our environmental ethics to your topic.

The main idea is to select a case study or topic and apply one or more of the ethical theories from our course to it, and see what kind of conclusion or recommendations you can come up with . . . please read below for more details!

Review the text Sustainability, and select one of the case studies or topics from the book with a view to writing a final paper on it, applying one of the ethical theories that we are studying in the course to the case study or topic.  The case studies are spread throughout the text.  Or, you could select a particular topic.  For example >

• 5.1 Climate and Global Change – Chapter Introduction 1 matchmodules Climate Processes; External and Internal Controls and Milankovitch Cycles and the Climate of the Quaternary, we will describe
  OR
  12.2 It’s Not Easy Being Green: Anti-Environmental Discourse, Behavior, and Ideology http://cnx.org/contents/F0Hv_Zza@43.5:HdWd2hN5@2/Foreword

If you like, you can propose a different format, such as a PowerPoint presentation or some kind of a multimedia presentation.  Most students do write a final paper, but you have the option of proposing a different format.  If you do write a final paper, you may use any of your writing from your forum posts and or journal entries and include them in your paper as appropriate to your particular case study or topic.

Special note: you are not limited to our textbook Sustainability.  You may review any materials in our Course Guide for potential case studies or topics.  Additionally, you may propose any case study or topic that you are interested in… Many students propose topics that are of particular interest to them, and/or that they have some prior academic or work experience with, or relate to their ideal future vocation.  It is good to formulate an idea for your final paper/project as soon as possible, but we are not writing in stone here, so you can modify or change your topic as the class progresses.  Some students actually find something in the last half of the course that they want to work on, and that is also fine.  It is best to communicate with the Instructor regarding ideas and possible modifications/changes after Week 5, which can be done via the Messages section of our classroom.