Blog Post #3

  Sarah Foss

   For Project #3, I have chosen to explore outside the theme of Ethics in Higher Education. The reason for this is because I thought my writing would turn out better if I chose a topic that I'm interested in. I am a music performance major at Colorado State University; however, I have chosen a topic that differs from this, because I am interested in the changing factors of the environment. The topics I explored for the activities in class included factors that effect our environment negatively. This could be the amount of carbon emissions in the atmosphere, deforestation, electricity, issues with fossil fuels, oil spills, water poisoning, etc. All of the issues corresponding with the above categories are largely caused by humans. This led me to develop my research/inquiry question about 3 of these categories.
     My research question asks: "How are man-caused disasters such as deforestation, oil spills, and water poisoning effecting Earth's environment today?" The strategies I used to arrive at this question were narrowing down the most important issues that are currently effecting the environment. Deforestation is a large issue, because the amount of deforestation in the Amazon continues to increase, destroying habitats and decreasing the amount of oxygen in the region. Oil spills are further poisoning the ocean, creating a negative prediction of what life will look like in the ocean in coming years. Water poisoning is not only bad for the bodies of water being poisoned, but it is also bad for the people and animals that rely on that water source. The overall theme/topic for this project is environmentalism or environmental health. Though there are negative connotations that come with all of the aforementioned issues, all of these issues can be prevented, which provides us with hope.

Below you can see the effects oil spills can have on the environment and the creatures that suffer due to these disasters:

Below is a list of potential stakeholders for my argument:

• EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) 
• FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
• Environmentalists 
• Geologists 
• PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals) 

All of these stakeholders appeal well to the information I am trying to get across. However, all of these stakeholders agree with my side of this argument and the issues I am presenting. Because of this, I will be persuading a stakeholder who already agrees with my issue, and I will also have to provide a viable solution to convince them to implement my ideas. EPA would be one of the largest stakeholders that I would have to convince, because they are already very educated about the issues I am presenting, and I will have to provide a well thought out solution in order to get them to implement my solution. 

My largest concern about P3 is finding the most credible sources to include in my annotated bibliography and my research paper. It will be a bit of a struggle to find the most credible sources, because there are already so many articles about the issues I am presenting, making it harder to find the most effective ones. To improve this process in class, we could do more work with narrowing down articles on CSU library's database. I am still not completely fluent on how to narrow these down, so it would be helpful if we had further instruction on this. 

P3 Blog Post

   In class I brainstormed along the lines of the environment as well as animal rights. The ever growing issue of the meat and dairy industry’s impact on the environment interests me, due to the fact that a significant amount of attention needs to be drawn towards the issue. Individuals might know or have heard of the concept of climate change. They might know the basis of it, possibly along the lines that the weather patterns are changing. Yes, they have the right idea, but there is so much more than people know. Most of the people on this planet are blind to the fact (or unfortunately do not care) that their daily acts negatively impact and deteriorate what mother nature offers us. There will be a stopping point- where as a society we cannot go on living the way we do. We are ignorant to the fact that mother nature cannot continue to give all she has, while we sit back and destroy the planet with urbanization. Mother nature will not be able to sustain our population, without us giving back to her and protecting the environment. We only have one planet, and if change does not occur very soon the end will be near.  Yes, I am going outside the topic of Ethics in Higher Education because I feel very passionately about this topic, and I know I can strongly answer my inquiry question with a solid thesis. I am very outraged because of the large amount of ignorance that people have towards the issue regarding climate change. It blows my mind that some still can repudiate that claim. The first step towards success would be to educate our generation. We need to educate the ignorant, as well as further the knowledge of those who care about the future of our planet.  

   My research question: “Is it essential to become vegan to save the future of our planet?”. To arrive at this specific issue, I did not really need to use a strategy. Due to the fact that my major is called Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, I am always connecting my current assignments to the health of the environment. I feel so passionately towards the issue that I could make a connection between any subject/essay topic. At first, I did not know that I could go out of the course theme. As soon as I learned that we could, I knew I had to come up with a inquiry question that would lead to a thesis which would educate individuals on the issue regarding the deteriorating health of our environment. My hopes are that if more and more people start to being educated on the issue, positive change will start to occur. Honestly, I don’t think that people are aware of how much their daily acts make a fatalistic impact each and every day. After being educated, hopefully these individuals will change their ways as well as pass the knowledge on and inform others of the necessity for adjustment on the way we currently live our lives.

These two images caught my eye will researching my topic...

http://www.theisthmus.com.au/2016/06/the-environmental-burden-of-animal-agriculture/

The image above describes the drastic  amount of global freshwater supplies used to grow livestock feed (23&), global greenhouse gas emissions produced by livestock (14.5), global   land devoted to livestock feed (33%), and global land occupied by the livestock system (45%). 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions are proceeded by livestock. That simply cannot continue.

http://shrinkthatfootprint.com/food-carbon-footprint-diet

The image titled "Comparing Carbon Foodprints" depicts how "meat lovers" are at a 3.3 carbon footprint where vegans are at 1.5! We need to educate one another, and shrink the footprint that we produce.

      Some potential stakeholders that I could direct my argument towards would include:

-My generation

-Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

The one that appeals to me the most would be my generation. My generation are the ones that have to establish the positive change. We need to be the ones that actually make physical changes in the way we live our lives. It is pertinent that we start to adapt to living more sustainable lifestyles. This generation needs to set an example for future generations to come. The change needs to occur now because things will only continue to deteriorate if we keep living the way we do. On the other hand, if we all help to educate each other and everyone else around us then we can be on the path to a healthier environment, as well as a positive and clean future. I would rather persuade a stakeholder that agrees with my cause because then as they read my work they will be able to relate on a personal level with my ideas/views. It will be easier for them to agree with my points because they might have similar opinions towards this certain topic. On the other hand, it could also be beneficial for this specific issue if I persuaded an unconvinced stakeholder because ignorant individuals who claim that climate change is false need to become educated.

   My concerns while moving forward into P3 is making sure that I keep myself on track time wise, and stay organized. Staying organized and planning out my time will lead to a successful and stress free completion of P3. I am confident about this piece, because I know I will be able to form a profound argument. I might address my concern of keeping myself on track by making deadlines/goals for how much I want to accomplish by a certain date. This would ensure that I would not fall behind, and that I would not be rushing on the last night trying to put my project together. If I create deadlines then my work will be more thorough, because I am taking my time analyzing the sources/information instead of rushing. My other concern would be to stay organized, but I will be able to easily accomplish that by mapping out my deadlines, and keeping the sources that I find all together in one document (labeled, etc).  To help my writing process in class, possibly you could suggest ways that you have personally found most effective regarding ways to organize your sources and keeping on track time wise.

Sexual Assault on College Campuses

The topics I brainstormed in class for P3 were sexual assault, gun control, social media and obesity. Sexual assault is the topic that interests me the most. I am staying within the course theme of Ethics in Higher Education but I came up with a question that is not presented much in the book.

The research question I came up with was: Do perpetrators on college campuses receive a fair punishment for their actions? I knew that sexual assault was the topic I wanted to write about because the issue concerns me and I have done a lot of research on the victim side of sexual assault. I am aware of the impact that sexual assault has on victims because I have friends that have personally faced this issue. I also wrote P2 on sexual assault but my main focus was on the victims rather than the assailants. I wanted to learn about the other side of the issue in order to gain a better perspective of the perpetrator’s side. I looked up topics related to sexual assault and remember reading about the issue with perpetrators’ punishments in Ethics in Higher Education. I wanted to dig deeper into the issue of the punishment process for perpetrators. The more general topic of my question would be sexual assault.

Potential stakeholders for my topic would be WGAC, the deans of Colorado State, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), policy makers and possibly the court system. The stakeholders that interest me the most would be either policy makers or the court system. I think I would rather convince a stakeholder that agrees with my issue because the act of sexual assault is in no way shape or form acceptable under any circumstance. There have been a shocking amount of sexaul assault cases where the perpetrator walked away with little to no punishment at all. In the image below, the number of perpetrators who walk free out of every 1000 cases is shown.

“Out of Every 1000 Rapes, 994 Perpetrators Will Walk Free”. Image. RAINN. Matador    Network. 2006. Print.

My main concerns moving into P3 are finding enough databases for my specific question and being able to hold a strong argument and convince my stakeholder to take action. I think narrowing down my searches by the Morgan Library database I will be able to find helpful documents. In order to convince my stakeholders, I think I need to focus on the exigency of punishment for perpetrators. I believe the number one issue relating to perpetrators would be whether or not they receive fair punishments. There are things that can be done in class that can help me with my main concerns. I think we will discuss stakeholders more which would help me a lot. After realizing that the lack of punishment for perpetrators is a recurring issue for sexual assaults on college campuses, I want to research why they deserve harsher punishment. Aside from implementing ways to prevent sexual assault on college campuses, the next step towards  creating safer campuses is harsher punishment for those who perform the act.

Blog post #3

For our P3 assignment I have chosen to research a topic that is growing and has been around for quite some time. For this I, have chosen to the implementation of renewable energy in the United States. I have decided to go out of the topics in Ethnics in Higher Education due to the fact we have been spending a lot of time on them and wanted to try something new. Renewable energy is being more and more an important aspect of new technology and is growing every day to find new renewable sources to power cities and run cars. Furthermore, I came to choose this topic because I wanted something that is very prevalent today, and has been in effect before the present day. Also, to narrow my sources down a bit more I have decided to research the implementation of renewable resources rather than the overall study of renewable resources. What I plan to research is how the US is planning the implementation of renewable resources such as, wind turbines, hydro plants and solar panels across the country. I will also be comparing this to previous years to see how far the US has come and see if the US is speeding up and/or improving the race to full renewable energy. Some potential stakeholders that come into mind for this topic include. One, the US government, due to them being mostly responsible for the funding of major partners that have been producing renewable energy resources and machinery. Another stakeholder that comes to mind are companies like Americas Wind Energy Corporation who are based out of New York and are heavy producers of wind turbines in the US. Out of these two the one I would rather like to convince is the US government, it’s a big task, but they are the sole reason for providing funding and the resources to implement more renewable energy. While yes the renewable companies are direct sources to the implementation of new renewable resources without the proper funding they cannot create, the machinery required to run the incredible technology. The only things that concern me as I’m researching this topic is not finding enough research material to make this project. This is a very big topic of today, but the US might not be planning as much for the future as we think. If this is the case I plan to move past this by focusing of the implementation of renewable energy at CSU. This I know is a fact because I have talked to students trying to improve renewable energy, and making the push for having CSU being run on all renewable energy sooner. Something that I think would help me and maybe other students in this project could be a day of research in the library with the tools we have learned, so we can ask you questions and get feedback from you if the source applies to our topic enough. In all, I am very excited to research my topic and learn a bunch about renewable energy in the US.

Blog Post 3

For P3 I struggled with what I wanted my topic to focus on. I first brainstormed my interest then narrowed it down to the issues that society faces revolving around my interests. Working at an Elementary School most my High school career I always heard teachers complaining about the school system and the financial issues that comes with it. Working with people who hold this problem accountable for the inefficiency to receive the well-deserved benefits of their teaching career grasps my attention. I then supposed this topic is suitable since it manages to stay with in the course theme, it therefore must be sophisticated enough and has lots of credibility that can support it.

 My research question is: How could schooling systems manage their funding and spending efficiently so that teachers across the nation can get improved work conditions, increased salaries, and better preparation towards their job? To reach this question I first looked closely at who I wanted to be directing it to. I came up with a few assortments of stakeholders such as community districts, federal government, tax payers, parents, administration, and in some cases, student. I decided that the people who this would concern mostly is the National School Board Association. They are the advocates for public education in America they work with regulations in which directly impact the public policy making them an ideal stakeholder for my project.

I believe this specific and official association would like to improve the Nation's schooling system but will have high doubts as to how they could go about it. Being in a very high ranking they are accountable for giving the Nation a schooling system in which can function properly. Of course they always are trying to improve but things tend to dwindle down after the same system has been working fine for years. That's why we must take action which will bring the schooling system back to life

My topic revolves around managing financial spending and saving in order to benefit both hard working teachers, and our Nation's future. My concerns about going into this project is organizing and structuring my paper. I hope as we dig deeper into it I will get a better understanding of how to do this.

Blog #3

Elissa Forsyth

P3 Researching GMOs

For project 3, I decided to go outside of the course theme of Ethics in Higher Education. I chose to do this because I am very passionate about health, food, and science, so doing my paper about GMOs, would allow me to write about my interests and get experience in writing about a science related topic that would relate to my major, biomedical science. I brainstormed to research GMOs, with the subtopics on their effects on the economy of the world, the starvation issue, and the health of consumers because those are the main ways that GMOs affect us as people in the market that consume them.

My research question is: How are genetically modified organisms affecting the health of the consumers and the environment? Being as healthy as possible has always been one of my personal policies, however, I didn’t necessarily have a reason besides the fact that other foods outside of Whole Foods just simply weren’t necessarily considered healthy. For that reason, I wanted to find out why those foods that aren't considered healthy and what they actually do to the people that consume them and the environment that grows them. In Whole Foods, you can easily pick up any box or container and on the front of it, you can find a little logo that says Non-GMO Project. Taking into account that Whole Foods is all about health and this logo seems to be on almost every product, showing that it does not have GMOs, I got the hint that GMOs must have a negative effect attached upon consumption. Doing some basic research, I found that genetically modified organisms do in fact have some major health and environmental effects, sparking my interest to research it further. Check out this link for the Non-GMO Project to better understand what they stand for: http://www.nongmoproject.org/

Because genetically modified organisms have such a large effect on so many areas of our lives, there are many stakeholders. One would be Monsanto, the company that creates the genetic modification of the plants and sells the seeds. Another would be farmers who grow the genetically modified crops and other farmers that feed their animals the genetically modified feed. The health industry would be benefitting from the new problems created by the GMOs so doctors could also be considered stakeholders because they would be the ones curing those who became ill from consuming the GMOs. Drug companies would be stakeholders in a similar way to doctors, but would be making money from creating and selling new cures. Any organization trying to prevent popularity of GMOs in the food market such as the Non-GMO Project would also be stakeholders. Lastly, the consumers would be a stakeholder because their health is at risk because of GMOs. I would want to address Monsanto, because their corporation continues to grow and they need to understand the problems for, quite literally, the whole world. Monsanto would be considered an unconvinced stakeholder, but if they did become convinced to side with me, the biggest change in the food industry would result in contrast to addressing other stakeholders.

Moving into P3, I’m most concerned that it will be a struggle to find enough credible evidence for the GMO issue because GMOs are a relatively new issue that have not been able to be studied throughout the course of someone’s health life or on the environment. GMOs were brought into use in America in the 1990’s so it may be hard to find evidence that would support the fact that they cause long term negative effects, especially since science discovery is a slow process. To address this concern I will try my best to find credible sources and information and use the information that I can find in my paper.

Blog 3: Jake Romano

For the P3 analytical bibliography I have chose to do my research on depression as a whole and how it affects college students in their everyday lives. I decided to do this because I myself have had major battles with my on depression and I want to bring more rise about it alongside learning more about it. Depression is a major problem in adolescents. It is a hard disorder to fight and beat once one has it. I have been dealing with my own  depression for about 8 years now and it is a struggle to say the least. This project will help me learn more about depression as a whole on top of what in college and our adolescent lives cause depression. Once I have done my research I will propose a plan to students and the administration to help lessen depression causing elements in our daily lives and useful ways to cope and the ability to speak out to get help. In the picture seen to the right I feel this is a very good representation of what depression looks like and feels like. You feel constantly at fight with yourself and like the world and you are bring you down. And no matter how hard you fight and struggle you can’t come out of that pit. The goal of this project in my eyes right now is to better educate myself and the people around my on this serious illness. People in my opinion just over look depressed people as being weak and not about to deal with normal day routines. My goal is to end this and again bring new light to this disorder. Help myself and the many depressed youth around me find new light. To keep pushing forward and to help those about to take their live due to this horrid disorder. To sum it up i am very excited to learn more and to express my research and findings to all of you. I also hope i have moved all of you with this to be there for people and think the best out of them because you never know what is really going with them until you ask and show you care at least a little.