CRESTs will be formulated according to student interests during the first week of classes. CRESTs will be teams of 3-4 persons working together and separately on a final report, on a topic of their choice, chosen from the table below.

    Each CREST meeting will be a time to interact as a group and one-to-one with the instructor in individualized learning. You are responsible for conducting discussions on aspects of the topic with team members and bringing new materials to the group. Each CREST participant must bring into the team meeting new written and copied materials for discussion each week. These materials advance progress towards submission of a final report.

    Each student submits THEIR OWN SECTIONS OF THE REPORT AND THEIR OWN FINAL REPORT.

    The instructor will work with CREST teams on (1) an individual basis during team face-to-face meetings (see course syllabus for meeting times), and, (2) during a second, weekly WWW chat session (time to be announced in class).

   It is important that each student understand that they alone are responsible for (1) researching with the help of the instructor (and other students) the materials for the report, and bringing new ideas and materials to the group in and out of class, and (2) that all students are required to join in regular chat sessions over the WWW on the project.

Goals

    The goals of the projects are to use the WWW and the science literature to develop a more effective educational experience for students that is both individualized and global, but maintains the rigor and high scientific standards of the University of California. Students will also develop team building and interaction skills in the course.

    Each CREST final report will be posted on the WWW pages in the Program in Global Sustainability after being edited by students and lastly by the course instructor. Student reports can serve as the basis of future publications in newspapers, as fodder for legislation, to help future students in these classes, and as scientific contributions.

Matrix of Potential CREST Projects

Resource Systems and Major Impacts	Africa	Asia	Pacific	South America	Central America	North America
Floodplain Rivers-Dams	Lake Volta, Ghana or   Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe/Zambia	Saguling-Cirata, Indonesia Costa-Pierce (1998)  or Ubolratana, Thailand	Sepik River, PNG	The Amazon River	Lake Nicaragua	Hoover Dam or Glen Canyon Dam
Wetlands-Aquaculture	Rufji Delta, Tanzania-shrimp	Gulf of Thailand, Thailand-shrimp	Indonesia-shrimp	Columbia-shrimp	Honduras-shrimp	Texas-shrimp
Coasts-Fisheries	Benguela Current-trawling	Bohai Sea, China-coastal fishing	Philippines-coral reefs	Peru/Chile-anchovetta	Gulf of Fonseca, Honduras-artesinal fisheries	San Pedro  Bay-southern California
Coasts-Pollution	Lagos, Nigeria	Beijing, China or Calcutta, India	Honiara, Solomon Islands or Suva, Fiji	Sao Paulo, Brazil or Lima, Peru	San Salvador, El Salvador or Mexico City, Mexico	Los Angeles, CA or New York, NY
Useful Links  The World Bank  The Reality of Aid  Land Tenure Center  UNEP GRID	Habitat in Developing Countries	Asian Development Bank	Asian Development Bank	Inter-American Foundation	Inter-American Foundation

Recommended Final Report Structure

Abstract  Write a Smashing Abstract!
1. Title and Outline.
2. Introduction: The setting. The overall issues and study objectives.
3. Social Aspects. The social capital (Goodland and Daly [1996]). Demographics, Culture.
4. Technical Aspects. The natural capital (ecosystems and ecosystems services, Goodland and Daly [1996]).
5. Problems. Social, political, economic, technical constraints to sustainability. Describe the problems: origins,         development, the way it is being address at present
6. Opportunities. The "basket of options" available to overcome problems and constraints.
7. Recommendations. Ranked in order of importance, but comprehensive.
8. References. Complete resource documentation of literature and WWW resources.

Assignments

    There are six (6) assignments in this course, all of which are written sections of a final class project. Each student will work in teams of 3-4 persons on their class project but will submit individual assignments, draft, and final reports on the schedule detailed below.

    For the assignments, each one must be submitted in hard copy and by e-mail (preferably) or on disk, so that CREST projects can be updated regularly on the WWW pages that the course instructor will maintain for each CREST.

Grading

 

Assignment Sections	Percentage of Grade	Due Date
1. Title & Outline	5	April 13.
2. Introduction & Social Aspects	10	April 27.
3. Technical Aspects	10	May 11.
4. Problems & Opportunities	10	May 22.
5. Draft Individual Final Reports	15	June 1.
6. Individual Final Reports	20	Last Day of Classes, June 12.
TOTAL REPORT	70% of grade

 

1. Assignments are due no later than the beginning of class.

2. If you do not meet that deadline, I will deduct 10% (e.g. one letter grade) off the numerical grade of the assignment IF the assignment is received by the beginning of the NEXT REGULARLY SCHEDULED CLASS.

3. I will accept an assignment late two class periods, but will deduct another grade (10%) off.

4. I will accept assignments that are late TWO CLASS PERIODS ONLY. All assignments not submitted by the two class periods after it is due it will be assigned a grade of "zero". Do not even attempt to submit these, please.

5. If you are ill or have a family emergency, it is YOUR responsibility to get a message to me as soon as possible, and BEFORE the assignment is due. If I don't hear from you two days after the assignment is due, the only way you'll be able to convince me to reconsider your situation is by bring in a letter from a doctor (having the doctor's phone number).

6. All assignments must be typed and printed on a word processor with your name on it, and the question or title and headings and subheadings (if a report) written clearly above the answer, then your answer following.

7. All question responses and reports submitted must answer the question clearly in grammatically correct English, be spell checked, and proofed before submission. While you are welcome to discuss assignments with your classmates, you are to write your own assignments individually.

8. Submission of identical or nearly identical answers in my judgment will result in these persons being assigned a grade of "zero".