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The Final Project
Now ask your students to write an awesome paper on how to fix the problem using their systems analysis to provide:
- A broad interdisciplinary context for the issue (including multiple stakeholder viewpoints)
- A feedback-loop-analysis justification for why they chose to target a particular process in their policy change recommendations.
Alternatively, you can encourage motivated students to “live” their project by actually implementing (instead of just recommending) their proposed changes.
Inspired by her analysis of the system, Kendra chose to complete her project by developing a brief but entertaining and informative web site about coral reef conservation. She designed it to increase awareness in tourists planning to visit coral reefs during diving or snorkeling trips. She then contacted the dive operator who had taken her family out to the reef during their vacation and invited him to share the site with his customers. To her delight, he agreed to put a link from his dive charter web site to Kendra’s coral reef conservation information. Prospective customers found the information interesting and helpful. The link actually increased his business, because customers realized that he was employing good coral reef conservation practices during his dive/snorkeling trips.
After this success, Kendra got excited about her potential to do other meaningful things for coral reefs, and she began to research careers with conservation organizations, environmental law firms, and government agencies that would allow her to take the next steps – helping to promote, draft, and implement legislation to protect coral reefs worldwide. |
