Class Project Guidelines and Instructions

General guidelines

The class project is an activity-based assignment. That is, I want you to get hands-on with sustainable lifestyle issues. The key word here to keep in mind as you think about what you might like to do is "lifestyle". For this seminar, what we're really interested in are the ways most people currently choose to live versus alternative and more sustainable ways of living that most haven't yet experienced. Since there isn't just one sustainable lifestyle to fit everyone's needs, this predicament and its solutions can be conceived of in a variety of ways, depending on one's perspective and goals.

One of the goals of this seminar is to have you come away with experiences that will have taught you something about actually living more sustainably here in LA. So, your project should be something experiential. Each of you will submit a proposal at the beginning of week three, which I will go over with you in class. Week 4, begin your project, if you haven't already done so by then. Your project should take you on a month-long journey into sustainable living. During that time you are required to compose several blog entries that reflect on your ongoing project. These entries should be thoughtful, relevant, well written and perhaps reflective, critical, or descriptive of your experiences that arise from your project.

For your final assignment, you are asked to give a short presentation about your project during week 9 or 10. An outline of your presentation is due Thursday of week 7. By now, you must be wondering what this is all about and what you could possibly do for a project, so without further ado here are your options to choose from:

Project Options

Option 1: Change how you live and then write about it

Use your carbon footprint calculation to identify the areas of your lifestyle that contribute the most to your carbon footprint and reduce them by making some significant changes in your own lifestyle. For example, if you are a heavy meat eater you would go vegetarian. If you drive a lot, you would reduce your mileage and commute by bike or public transportation. Several books/documentaries have been based on this sort of model- the family that only bought American for a whole year, another that tries to reduce their impact to zero (No Impact Man), a PBS reality series where families recreated early American life on the prairie, a guy who eats all the McDonald's he can for a month (Supersize Me), another guy who smokes all the weed he can for a month (Superhigh Me), a writer, Barbara Kingsolver, who moves her family out to a farm and grows all her families food for a whole year,... the list goes on I'm sure. These people do these radical living experiments to 1. Experience life differently and share that experience, and 2. To make some point (e.g. McDonald's is really unhealthy).

Option 2: Be an advocate of change, here on campus

If you choose this option, you have to come up with something very specific that you want to see changed on campus and embark on a mission to make that change happen, or you have to join an ongoing campaign for change that has been organized by one of the student groups (namely E3). If you choose the latter, you must take on responsibilities as a key player in that campaign.

Option 3: Design your own sustainable community

If you are a graphic artist and into public policy-making and architecture, design a sustainable, urban community. Your project should include drawings or models of the community as well as an explanation of all the features that make the community sustainable. This design should embody a philosophy of or perspective on sustainability and should also integrate form, function, and ecology. Go to the art library and look at some architects' books that already do this.

Option 4: Write a guide to sustainable living in LA for folks in the lower economic brackets.

Not everyone has the funds to shop at Whole Foods or savings to buy a cabin in the woods. Write a short guidebook that will persuade the average Jane or Joe Schmo that living sustainably is not only affordable, but healthy and fun for the whole family, or just plain cool. Put your devious marketing savvy to good use by selling sustainability to the masses.

Option 5: Devise an entertaining and educational performance or presentation about sustainable living for K-6, junior high or high school

If you choose this option you will have to perform it for your final presentation.

Option 6: Write your own cook book about sustainable living and sustainable cooking.

Write a cookbook on sustainable eating with sidebars about sustainable living. Cook something that embodies sustainability and feed it to us for your final presentation!

Option 7: Do your own thing

Propose something else to me and if I think it is 1. Doable in the time allotted; and 2. On par with the rest of the suggestions here, then go for it!

Timeline and Details

1. Email me a half-page description of what you propose to do for your project, no later than Monday morning of week 3.

(Note: If the project you have in mind is something that inherently warrants a multiparty effort, then you may work in groups of no more than 3. But if you go this route, your reasons must be well-justified in a joint proposal submitted by you and your partners.)

2. Email me a half-page description of what you propose to do for your final presentation, no later than Thursday morning of week 7.

3. Sign up for a presentation slot, week 8.

4. Present, weeks 9 and 10.