Green Mountain College
ER-18: Sustainability Research Incentives

To graduate, a Green Mountain College student must conduct a substantive piece of sustainability research in the capstone ELA course entitled "A Delicate Balance" and must earn a passing grade. The general description of this assignment is as follows: The “Delicate Balance Project” Assignment Project Overview: The Delicate Balance project is a culminating service activity that you research, design, carry out, and write up. The project is both scholarly and action oriented: that is, you both write a paper that supports your project and carry out the project. Required elements include: 1. Project Proposal (group, 5%) 2. Annotated Bibliography (individual, 5%) 3. Research Paper (for peer and instructor review, 12-15 pages) (individual, 20%) 4. Project Presentation (group, 5%) 5. Final Paper/ Project Report (revision of #3, 12-15 pages) (individual, 5%) Project Description: This is where you are to put your idealism into action. The project is the real-world expression of your environmental and social ethics—-a public activity that addresses a need. You are to find a problem involving community sustainability (broadly defined), research it, and deliver a solution through civic engagement. The topic and service component of the Project are open, though you must include supporting evidence drawn from scholarly and professional research. Projects are most often cooperative: look for others with similar interests. Your instructor will make past examples available, but do not be limited by what has been done. Be creative. The default is that you’ll work in a small group;working individually requires instructor approval. ---------------------------------------------------------- In addition, the College has a trustee research award of up to $10,000 available to teams of faculty and students to work on projects to enhance the sustainability of the local community. Past awards have included research on local support for a Poultney community energy plan and research on the cost-effectiveness of weatherization of housing stock in Poultney.