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Student capstone and applied projects from ASU's School of Sustainability.

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Collective Action at the Shoreline: A Comparison of Lake Management Organizations in Vilas County, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Description
Community-based volunteer organizations are critical to natural resource management in the United States. However, due to volunteer involvement, these organizations struggle with collective action problems: coping with free riding, solving commitment problems, arranging for the supply of new institutions, and monitoring individual compliance with sets of rules. In this study,…

Community-based volunteer organizations are critical to natural resource management in the United States. However, due to volunteer involvement, these organizations struggle with collective action problems: coping with free riding, solving commitment problems, arranging for the supply of new institutions, and monitoring individual compliance with sets of rules. In this study, we explore how volunteer organizations can overcome these challenges. To explore how they overcome these challenges, we use the Institutional Analysis and Development framework and the Institutional Design Principles. These frameworks help us understand the impact of natural resource conditions, community attributes, and the rules in use impact volunteer organizations. For this research, we focused on lake organizations in Wisconsin. We collected our data through semi-structured interviews with thirty-one lake organizations and public data. The data were analyzed using constant comparison and linear regression, followed by qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). We reinforce the importance of considering the system holistically when managing a resource the natural resource conditions, the community attributes, and the rules in use. Our study shows the importance of graduated sanctions and low-cost conflict resolution on social-ecological system outcomes. Volunteer-based resource management are an effective way to tailor management strategies to the natural resource condition and the community attributes.
ContributorsWhittaker, Dane (Author) / Janssen, Marco (Contributor) / Janssen,Marco (Contributor) / Leonard, Bryan (Contributor) / Solomon, Chris (Contributor)
Created2020-04-24
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Exploring Sustainability Literacy through Nature Journaling in School Gardens

Description
Day-to-day decision makers on agricultural operations play a key role in maintaining both a sustainable and food secure agricultural society. This population, also defined as Principal Producers by the 2017 USDA Agricultural Census Report, has witnessed a significant decline in recent years, raising many questions surrounding why farmers are retiring…

Day-to-day decision makers on agricultural operations play a key role in maintaining both a sustainable and food secure agricultural society. This population, also defined as Principal Producers by the 2017 USDA Agricultural Census Report, has witnessed a significant decline in recent years, raising many questions surrounding why farmers are retiring faster than they can be replaced. To look closely at this phenomenon, this study focuses on the State of Ohio to hear first-hand from producers what they need to be successful through a series of semi-structured interviews. This study also maps recent changes in variables that define this issue from 2007-2017 using QGIS and USDA Agricultural Census data. The findings from this study show the recent decline of mid-sized agricultural operations and provide evidence linking declining rates of principal producer populations with specific features consistent with industrial agriculture. These findings are specific to the State of Ohio, but also raise much larger questions about which populations are experiencing more rapid rates of farm exit, and what implications these trends have for food security on a broader scale.
ContributorsMoore, Phillip (Author) / Chhetri, Nalini (Contributor) / Leonard, Bryan (Contributor) / Shrestha, Milan (Contributor)
Created2020
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Exploring Sustainability Literacy Through Nature Journaling in School Gardens

Description

Nature journaling in school gardens is a unique way to engage students in the natural world, providing time to notice, wonder, and observe through writing and drawing while engaging in environmental and sustainability learning. With the number of school gardens increasing in the United States, educators can benefit from understanding…

Nature journaling in school gardens is a unique way to engage students in the natural world, providing time to notice, wonder, and observe through writing and drawing while engaging in environmental and sustainability learning. With the number of school gardens increasing in the United States, educators can benefit from understanding what students experience while participating in garden-based learning activities so they can adapt their teaching to fit the educational needs of their participants. School garden studies typically focus on measuring academic and health outcomes and nature journaling studies typically focus on educator experiences with one classroom. We facilitated a nature journaling study with four elementary classrooms in a public, Title I school in the desert southwest to explore student experiences while nature journaling in their school garden. Our findings show that nature journaling provides opportunities for students to engage in sustainability literacy by helping them to develop a sense of place in their school garden, inspire environmental stewardship, and practice systems thinking right outside their classrooms.
ContributorsColbert, Julia (Author) / Merritt, Eileen (Contributor, Contributor) / Fischer, Daniel (Contributor, Contributor) / Marston, Sallie (Contributor)
Created2020-04-02