Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6
Filtering by
- All Subjects: carbon removal
- All Subjects: community
- Creators: School of Sustainability
Description
"Black in Bleu" is a reflection on my life as a young, Black woman in America told through poetry, and music in conjunction with feminist activists' work as well as results from a survey amongst other young, black students. This paper is a window into Blackness reflecting my experiences as well as many others in a way to find love in that reflection. There is a playlist that goes along with the paper meant to be listened to simultaneously with the reading.
ContributorsDowning, Ciarra (Author) / Acierto, Alejandro (Thesis director) / Reyes, Ernesto (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2023-05
ContributorsKealoha, Alisia (Author) / Adamson, Joni (Thesis director) / Arcusa, Stéphanie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2024-05
ContributorsKealoha, Alisia (Author) / Adamson, Joni (Thesis director) / Arcusa, Stéphanie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Currently, many countries are working towards transitioning into cleaner energy to meet the Sustainable Development Goals set forth by the United Nations to be met by 2050. Moving to cleaner energy resources, enforcing carbon taxes, and cap and trade programs are all examples of carbon avoidance. Carbon removal is used to describe something that removes the carbon already existing in the atmosphere. While most countries are making decisions that would support carbon avoidance, many scientists claim it will take more than making the transition to clean energy and that something needs to be done about the carbon in the air currently. This project will look towards researching the two methods and working to inform people about carbon removal since many people do not even know what this term means, let alone have heard of it before. To this end, I interviewed one of the lead scientists and engineers on the Mechanical Tree, ASU’s Center for Negative Carbon Emissions prototype that will hopefully champion the carbon removal movement. I created podcasts, conducted student surveys, and made an informative video on this subject to raise more awareness of the difference between carbon removal and carbon avoidance. I also researched carbon avoidance to see for myself whether or not carbon removal is necessary. I concluded by the end of this project that carbon removal and carbon avoidance are both necessary components in order to reach net zero by the mid century.
ContributorsKealoha, Alisia (Author) / Adamson, Joni (Thesis director) / Arcusa, Stéphanie (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Food waste is a significant problem in many developed nations, especially the United States. Each year millions of pounds of uneaten or partially eaten food scraps are thrown into landfill, where it degrades anaerobically, producing methane gas emissions, contributing to foul odors, and contributing to an unsustainable food system. This thesis project set out to conduct a small-scale composting system that diverted would-be food waste from a local food bank to a community garden, where food scraps would decompose into compost to then be turned into a valuable, nutrient-rich amendment in that local garden. Engaging with this food bank and community garden allowed us to leverage the existing relationship between the two, and experiment and develop a framework that would demonstrate the feasibility of a long-term composting system in this community. By conducting this project throughout 2021, we saw where strategies worked well, what challenges remained, and where future opportunities could be expanded on. In the end, we diverted over 2000 lbs of uneaten food away from the food bank and into our composting system. We concluded our project report by providing a set of actionable recommendations and future framework guidelines that could be used by the local community garden in the future or be referenced to by other interested parties.
ContributorsBardon, Lee (Author) / Marshall, Meghan (Co-author) / Nelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Winburn, Morgan (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-12
Description
Food waste is a significant problem in many developed nations, especially the United States. Each year millions of pounds of uneaten or partially eaten food scraps are thrown into landfill, where it degrades anaerobically, producing methane gas emissions, contributing to foul odors, and contributing to an unsustainable food system. This thesis project set out to conduct a small-scale composting system that diverted would-be food waste from a local food bank to a community garden, where food scraps would decompose into compost to then be turned into a valuable, nutrient-rich amendment in that local garden. Engaging with this food bank and community garden allowed us to leverage the existing relationship between the two, and experiment and develop a framework that would demonstrate the feasibility of a long-term composting system in this community. By conducting this project throughout 2021, we saw where strategies worked well, what challenges remained, and where future opportunities could be expanded on. In the end, we diverted over 2000 lbs of uneaten food away from the food bank and into our composting system. We concluded our project report by providing a set of actionable recommendations and future framework guidelines that could be used by the local community garden in the future or be referenced to by other interested parties.
ContributorsMarshall, Meghan (Author) / Bardon, Lee (Co-author) / Nelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Winburn, Morgan (Committee member) / School of Sustainability (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2012-12