This study examines the creation of a sustainability toolkit that can be implemented in many communities, beginning with Johnson City, Tennessee. This project began in 2019 and will continue to grow indefinitely. For this project, a toolkit that will allow the public to have access to the tools and information they need in order to make their homes more energy-efficient will be created. It will be stocked in the local library in Johnson City Tennessee for free use to the public, as long as they have a library card, they can check out the toolkits. The toolkits will be used by the public, then returned to the library so that they can be restocked and checked out again. This study looks at the market, business and organizational research and the infrastructure of the project. Methods of research included looking at how the need for a change came about, who will benefit, existing similar programs and how they will be used in conjunction with this project, current organizational structures attached to the project, current team infrastructure and what resources are needed to fill the voids. Findings include what financial resources will be required and how they will be acquired, as well as resources that are currently available for this project and what is still needed in order for this project to be successful. As a result of this project, at least two libraries in the Johnson City area will be stocked with several energy toolkits for free and a partnership for future project expansion will have been established. This study looks at the process and what was learned during the implementation of the project.

The planet is going through a mass extinction event brought on by human influence: biodiversity elimination, habitat destruction, climate change, and many other cascading effects. The toll on nature is already unconscionable, yet this is already effecting human populations as well, and will only exponentially increase in the coming years. It won’t just be our children experiencing this crisis, it is us, now. It is already happening. Arguably a primary reason for these environmental issues falls to environmental externalities in our economic systems.

The only way to fundamentally address this is through a systemic introduction of labeling or reporting the environmental costs of products and services. Externalities are the hidden costs, or the costs not calculated in the production or use of a good or service. Through a lack of transparency, intentional obfuscation, and willful or pure ignorance, we as a species profoundly lack knowledge on how the products and services we consume affect the world around us. In fact, of 1000 global primary production sectors, none generate the profit needed to cover their cost in natural capital (TruCost, 2013).

The only way we can even have a chance to mitigate our impact is to be provided that data before we spend our money. As such, products and services must report their impacts on the environment through a standardized metric or grade on a label or report that is easy to understand and will capture information on biodiversity loss, climate change, pollution and waste. The only way for this to effectively take hold and maintain transparency is through governmental legislation and the associated infrastructure to provide a method for businesses to make such a calculation.

This paper describes the effort to design such policy, provide it to legislators and pass it. Most ideally, this would be integrated into a larger systemic bill designed to economically shape the country in a sustainable way. As such, this initiative is being proposed as an amendment to be added to House Resolution 109, the “Green New Deal.” Assimilating this as a specific initiative within the GND, which is currently more or less a framework of mission statements, provides a more solid groundwork for a successful legislative effort. The underlying concept is to enable the consumer with needed and usable information. There is no true guarantee of a “happy ending,” but at its core, it will help to hold businesses accountable and ultimately empower the common consumer to make informed choices, from whence the fate of our planet can at least be decided honestly.

Due to the elimination of the established instructional methods from the impact of COVID-19, the implementation of mass synchronous learning created a new strain of educational experiences for students that took a toll on social interaction. In the Spring 2022 semester, a survey was conducted of students that were previously or currently enrolled in the principal undergraduate biological sciences course, BIO 340: General Genetics, to assess both the prevalence of social interaction in the lives of the students and the potential ways this information could be molded to improve student’s educational and motivational experience. The results of this survey indicated that there was a considerable lack of social interaction and motivation among students that have taken or are taking BIO 340. Through a process of collecting qualitative data of students by 1-on-1 interviews, the majority of students requested that professors communicate with each other to learn more about ways they can incorporate social interaction as external technological applications and tools have been developed. Students brought up many external tools that professors in other biological sciences courses have been utilizing to engage student-to-student interaction and found these resources to increase their level of understanding and motivation. The driving interest behind this creative project is to understand the importance of peer-to-peer learning that may help guide professors that are new to synchronous teaching so that they may increase their level of understanding and comfortability of accessing resources that students themselves have shown to increase their educational experiences. The mixed-method design served as a means to understand what types of social interaction enhance students’ education and motivation.

Significant health inequalities exist between different castes and ethnic communities in India, and identifying the roots of these inequalities is of interest to public health research and policy. Research on caste-based health inequalities in India has historically focused on general, government-defined categories, such as “Scheduled Castes,” “Scheduled Tribes,” and “Other Backward Classes.” This method obscures the diversity of experiences, indicators of well-being, and health outcomes between castes, tribes, and other communities in the “scheduled” category. This study analyzes data on 699,686 women from 4,260 castes, tribes and communities in the 2015-2016 Demographic and Health Survey of India to: (1) examine the diversity within and overlap between general, government-defined community categories in both wealth, infant mortality, and education, and (2) analyze how infant mortality is related to community category membership and socioeconomic status (measured using highest level of education and household wealth). While there are significant differences between general, government-defined community categories (e.g., scheduled caste, backward class) in both wealth and infant mortality, the vast majority of variation between communities occurs within these categories. Moreover, when other socioeconomic factors like wealth and education are taken into account, the difference between general, government-defined categories reduces or disappears. These findings suggest that focusing on measures of education and wealth at the household level, rather than general caste categories, may more accurately target those individuals and households most at risk for poor health outcomes. Further research is needed to explain the mechanisms by which discrimination affects health in these populations, and to identify sources of resilience, which may inform more effective policies.

A Skunkworks project is the name given to a small team of individuals leading an innovative undertaking, and conducting research and development outside of the normal scope of an organization. With this concept in mind, our team of six individuals was tasked with finding and conceptualizing innovative solutions within varying business markets of interest. Our team started off with five markets that we identified issues in and were passionate about solving. These included Sports Engagement, Education, Student Debt, Digital Literacy, and Viral Health. From extensive research, trial and error, and endless conversations we settled on creating business models in two final areas: Student Debt and Viral Health. Our research in Student Debt led us to the discovery that the average Arizona State student, takes out $21,237 in loans for their four year degree and in the whole state of Arizona, a student takes on an average of $22,253. Our solution to this problem was to create a student financial app that served as an efficient debt tracker that provided important information about finances, investing, and student loan information. Additionally, our team also wanted the address the issue of sexually transmitted diseases, just a small scope of Viral Health, within Arizona State University. Our research led us to discover that 50% of people report not getting tested, and from this population most reported it was due to anxiety and financial issues. From our research the StayInformed app was created to provide students with better accessibility to both at-home and clinic testing services, and updated education on sexual health. With this project model we hope to increase the rate of students testing and allow students more agency over their sexual health. Although these two services are addressing very different markets, they both utilize forward thinking technology to create much needed solutions and better the lives of students.

Augmented Reality (AR) especially when used with mobile devices enables the creation of applications that can help students in chemistry learn anything from basic to more advanced concepts. In Chemistry specifically, the 3D representation of molecules and chemical structures is of vital importance to students and yet when printed in 2D as on textbooks and lecture notes it can be quite hard to understand those vital 3D concepts. ARsome Chemistry is an app that aims to utilize AR to display complex and simple molecules in 3D to actively teach students these concepts through quizzes and other features. The ARsome chemistry app uses image target recognition to allow students to hand-draw or print line angle structures or chemical formulas of molecules and then scan those targets to get 3D representation of molecules. Students can use their fingers and the touch screen to zoom, rotate, and highlight different portions of the molecule to gain a better understanding of the molecule's 3D structure. The ARsome chemistry app also features the ability to utilize image recognition to allow students to quiz themselves on drawing line-angle structures and show it to the camera for the app to check their work. The ARsome chemistry app is an accessible and cost-effective study aid platform for students for on demand, interactive, 3D representations of complex molecules.