Welcome to the
first day of a
six-month journey!
Contact Us
A Perfect Storm?
John Beddington, the UK government's chief scientific adviser, warns of a possible crisis in 2030.
By 2030 "a whole series of events come together":
•The world's population will rise from 6bn to 8bn (33%)
•Demand for food will increase by 50%
•Demand for water will increase by 30%
•Demand for energy will increase by 50%
Six Skills We Develop in the Senior Sequence
Your timeline
Begin with broad questions
narrow down, focus in.
Proposal
OBSERVE
Analyze data.
Reach conclusions.
Senior Research Project
Sept. 22, 2011
October
November
December
January
February
Mar. 15, 2012
Available in the UCSD bookstore: We will use the same books for 186 and 187. All books are on reserve at the
Geisel Library
Green, Gary P. and Anna Haines. 2012. Asset building and community development. Thousand Oaks:
Sage Publications.
Marshall, Catherine and Gretchen B. Rossman. 2011. Designing qualitative research. Los Angeles: Sage.
Robson, C. 2011. Real World Research: John Wiley & Sons
Turabian, Kate L. 2007. A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations : Chicago style
for students and
researchers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Recommended Reading
Hale, Charles R. 2008. Engaging contradictions : theory, politics, and methods of activist scholarship. Berkeley: University
of California Press. (recommended, not required)
The heart of the matter: Your
Student Research
Portfolio
Supporting Databases
•Grand Challenges
•Opportunities
(Internships/Action Rsh)
•Mentors
•Research Groups and
Teams
Student-Mentor Research Teams
Each “Research Team” has one or
more designated mentors (faculty,
researchers and/or professionals).
Mentors are asked to:
•Play a facilitators role by providing
intellectual guidance at the outset of the
Senior Sequence (mainly in the form of a
short written guide prepared in
consultation with the course instructor.
The guides are part of the on-line
database).
•Meet with the student Research Team on
three occasions over a six month period:
once at the beginning (Oct), middle (Jan)
and end (Mar) of the Senior Sequence.
•Help compose their student Research
Team’s (a) section of the Sustainable
City-Regions Reader, and (b) optional 35 minute video vignette.
What is Research Team?
A Research Team is composed of 2-5 students joined together by common research interests (a Grand
Challenge). In a spirit of solidarity and creative networking, each team member is responsible to
participate in the following ways:
1. Support one another during the six-month Senior Sequence journey: Sept 2009 to Mar. 2010 (the
team will function as a source of critically constructive feedback and encouragement)
2. Seek mutually reinforcing opportunities to collaborate with one another on certain tasks
(finding/sharing contacts, reviewing literature, selecting methods, conceptualization, etc.)
3. Create a categorically organized list of readings, web sites, experts, ideas, questions, data, etc. useful
for researchers in their domain of investigation (this effort will build on initial input provided by the
team’s mentors)
4. Produce a team contribution to the Senior Sequence class of 2010 Sustainable City-Regions Reader
(the Reader is a summary of student research highlights, prepared by the mentor , to be published at
the end of the Senior Sequence)
5. Optional: Produce a short 3-5 minute video story about their team’s efforts and main lessons learned
(technical support and equipment will be provided).