Title: ECO-CHALLENGE: City // Transport
Course: GG 22/23 Leuphana-Copy > Section: 2.2 City // Transport

Now that you have learned about the challenges of green cities and the measures that cities like Portland are taking, take a look at your own community.

Your guiding question should be: What are challenges that your community (family, friends, school, town/city) faces concerning the module topic? Or are there any best practices that you could share? You may brainstorm some issues and then decide on one to research in more detail.

1. Research

Plan your investigation carefully, and carry it out. It may help to make a research plan before you begin (see below). These are some possible approaches and methods you can apply:

- Conduct a questionnaire survey among your classmates, your sports team, your school, your community.
- Do a (self-) experiment, for example avoid using a specific product or change your habits for a period of time.
- Do an interview, for example with experts (e.g. environmental activists, business owners, researchers, engineers, waste managers, cleaning staff, etc.).
- Think of other creative ways to identify and visualize the impact of a sustainability challenge in your community.

2. Draw a conclusion

- Identify possible causes and effects of a problem
- Identify the underlying problem
- Brainstorming potential solutions

3. Develop an action plan

- What does it take to fix the problem?
- What resources do we have?
- What resources do we need?
- How can we get these resources?
- What can we actually contribute to solving the problem?

4. Document your eco-challenge - be creative!

Document your approach and findings well, e.g. in a
- One-minute video
- Short PowerPoint presentation
- Poster
- Photo diary

5. Present your Eco-Challenge to your class

- Be brief (roughly 10 minutes)
- Get feedback

6. Upload your Eco-Challenge into the DATABASE

DATABASE: Eco-challenges - City // Transport in the Virtual Town Hall.

7. ALL:  Vote on ONE Eco-Challenge to submit to the competition.

- Which is the best? The most realistic to implement? The one you would join?
- Review the eco-challenge everybody agrees upon and suggest final changes

Go to Section 3. Your sustainability action plan and follow the instructions to upload your courses action plan.
TASK: Sustainability project

[fa-file] Need some help?

Here are some eco-challenge suggestions for City // Transport:

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Earth Day Network: Earth Day, Take Action

[fa-glyphicon-plus] How to plan your research –step by step

Following these steps will help you plan your research together with your group members.

1. Research topic: What is the topic or issue?
Decide on the general topic of your research first. It may help to do a brainstorming of possible topics, a quick web-research or talk to an expert first. Some possible topics could be "plastic pollution on our school campus", "plastic recycling in our city", "plastic dependence of our household(s)" etc.

2. Research question: What do we want to find out?
Now decide what it is that you want to find out. Formulate a question that addresses your issue. Your question must be specific enough so that you can answer it. A possible research questions could be "How much plastic waste does our household produce over a week?" or "What are people's opinions on raising the price of plastic bags?"

3. Research method: How will we find out?
Decide what you will do to answer your question. This will include collecting evidence like interviews, survey answers, photographs and videos, experiment results, and so on. Also think about who is going to do what and when, and what tools and resources you will need.

4. Research hypothesis: What results do we expect?
Briefly note what results you think you will get. This is called a hypothesis. Your research may confirm your hypothesis or it may produce different results.

5. Research report: How will we document and present our findings?
Note how you will document your findings and present them later on in class and online. For example, if you do an online survey, you could create a PowerPoint presentation with diagrams, or you could write a blog entry about your research, or even produce a video or photo story interesting findings.

For more help, review the TIP: Conducting research.