Student Project Templates

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The course project template catalog was developed for students who have open ended projects in their courses and need help coming up with ideas. Each project incorporates sustainability themes and encourage students to adapt the projects to their own fields of study. Most projects emphasize usefulness to campus - many of the proposed projects ask students to apply knowledge of sustainability and related concepts to propose ideas to make campus more efficient in its use of resources. The templates are designed to be sufficiently broad enough to be suitable for short-range and semester-long projects alike, and can be scaled up/down for individuals or groups, or otherwise customized for student needs and interests. If you have any questions clarifying the goals of one of the proposed projects, or would like to work with the Office of Sustainability and the Environment on customizing a project for your needs, please reach out to us at sustainability@uiowa.edu. 

ID# PROJECT TITLE BRIEF DESCRIPTION ACADEMIC AREA
12 Expand Packing Material (SC, Tippie)  Identifying buildings on campus to establish packing material sites Sustainability
8 Housing and Dining - track and report on local food coming in How far does our food travel? What is locally sourced? From where? Carbon impact? Sustainability
2 Campus Social Vulnerability to Hazards Build a social vulnerability index tailored to students on UI's campus usable by OSE and City Geography, GIS
18 Ecological Survey  Perform species studies and identify areas for habitat restoration, invasive species removal, etc. Environmental Science, Geography, Ecology, Biology
1 Bioswale Effectiveness and Suitability Study the effectiveness of the campus bioswales and identify possible locations for future swales Environmental Science, Environmental/Civil Engineering, GIS
16 Campus Water Use Audit How can campus reduce its water impacts; smart irrigation engineering component? Sustainability, Environmental Science, Engineering
19 Lighting Survey of Buildings Audit older buildings on campus to see if motion activated lighting and LEDs are installed, make recommendations Sustainability, Environmental Science, Engineering
20 Google Cardboard Video VR program for prairie plant identification, environmental learning, etc.  Engineering, Education, Computer Science
21 Permeable Pavement  Identify areas on campus suitable for the installation of permeable pavement, plan framework, demonstration component? Environmental Science, GIS, Business, Geography, Engineering
23 Green Roof Suitability Identify areas on campus suitable for green roofs, make a plan for implementing GIS, Sustainability, Environmental Science, Engineering, Finance/Business
5 Electric Car Charging Station Planning Identify areas on campus suitable for the installation of electric cars, build plan framework Engineering, GIS, Geography, Finance/Business
7 Life Cycle Assessments A variety of LCA related activities focused on products used in the University Sustainability, Business, Engineering, Geography
3 Travel Toolkit For Carbon Offsets Design programs for study abroad or travel-based courses to offset their carbon footprint Sustainability, Business
9 Marketing Surveys - perception or solutions Testing how people feel about sustainable products vs. competitors, testing solutions Marketing, Business, Sustainability
24 Sustainability Award or Incentive System Recognition for best departments, student innovation; a competition - blend with green room certification?  Sustainability, Marketing, Communications
17 Sustainability Statement Opportunities to increase visibility Which departments lack a sustainability statement? Who could update? Student orgs/student org constitutions? Sustainability, Communications
25 Reporting Mechanisms for Managers: Sustainability  Develop forms, reporting systems that enable managers to easily track sustainability performance; pick a dept Sustainability, Communications
4 Storytelling/art sustainability Literary art or creative writing on sustainability topics English, Creative Writing, Communications
22 Developing Videos For Office of Sustainability Videos that showcase sustainability initiatives on campus Journalism, Communications, Cinematic Arts
14 Display or Promote Artworks or Art Projects Visual art pieces that showcase the importance of environment, sustainability, etc.  Art