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Assignment #1 (due July 25)

So far we have seen the WID building and Earthships homes, a student garden and a school focused on gardening, and a waste water treatment plant. These are all examples of projects that try to solve problems in various systems. Some are designed to reduce human impact on the environment, and others provide for quality of human life in new and innovative ways — they re-design the systems.

Please write short answers to each part of the two questions below and email your completed work to Danny by 8pm on Monday, July 25th.

1: Pick one (1) of these examples and describe how it works as a system.

  • Use the terms from class: parts, connections, boundary, inputs and outputs, and feedbacks.
  • Identify at least two (2) broader systems the example interacts with.
  • Explain what kind of influence or impact it makes on those systems.
  • (In addition to written answers, you may also include anything else that helps (information online, notes from your journal, photographs, images, drawings, or anything else that helps to support your answer))

2: Consider either a US or Chinese strategic plan for sustainability over the next 25 years.

  • Identify any features of the example that should be part of that plan.
  • Explain why these features are important (or are NOT important) by making arguments and showing evidence (information or data online, points from discussion in class, notes from your journal, photographs, images, drawings, or anything else that helps to support your answer).