Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

School Gardens: Cultivating A Child’S Nutritional Habits, Environmental Knowledge, And Sustainability Practices, Jeffrey Meltzer

Honors Theses

School gardens have existed since the late nineteenth century and today are becoming increasingly popular in many parts of the world, including where I studied in Maine and Australia (AUS). Multiple organizations support school gardens in Maine, including the Maine School Garden Network, which has over 125 registered school gardens. In AUS, the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation primarily supports the school garden movement and has over 800 registered school gardens. While many researchers have studied school gardens, few have compared two countries, focused on environmental sustainability, or investigated Maine in particular. This thesis combines information from literature reviews, and …

An Investigation Of Renewable Energy Projects And Their Potential Applications At Assumption College: Wind Turbines And Geothermal Heat Pumps, Melanie Mccauley

Honors Theses

This thesis researches the possibility of a renewable energy project specifically for Assumption College. As the school is already investing in solar power, my study looked at the feasibility of a wind turbine or geothermal heat pump unit on the campus. I conducted interviews with various institutions that have already undertaken similar projects so that I could better understand the process of installing these technologies, to discover possible funding that could be available, and the success of this technology in other schools. The economic advantages and the positive impacts on students and the neighboring communities were some of the benefits …

Conservation Easement Policies Across New England, Virginia A. Keesler

Honors Theses

This thesis examines conservation easement policies across the New England states. Conservation easements are legal agreements through which landowners donate or sell some or all of their properties' development rights to conservation entities, typically government entities or land trusts. I specifically ask: How do conservation easement policies compare across the New England states? How can conservation easement policies be reformed to enhance the use of easements as a conservation tool? Although easements allow conservation entities to conserve more land for less money, the ecological and social implications of the increased use of easements have been debated.

I evaluate data availability, …

Net Co2 Reduction Analysis For A Wind Farm, Darren Del Dotto

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the net CO2 reduction benefit that can be achieved by using wind instead of coal power. Coal power has a significantly higher rate of CO2 emissions than wind generation, but wind power generation has a significant amount of embodied energy. The goal of this study is to determine the net carbon reduction benefit that can be achieved using wind power after accounting for factors such as embodied energy in materials and construction.

The Effects Of Fire And Deer Herbivory On Oak Regeneration In An Eastern Deciduous Forest, Julie La Spina

Honors Theses

In the past, oak was one of the most dominant species groups in the deciduous forests of the northeastern United States. More recently, a variety of factors, including interspecific competition, fire suppression and deer herbivory, have led to the decline of oaks. We studied how oaks regenerate and grow following a major disturbance, and how their growth interacts with deer herbivory. We measured the growth of seedlings of three tree species following the 1,200 hectare Overlook Fire that occurred in Minnewaska State Park, NY in April 2008. At each of three sites, we measured the growth of twenty Quercus prinus, …

Extinct And Extirpated Birds And Mammals Of Arkansas, Nora Smith

Honors Theses

Arkansas was purchased from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Parts of it were explored by the Dunbar and Hunter expedition in 1804-05. ln 1819, it was detached from the Missouri Territory and made a separate territory. By 1821, the capital moved to Little Rock, and on June 15, 1836, Arkansas became the 25th state of the United States of America. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission was established on March 11, 1915, and the first "real" law pertaining to game hunting was passed. The commission started to establish game refuges in 1929, and by 1960, it …

Macrofungi Of The Tennessee River Gorge, William D. Starrett

Honors Theses

Representative macro fungi of the Tennessee River Gorge were collected on the Tennessee River Gorge Trust (TRGT) property during 18 forays I conducted fom May to November 2004. This dramatically added to the baseline data on the macrofungi of the TRGT by adding 15 orders, 34 families, and 138 species to the existing list. These data were recorded in the herbarium of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga database. I converted the University's File Maker Pro fungi database into Microsoft Excel and Access, which allows it to be processed for introduction into the National Biological Information Infrastructure and onto the …

Land Ethic, Margie Reyenga

Honors Theses

I once heard a man speak that his purpose in living was to appreciate life. The theme of this paper has somewhat the same message to convey. The life he spoke of and of which I am to write didn't entail only human beings but encompassed the whole natural world with its interlocking dependencies of abiotic and biotic components. The implication of his thought to me was profound, for it seems the vast majority of us live not in appreciation of life, but rather in the acquisition of material securities.

An Evaluation Of Roadside Litter, Rex Moreland Terry

Honors Theses

In a society in which issues such as environmental protection, cleaner air and cleaner water are receiving increasing verbosity, the time appears ripe for a factual analysis of a too-little thought of problem connected with these issues--the problem of litter on the nation's highways.

Although only a fraction of total waste, littler constitutes the most visible waste since it is ever-present on our nation's increasingly traveled highways. Society has begun to look more critically at the litter problem. There have been clean-up campaigns, roadside barrels, signs warning the motorist of the impending penalty for littering; but the problem remains. These …