Participants must form a partnership with an organization within their community.  Together, participants and organizations must collaboratively engage in an activity that enhances their local community.  

 

Project ideas:  See ideas in the sub-themes below.

 

NOTE:  Begin collaborating with potential partners right away.  Doing so will increase project efficiency.

 

Recommended Process for Participants:

 

Step One:  Find Your Topic (October-November)

• Identify environmental issues/problems, threats or impairments in your community.

• The focus of this step is to have students accurately, comprehensively, and scientifically assess the conditions of an area so that their subsequent work addresses a genuine threat or problem.  

• It may be necessary to collect scientific data to support your inventory  (To collect scientific data, students may need to take species inventories, water quality sampling, or other quantitative measurements.  Additionally, it may be important to seek the advice of specialists and professionals.)

 

Step Two:  Select Your Topic With An Outcome In Mind (November)

• Use a decision-making process that supports a teamwork ethic.

• Select at least one impairment or threat to be the focus of your project with some innovative solutions in mind.

• This will become your project focus.

 

Step Three:  Research Your Topic In Depth (November-December+)

• Identify the human behaviors, policies, laws and regulations, current management practices, best practices, historical information, causes, effects, etc. related to the problem.

• Identify key players (specialists, professionals, policy makers, etc.) regarding the problem to contact them for additional information – before you draw conclusions, ask questions.

• Describe a variety of community opinions about the problem.

• Based on what you have discovered from above, develop a recommendation for improving a policy or practice.

 

Step Four:  Decide What To Do (December-January)

• Develop and use criteria for selecting a strategy for this project.

• Use a decision-making process that supports a teamwork ethic.

• Select one strategy to be used when carrying out the project.

• The goal here is to develop a list of strategies for bringing about lasting change to the selected problem or threat.

• Include this with your research and submit it to the coordinators.

 

TEAM CHECK: The Impact of Capacity

• Do you have enough of capacity within your team to accomplish what you what you decide?

  • Any barriers now or that you foresee? Can we stick to our work plan?

• What rules do we need to break to make this happen?

• What’s the plan if we hit a speed bump? Is someone or something dragging you down?

• Contact Dan Hoynacki dan.hoynacki@oregonstate.edu voice/text 503-551-3455 with questions. Either Dan or Ryan Kinnett will get back to you.

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Step Five:  Take Action (December, January through May)

• Establish a plan of action with a timeline.

• Seek an organization to partner with (share your research and previous work with them to encourage support).

• Ideally, this partner should be willing to provide your delegation with financial support or sponsorship to attend the CEI Conference.

• Advocate and spread awareness by engaging the public in multiple venues and document your advocacy with photos.

• Remember to document all activities, including how many hours everyone contributes, even if some of the work previously occurred.

 

Step Six:  Looking Back and Ahead (April-May)

• Assess the impact of the project (include feedback from your collaborating organization).

• Decide what, if anything, has been left undone.

• Consider what you would do differently if you were to conduct a similar project in the future.

• Address whether or not your solutions could be applied on a large scale for the benefit of society.

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OUTCOMES​

• Project Presentation:  Delegations develop 10 minute Google Slides presentation showcasing their project, research, and outcomes.

• Project Write-up:  Delegations must submit a 2-4 page project report including research, actions, and all other project information.  With the project write-up, include 1o photos of project work and a group photo.

• Project Hours:  Please submit the number of hours your team contributed to the project.  The hours should include time from anyone who assisted with the project, even those who were non-delegates, and hours researching and service hours related to your efforts.

• Project Exhibition:  For those wishing to share poster presentations, we'll provide a location at the conference to do so, though posters are not a requirement.

• All written research should be sent to info@ceioregon.org.

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