Natural Resources Conservation 497MS - ST-App/DoItTogether,EnvMonTech

In this class, students will meet and form teams to identify an environmental monitoring project they would like to design and implement. After projects are identified, we will use weekly class sessions for roll-up your sleeves working sessions on these projects. In these sessions you will (1) utilize online educational material to learn the technologies needed to build your device; (2) work iteratively, to develop and test a project prototype; and (3) (hopefully) develop a working system.

Students who are in less technical fields are invited to propose a project researching the social or public policy implications of one of these technical project ideas. Opportunities will exist for students to undertake a "service learning" aspect of their projects, by perhaps teaching Amherst middle- or high-school students about these technologies. Finally, students will document their projects through real-time "research notes" on the open science, PublicLab.org website.