1. Sustainability Freshman Inquiry
Feb. 24, 2010
Jeff Fletcher

2. Follow-up Library visit Mentor session PSU Recycles Service Project
Are we done?
Post mortem
Library visit
What is an academic source?
A reliable source?
Mentor session
Have peers sign-off on proper APA citations
3 academic sources + 1
Relate to student’s sub-theme
Lists don’t overlap
Read for Monday:
Chapter 1 in Questioning Collapse (on Blackboard)
Capitalism and Collapse (on Blackboard)
Homework #4 is on these readings
Midterm

3. Question
Explain the term “comparative method” or “natural experiment” and describe its importance to this book.

4. Possible Answers (p )
Science depends upon replicable controlled experiments
Is it ethical to experiment on large populations by withholding food or killing them to study the effects?
Comparative studies identify factors, then study societies where the factors are naturally present or absent
Use statistical methods when the sample sizes are large enough
Depends upon lots of accurate information about many details
often hard to know about past societies.

5. Question
Are there Modern Day Collapses?

6. Possible Answers (p. 22) Are there Modern Day Collapses? Haiti Somalia
Rwanda
The Soviet Union
What about today’s headlines?

7. Question
Based on your reading of the Prologue, do you think that Diamond is an objective researcher? Why or why not?