Four Mile Creek History, response from Hays

This topic submitted by Hays Cummins (haysc@muohio.edu) on 2/17/03. Additions were last made on Saturday, March 1, 2003. Section:

Hello,

Thanks for the proposal submission. My comments below are gentle critiques meant to help improve your proposal. So,.......without further adieu

My comments:

My first thoughts are "How in the heck are you going to determine the direct scientific impact of the growth of Miami University on Four Mile Creek?" The idea is intriguing, but very vague in execution.

You can make estimates, using real data, of water use over the years, pounds of coal burned at the steam plant each year, number of automobiles on campus and their estimated pollutant load (?), etc. But, there will be no direct measurements (as far as I know) of four mile creek science over the last several decades (again, as far as I know). And, how much of Miami's pollution conglomerate ends up in the creek? Which begs the question: what data will you be comparing today's data with?

The bottom line:your proposal needs much more development. For instance, your annotated bibliography needs to be incorporated into the body of your work. Your research design is vague,etc.

What is your hypothesis? hypotheses? What specifc predictions do you have?

Where to from here?
Here is another idea, a different approach but I believe it will be more manageable and be in the spirit of your original idea. Why not study certain scientifc components of the creek during this semester--diversity, chemical parameters, sediment load. etc. You pick it. Then, interview Miami employees, local residents, gather other info, etc. to learn about their perspectives on Four Mile Creek. Get real data from Miami on the above discussed parameters. Examine the many ways humans impact the system Couple the social science and humanities with the modern day Four Mile Creek System.

That's all I have right now. I'll be happy to speak with you further as you develop your ideas.

I'm looking forward to your second draft.

Hays C

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