All available student projects with the Community-Based Education (CBE) Program are listed below.
If you do not see a project that fits your interest or program, please contact us; we can advise you of projects currently being developed!
The project list is updated regularly – please check back often.
Project Title |
Description |
#4264 Potential for locally produced hydro in Haliburton County | This project is focused on how to assess the potential for solar and/or hydro electric power in Haliburton County, with the specific purpose of informing potential business start-ups about what they need to consider in order to be successful. Students will be providing a background on what is required for solar and hydro development and investigate whether Haliburton County is suitable for this type of development. The information will be compiled into a pre-feasibility study identifying appropriate public/private buildings, assessing the capacity of the lines, identifying options for individual home/business owners, etc. |
| #4263 Involving the Community in Local Food Initiatives | The Abbey Gardens project presents a number of different opportunities for community members to become involved. Volunteers currently assist with garden operations but there are opportunities for participation in educational programming and store operations, etc. The purpose of this project is to consider what types of activities are suitable for volunteers and what types of management would be important to make volunteering experiences successful. |
| #4262 Sustainable Market Store: Education and Promotion | Abbey Gardens currently hosts a 1 acre market garden. They produce vegetables for a local farmer’s market and a CSA program. In the spring/summer of 2012 the Fleming Sustainable Building Program will be constructing a building at the Abbey Gardens site to house a creative exchange mart and community kitchen. The vision for the space is that it will provide local businesses with an outlet to sell their products and a kitchen to create value-added products. The community kitchen will also serve as a public programming site for information on local food (growing, preserving, cooking, etc.) The purpose of this project is to develop educational materials for the site and provide a plan for virtual promotion. |
| #4261 Experimenting with Garden Yields | Abbey Gardens currently hosts a 1.5 acre market garden. They produce vegetables for a local farmer’s market and a CSA program. The purpose of this project is to assess the impact of garden practices on the yield of the garden, specifically the application of well water vs. lake water and the application of organic herbicides. This project will involve:1. Developing a research methodology to assess the impact of well water vs. lake water and herbicide application at the garden 2. Identifying appropriate test plots and setting up the experiment3. Monitoring yield throughout the season4. Collecting and summarizing resultsThe student(s) should be prepared to work with and train volunteers at the garden to assist in the experiment. |
| #4260 Options for Composting | Overview – The original vision of the Abbey Gardens project was the inspiration of John Patterson after a visit to the Eden Project in Cornwall, England. This project reclaimed a large China clay mining pit by building large domed greenhouses and educational infrastructure. The Eden Project attracts visitors from around the country and the world, has helped to rejuvenate the local economy and has become a self-sustaining entity and the catalyst for many environmental movements.The vision put forth by John Patterson in 2007, has evolved into the Abbey Gardens Community Trust, which is a not-for-profit organization focused on a community-based effort to reduce Haliburton’s carbon footprint and to foster community-based action research and sustainable initiatives that will contribute to the ecological, economic and cultural vitality of the community and the health and well-being of its residents.Abbey Gardens Community Trust has begun to gain some traction in Haliburton County by initiating local efforts towards environmental awareness and self-sustainability. Some of these efforts include involvement in establishing the first Farmers Market in Dysart et al (2009), building raised garden beds at three local community gardens (2010), creating a market garden in an old gravel pit (2010/2011) and hosting a community awareness event on the importance of local food (2012). Abbey Gardens participates in the weekly farmer’s market in Carnarvon, operates a CSA program and grows free-range chickens that are fed organically and are available for purchase. Gardening MethodsAbbey Gardens practices organic farming principles, such as crop rotation, composting, and biological pest control to keep soil fresh and full of nutrients, allowing for increased productivity, and healthier plants. Companion planting is an important part of Abbey Gardens, which we use to keep pests under control, and to enhance the quality of our produce. While we are not certified organic, we promote and follow organic gardening principles and practices, ensuring that our garden is chemical free. |
| #4255 Oral History of Agricultural Practices in City of Kawartha Lakes | Agriculture is an important cultural heritage of the City of Kawartha Lakes. Farming, from cattle to crops, has been a critical social and economic driver in this rural landscape. There is a long history of multigenerational family farming in the region. Many new and young families are also moving into the region to embark on small scale and sustainable farming. As older generations pass away, the stories and memories are lost, which means that the history is lost as well. Oral histories are important means to understand the social, economic, technological, and environmental changes in agricultural practices that have shaped the rural landscape. Stories learned from older generations will also be useful for younger and new generation farmers to learn from past experience and to understand farming as a profession and a lifestyle. The purpose of this project is therefore to conduct an oral history of agricultural practices using multimedia tools to record conversations with farmers in order to understand the social, economic, technological, and environmental changes in agricultural practices. |
| #4254 Outdoor Learning Grounds Design | Richard Louv has written persuasively about a phenomenon he describes as the Nature Deficit Disorder (NDD), experienced by children of all ages. As children spend up to 6 hours in front of a glowing screen indoors, they are not, he argues, playing outside and encountering nature. As a consequence, children are becoming disconnected from their local environment and from the very life processes that sustain us all. The purpose of this project is to investigate what makes for effective outdoor learning grounds. More specifically, what makes for a creative outdoor play area for teaching children about wildlife and nature? What types of activities stimulate outdoor learning? What kinds of design elements are developmentally appropriate for younger elementary students, older elementary students, high school? Based on research findings, the researcher will suggest a number of design elements that the host organization can incorporate into planning. |
| #4240 Assessing efficiencies in Rural Hospitals | Part of the hospital staffing model includes a manager on-call system. This system ensures that there is always someone to contact when key decisions need to be made and a manager is not on-site. The purpose of this project is to assess the effectiveness of the manager on-call system as a decision-making model at HHHS and in comparison with two other similar rural hospitals in Ontario. Findings will assist rural health care providers to identify human resource and patient utilization patterns that could be instrumental to improving quality of services for patients and increasing efficiencies. |
| #4239 Community Supported Agriculture Tour: Design & Deliver | The purpose of the project is to design and deliver a popular-education-based workshop/tour for educating and involving the community in the alternatives that exist to conventional supermarket retailers (e.g. connecting community members and their food choices to issues like food security, sustainable agriculture and agrarian reform). The focus of the project is Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) as an alternative to conventional food systems. (The CSA tour will be based on preliminary research findings from yet-to-be completed CBE project #4239 “Community Supported Agriculture Tour: Prep” which will include an extensive literature review and perspectives gleaned from local CSA participants) |
| #4236 Investigating Neighbourhood Cohesion | The purpose of the project is to improve the capacity of Peterborough residents to build inclusive and safe neighbourhoods. Students will research communities in similar mid-sized Canadian municipalities who have created neighbourhood alliances for fostering inclusive and safe neighbourhoods - ideally producing five to six case studies. If there is time, students will also talk with local service providers about stories and tools for fostering neighbourhood inclusion and safety in Peterborough. |
| #4232 Active Transportation: Designing an Observational Study | The purpose of this project is to gain a better understanding of how to design and use observation studies to assess the level of active transportation in the community. |
| #4230 Community Supported Agriculture Tour: Prep | The purpose of the project is to conduct preliminary research for educating and involving the community in the alternatives that exist to conventional supermarket retailers (e.g. connecting community members and their food choices to issues like food security, sustainable agriculture and agrarian reform). The focus of the project is Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) as an alternative to conventional food systems. |
| #4217 Housing in Haliburton County: The Narrative Stories | The project is to gather personal narratives from a broad spectrum of people about the impact of housing on their lives. The base question is: How does the housing you have (or have had, or need) impact on the quality of your life? We would assist with identifying participants who, among them, cover a variety of life circumstances or points in the life cycle in which housing plays a particularly pivotal role. The underlying belief is that one’s housing – which in a rural setting gives location special importance – plays a primary role in supporting or constricting quality of life. It can create, exacerbate, or ameliorate life cycle challenges. A better understanding of what the crucial elements of these events are perceived to be, and how they interact, will help develop housing, social and health policy that meets the needs of our citizens. There is considerable exploration of this question in urban environments. The rural reality is importantly different, but the differences are not well explored or articulated in either popular or academic literature. Until the crucial differences are better understood and communicated, policy will continue to create urban solutions that are a poor fit with rural reality, leaving it to rural citizens to manage, individually or collectively, the necessary amendments. We anticipate that the narratives we propose to collect will explicate the differences by describing the accommodations that people make. This project is for graduate students only. |
| #4214 “Show me the money”: Gifting in Haliburton County | The purpose of this project is to better understand giving patterns in Haliburton County to determine the appropriate focus for the GIFT foundation. The main research questions are:- What is the role of philanthropy in Haliburton County?- Who is giving funding and for what?- Who is receiving (philanthropic) funding and for what? Students will be conducting in person or telephone surveys (interviewing) with funding sources in the following categories:1. Groups or organizations who give philanthropic grants or gifts, including those who - redistribute money raised by conducting events in the community - redistribute money raised by receiving donations from the community - redistribute money received from philanthropic bodies or sources outside the community 2. Groups or organizations who receive philanthropic grants or gifts.The host will work actively with the student/s to develop a data collection instrument and/or will approve the instrument they develop, and will provide a list of contacts for the students.The students will then collect the data, compile the results and attempt to identify the mechanism/s by which money circulates within the community, including - is raised in the community and is redistributed within the community, - comes from outside the community and is distributed within the community, - is raised in the community and sent outside the communityand variations in patterns or mechanisms associated with the ‘cause’. |
| #4209 Main Street Coboconk: a historical view | The purpose will be to develop maps and charts showing what buildings and businesses were located along the Main Street and side streets of Coboconk as well as those along the river.The student(s) will create maps of the business sections of Coboconk. Charts will also be set up listing the various businesses in Coboconk over the years. ie: General Stores, blacksmiths, bakeries, garages, funeral homes, etc. |
| #4208 The role of expressive arts in health care | The Visible Voices program has shown that engaging in expressive arts can improve quality of life for seniors – both those volunteering and those participating in the program. The purpose of this project is to share these outcomes with other health professionals and to begin a conversation about how to integrate expressive arts professionals into the health care team.Students will be organizing focus groups to provide a venue for presenting the outcomes of the visible voices program. Students will facilitate and record discussions and develop a report on how expressive arts professionals can play a role in the provision of health care in Haliburton County and other rural areas. |
| #4207 Grow Me Instead! Invasive Horticultural Plants | The objective of this project is to inform and engage the landscape industry and gardeners in the management of invasive species and the reintroduction of native plants into our settled landscapes. This project compliments and builds-upon the previous work the Healthy Yards program, which focuses on the education and engagement of gardeners, and is informed by the results of recent market and ecological research and the continued input of the horticulture industry. |
| #4204 Supporting Rural Small Business: Assessing the need for a temporary help agency | The purpose of the project is to determine if there is sufficient interest in and demand among the community for a temporary help agency in Haliburton County. The student(s) will need to engage employers in Haliburton County to find out if they think there is a need for a temporary help agency in the County. Employers (many of whom can be identified through the Chamber of Commerce) from all sectors should be included in the survey (tourism, forestry, healthcare, recreation, food service, retail, etc.). |
| #4200 Seed Saving | The purpose of this project is to investigate the history and operation of other community seed saving projects across North America and make recommendation as to how this type of project might best be established by the host organization. |
| #4189 Community Health Care Planning | The purpose of this project is to conduct a survey with residents of the village of Omemee to assess the demographics and the needs and priorities for future health care planning in the area, particularly whether or not there is a need for a dentist in a rural village. |
| #4187 Digitizing Archives and Analyzing Trends in the Media | The purpose of the project would be to update a student newspapers digital archives and analyze trends in story coverage in past years. The student will also write an article or articles for this year's volume of newspaper highlighting their research findings and relating those findings to current issues being covered by the newspaper. |
| #4185 Economic Benefits of Culture and Heritage | The purpose of this project is to conduct research on economic benefits of cultural heritage conservation and develop a list of indicators to evaluate these benefits. Ideally, students will complete a project that can be used for advocating cultural recognition and protection, heritage conservation, and appreciation in the Kawarthas. |
| #4184 Local Art and Social Media: Getting the Word Out | The goal of this project is to assist a local art center undertake a re-organization of their resources in such a way that they are more accessible to the Peterborough community, and at the same time use new media to communicate to the public that these resources are available to them. |
| #4180 History of Education in Haliburton County | The purpose of the project is to record the history of education in Haliburton County. The findings (research, photos, etc) will be made available for public use. These records will be held in the HHGG resource library within the Haliburton County Library system – Minden branch. The student would seek out and record facts & stories about the history of education in Haliburton County. This would involve visits to various archives, libraries and other repositories of historical, legal and government documents & books; and interviewing past and present residents of the community. These interviews would be conducted on a one on one basis. The student may also be instrumental in writing & creating periodical newsletter articles to be included in the HHGG newsletter ‘Original Roots’. This will create further interest in assisting with information The student’s work will be compiled into an easy to read organized format. |
| #4162 Community Squash Club Business Plan | The membership in the squash club has fallen to a critical level and the club is having difficulty covering the costs of the facility in which the courts exist. The club needs assistance to develop a Business Plan for the club. It is envisioned that such a plan will include a membership marketing plan as well as suggestions of the viability of other strategies that might promote sustainability by offsetting cost (ie – attracting partners who may pay a fee for use of facility such as aerobics classes). |
| #4148 Evaluating an Elementary School Theatre Program | The purpose of this project is to understand and tell the story of the Linamar for the Performing Arts program in Guelph, Ontario – a long-term performing arts program for all elementary school children from Grades 1 through 8. The project also involves seeking out literature about comparable arts programming for grades 1-8 in Canada, United States and the United Kingdom. We hope that the results of this research will allow Peterborough stakeholders to make better informed choices about planning for similar programming with grade 1-8 classes in the local region. |
| #4139 Feasibility of the Kawartha Loon Exchange | A local currency can be a significant incentive for citizens to buy local and for locally owned farm enterprises and merchants to develop more local and secure supply chains, building local resilience in the process. The purpose of this project is to determine the feasibility of the Kawartha Loon Exchange (KLE) local currency model against both the market and other comparative local currencies both within and without the Transition movement. The final report will highlight success and risk factors to be identified in a business plan. |
| #4137 Evaluation of Professional vs. Community Theatre in Mid-Sized Ontario Communities | The purpose of this project is to examine the role of professional theatre versus community theatre in other communities in Ontario that are similar in size and demographics to Peterborough. Through specific case studies, we hope to determine how professional and community theatre manage to thrive (or not) working side by side in other communities and use this information to improve our status in Peterborough. |
| #4131 History of Peterborough Area Militia Units and the Fenian Raids | The purpose of the project is to document the historical connection of the Peterborough area militia units to the Fenian Raids of 1866 to 1870. The student will be conducting research that will expand on this base of knowledge and, using primary sources (local newspapers, firsthand accounts, contemporary documents, military records), highlight the involvement of local units and individuals who participated in the defense of Canada during the Fenian raids. We would like to include this story as part of our annual Historic Dominion Day special event interpretation and other education programming. |
| #4126 Memoir of an Environmental Health Activist II | The purpose of this project is to continue to document the personal story of a long standing occupational and environmental health activist and to capture important facts in the history of Peterborough’s industrial era. |
| #4120 Evaluation Criteria for Heritage Sites | A heritage committee in the City of Kawartha Lakes needs a standard evaluation and ranking system to assist in the examination and classification of buildings considered to have architectural and/or historical value. A clear standardized evaluation system would make it easier and allow for consistency in decision-making regarding heritage properties. |
| #4094 Cultural Exhibit - Arts-Based, Environmental and Cultural Education Travelling Exhibit | The purpose of these projects is to develop and design an interactive, arts-based, curriculum-linked travelling exhibit promoting Environmental Education and Cultural and Natural History. These exhibits are large portable interactive exhibits of approximately 100-200 square feet, designed to be integrated with our Discovery Box Program. Each exhibit is thematic, arts-based and aligned with Ontario curriculum targets. There will be four exhibits in total, connected by a central Environmental Stewardship Kiosk. The exhibit topics include: wetlands, biodiversity, geology/geography, and local cultural history. |
| #4093 Geoscape Exhibit - Arts-Based, Environmental and Cultural Education Travelling Exhibit | The purpose of these projects is to develop and design an interactive, arts-based, curriculum-linked travelling exhibit promoting Environmental Education and Cultural and Natural History. These exhibits are large portable interactive exhibits of approximately 100-200 square feet, designed to be integrated with our Discovery Box Program. Each exhibit is thematic, arts-based and aligned with Ontario curriculum targets. There will be four exhibits in total, connected by a central Environmental Stewardship Kiosk. The exhibit topics include: wetlands, biodiversity, geology/geography, and local cultural history. |
| #4092 Backyard Biology Exhibit - Arts-Based, Environmental and Cultural Education Travelling Exhibit | The purpose of these projects is to develop and design an interactive, arts-based, curriculum-linked travelling exhibit promoting Environmental Education and Cultural and Natural History. These exhibits are large portable interactive exhibits of approximately 100-200 square feet, designed to be integrated with our Discovery Box Program. Each exhibit is thematic, arts-based and aligned with Ontario curriculum targets. There will be four exhibits in total, connected by a central Environmental Stewardship Kiosk. The exhibit topics include: wetlands, biodiversity, geology/geography, and local cultural history. |
| #4013 Municipal Community Economic Development Phase Two: Marketing our Area | The purpose of this project, phase two, is to assess the complement of existing businesses and suggest what types of business could be attracted to the area. In addition, recommended marketing approaches will also be an outcome of the project. |
| #3066 The Story of the Lake - Building a Community by Knowing our Past | This project is intended to capture various elements of lake history utilizing the memories of senior property owners as well as secondary research. This is seen as a project for multiple groups of students. Some of the topics will require research at the Land Registry Office; others will require sifting through a survey recently sent out to all property owners; others will require a visit to the local museum to search out documents or visiting a local historian; others will require a visit to Ministry of Natural Resources offices and Parks Canada. The students will be researching and compiling various “chapters” to a document that could tentatively be called The Story of the Lake – Building a Community by knowing our Past. |
