In these sample papers from the 2017 M3 Challenge, students focused on national parks and climate-related issues. Each paper has a cover sheet that indicates what judges liked about the paper and what could have been improved.
“In order to accurately predict the future of the Parks, we began with calculating the projected risk factor of the five chosen parks. The risk factor relates to the possible loss of land due to sea levels rising, on a scale of low, medium, and high, which resulted in Olympic National Park, Washington having the lowest risk factor and Padre Island, Texas having the highest. Meaning that when it comes to safety from rising sea levels Olympic National Park is the most worthy have having funds allocated towards, as there is little to no risk of a loss of property or human infrastructure over the next 50 years.”
“We have developed a mathematical model that could potentially address and solve some of the largest problems created by climate change for national parks in the United States. We gathered data from the National Park Service spanning from 1997 to 2016 on mean sea level, air quality, temperature, visitor statistics, and many other key factors that relate to the issue at hand. Using this data, we generated graphs, lines of best fit, and subsequent equations to represent the trend of climate change in five different parks in all parts of the United States. We then developed a climate change vulnerability score for each park based on factors such the likelihood and severity of natural disasters, fluctuating temperatures, and more.”
“A major concern for coastal regions is the change in mean sea level (MSL); over time, MSL values are predicted to continually increase. Because MSL is a useful indicator for predicting the health of aqueous environments, coastal regions are at risk of significant economic and environmental harm from the degrading health of their surrounding water. Specifically, the rising sea levels may prompt massive flooding; this will create problems for the NPS, as tourism is reduced and the biodiversity of its parks becomes diminished. Using information from five nationally representative coastal parks…the risk factors to NPS coastal stations from changes in MSL were monitored using information from the present time, as well as predictions on park risk over ten, twenty, and fifty years. This outlines a clear strategy for NPS action.”
