"Students contrasted a chicken egg from a small farm compared to one from an agribusiness egg facility."
To help students relate dynamic systems to life cycles and consider the energy requirements required to grow (or produce) an item, we adapted a method from environmental engineering called the Product Life-Cycle Analysis. The assignment asked students to list the types of energy and materials needed for a product, going from the components to the products destination, including recycling/reusing/garbage and so forth. The assignment was qualitative, to roughly consider which of two alternatives might require more energy and materials, and under what circumstances one or the other was more eco friendly.'
