Formative assessment marked the halfway point through my senior capstone. I had ideas about what I needed to design—waste collection bins, behavior incentives, a collection management system—but I needed specifics.

Formative assessment 1: What motivates people to pick up trash?
Rewards systems across the world each offer their own types of rewards through cash refunds, coupons, loyalty points, prizes, etc., but does one work better than another? Through discussions with rural Ohioans I found that some still participate in aluminum can refund programs and benefit from the monetary reward. I opted to explore two types of rewards: cash and coupons.