Homework (Due 1/7/16)

Homework (Due before class on Thursday, 1/7/16):  Read this brief review of how Canada's tar sands relate to the concept of EROI:  http://oilsandstruth.org/understanding-energy-return-on-energy-investment-eroei
If you still need a little more background info about EROI, check out this: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/eroi-behind-numbers-energy-return-investment/
Once you have a full understanding of tar sands and EROI, create a blog post that answers the following:
1) Which energy source should we extract and use first, oil shale or tar sands?  Why?

2) Describe one similarity between the process used to get oil from tar sands and the process used to get oil from oil shale.

3) Describe one key difference between the process used to get oil from tar sands and the process used to get oil from oil shale.

4) Explain, in terms of EROI, why the author believes "off-shore oil drilling may be a smart way to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the long run".

5) Use EROI/Best First Principle to explain one decision that you have made in your day-to-day life.  This could literally be anything, but I am looking for new examples other than the energy resources we have been studying.  In other words, you should provide an example of how EROI influenced a decision at your individual level rather than the societal level.

Population Growth Homework

Homework (Due Friday, 12/4/15): To get a feel for how population growth has historically impacted the environment, I am assigning this important reading selection: "Head Count: Fertilizer, Fertility, and the Clashes over Population Growth", by Elizabeth Kolbert (attached below). Stop when you get to the name Stephen Phillip Kramer. As you read, jot down some notes. Once you have completed the reading, write a 1-page persuasive essay (approx. 300 words) explaining whether the development of the Haber-Bosch Process has had an overall positive or negative impact on human civilization. Do not use any sources other than the Kolbert article and your own thoughts/ideas. Include some of the TFR (total fertility rate) data from the article, and mention the concept of doubling time in your essay. Use at least 2 quotes from the article. When your essay is complete, give it a title and post it on blogger.

Homework (Due Tuesday, 11/17):  Choose one of your peers and assess their draft lab report.  You will be assessing the nine aspects listed below.  It is not enough just to mark it as complete, partial or not at all.  Be descriptive with your feedback, and specifically outline what is missing from partial aspects, and where you marked any aspects as complete justify those marks with an explanation of what the student did to complete them satisfactorily.  Also, give general feedback on the formatting of the lab report and overall strengths and areas for improvement in each of the three criteria.  Please provide clear indication if the report connects student data with the data-logger printout (it is incomplete if this criterion has not been satisfied).  Also, please be aware that the discussion/conclusions sections for most reports will NOT address the procedures outlined in the introductory sections due to limited sampling opportunities while we were on the research vessel.  Please do not mark a lab incomplete simply because they were unable to implement their plan.

For a detailed description of the the nine aspects below you must click here.

Also, FYI, here are directions for inserting graphs into Blogger:  Right click on the excel graph and copy.  When you right click to paste the graph into your word document, you will have some paste options. Choose the last option on the right that allows you to paste the graph as a picture. Once you have the graph pasted into word using that option, you can right click on it and "save as picture" onto your computer. Then you can use the Blogger toolbar at the top to insert the picture into your post.  (NOTE:  THE LAB REPORT MUST BE MARKED INCOMPLETE IF IT DOES NOT CONTAIN AT LEAST 1 ORIGINAL GRAPH).

         

Criteria	Aspects	Complete /2	Partial /1	Not at all /0	Mark
	Defines the problem and selects variables
Planning	Controls variables
	Develops a method for collection of data
Data Collection	Recording raw data
and	Processing raw data
Processing	Presenting processed data
Discussion,	Discussing and reviewing
Evaluation and	Evaluating procedure/suggested improvements
Conclusion	Concluding

Teacher’s notes and comments on this item of work:

Criteria	Strengths	Weaknesses/ For improvement	Notes
Planning
Data collection and processing
Discussion, evaluation and conclusion

Research Plan for Seneca Lake (Due: 10/29/15)

We will be visiting Seneca Lake on Thursday, 11/5.  Aboard the William Shandling research vessel, we will collect samples from 3 locations (1 deep, 1 shallow, and 1 medium depth location).  Create a blog post that accomplishes the following:

• Identify a focused problem/research question that you would like to answer regarding Seneca Lake.
• Identify the controlled variables (as far as they can be controlled), the independent variable (hint: I wrote it above), and the relevant variable(s) you will need to measure in order to answer your research question.
• Write a paragraph that summarizes the relevant background information to set a "context" for your research problem/question.  Include in-text citations and a bibliography for at least 3 sources that you used to develop your background information.
• State a hypothesis for what you expect to find in regards to your problem/research question.  Justify your hypothesis with references to your background information.
• List and describe the methods you plan to use to control variables (i.e. think about the things you will want to keep constant for each sample location, and state how you intend to limit variability between location).
• Outline the procedures (with numbered steps) for how you plan to collect the data needed to address your research question/problem.  Focus on repeatability (could someone exactly repeat your steps based only on your outlined procedure).  Definitely use the Science on Seneca Manual to guide this section of the assignment.
• Close your post with one question you have about this upcoming field excursion to Seneca Lake.

Owls in the Temperate Deciduous Forest

Homework (Due Thursday, 10/15/15):  Create a post on your blog that accomplishes the following:

• Identifies the biome that is most closely associated with your endangered species (pick one).
• Provides a detailed description of the typical climate and geography range of this biome (in what areas of the world is this biome located, and what would it be like if I went there, including seasonal changes?).
• Lists at least 3 specific examples of the flaura (plants) and fauna (animals) that are commonly found in this biome, and explain the specific adaptation that allows each of these to survive in this biome.
• Identifies at least one major environmental problem that is prominent in this biome AND proposes a solution for this problem.
• Describes your endangered species' niche (i.e. how does your organism function in this ecosystem?  What does it "do", and how does the ecosystem support it?)
• Outlines a typical food chain that includes your endangered species, and correctly identifies the trophic level of each species in the food chain (i.e. secondary consumer, etc.).
• Lists at least one other species (besides humans) with which your endangered species competes, and explains the specific niche overlap that leads to this competition.
• Includes a works cited section at the end with MLA citations for at least two outside sources.

How to Assess IB Lab Reports

Homework (Due Tuesday):  Choose one of your peers and assess their draft lab report.  You will be assessing the nine aspects listed below.  It is not enough just to mark it as complete, partial or not at all.  Be descriptive with your feedback, and specifically outline what is missing from partial aspects, and where you marked any aspects as complete justify those marks with an explanation of what the student did to complete them satisfactorily.  Also, give general feedback on the formatting of the lab report and overall strengths and areas for improvement in each of the three criteria.  This is an intense assessment format, so please take your peer reviewing very seriously.

For a detailed description of the the nine aspects below you must click here.

Also, FYI, here are directions for inserting graphs into Blogger:  Right click on the excel graph and copy.  When you right click to paste the graph into your word document, you will have some paste options. Choose the last option on the right that allows you to paste the graph as a picture. Once you have the graph pasted into word using that option, you can right click on it and "save as picture" onto your computer. Then you can use the Blogger toolbar at the top to insert the picture into your post.

         

Criteria	Aspects	Complete /2	Partial /1	Not at all /0	Mark
	Defines the problem and selects variables
Planning	Controls variables
	Develops a method for collection of data
Data Collection	Recording raw data
and	Processing raw data
Processing	Presenting processed data
Discussion,	Discussing and reviewing
Evaluation and	Evaluating procedure/suggested improvements
Conclusion	Concluding

Teacher’s notes and comments on this item of work:

Criteria	Strengths	Weaknesses/ For improvement	Notes
Planning
Data collection and processing
Discussion, evaluation and conclusion

Welcome (third time is a charm)

Alright, lets try this one more time!

Welcome to our IB Environmental Systems and Societies blog.  Homework will be assigned on Monday, and will be due either on Fridays or Thursdays (check this HW schedule for all assignment due dates for the first marking period).  Each assignment will be accompanied by a grading rubric, and the assessment will either be complete, partial, or incomplete.  You will be assessing the work of your peers and providing meaningful feedback to each other.   Each week you will be providing feedback for one classmate (choose a different classmate each week; you should make a copy of and use this matrix to keep track of who you have assessed), and your comments must justify your assessment decisions.  For example, if you mark the assignment as partial, state what was missing and provide suggestions for how it could be completed.  If you mark the assignment as complete, describe how the author was successful.  Also, when providing feedback, include at least one question for the author, and note at least one thing that was of interest to you (maybe something that was surprising or that you had not thought about before).

Your assessments and feedback will typically be due two class days after the assignment due date.  All students are required to respond to all feedback provided by their peers (usually due within 48 hours of the feedback due date).  Make sure that you answer any questions posed by your peer reviewer, and generally reply to any ideas that were raised by the feedback.  If the assessment was partial or incomplete, now is a final chance to make corrections for full credit.

If you do not provide feedback and/or do not respond to peer feedback, you will receive a grade of zero for that week’s assignment.

Late posts will not be accepted (will be marked as zeros), so you must adhere to all deadlines outlined in the HW schedule.

You cannot assess a classmate’s post if it has already been assessed by two other peers (first come, first served).

Important:  sarcasm and/or negative/inappropriate comments will not be tolerated in these blogs, and will result in a zero for the week’s assignment.  DO NOT REFER TO ANY CLASSMATES BY NAME IN ANY POST, FEEDBACK, COMMENT, OR REPLY.  The peer feedback system will work best (and personal grudges will be avoided) if you are anonymous to one and other.  Please do not try to guess who each other are.  Consider the peer feedback system as a serious way to engage with your classmates on the range of issues that we will be investigating this year.