Cycles of matter: Puppet theater

This week, randomly-selected student puppeteering troupes are putting together shows about cycles of matter (carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, rock, and water), which are essential to understanding environmental science. These 10-minute shows will teach about the reservoirs and transfers of matter within each cycle, will reflect accurately and completely the chemistry involved, will be creative and weird, and will be practiced and smoothly presented (assessment will be based on those criteria, a playbill, a poster describing each cycle, and how classmates score on a quiz about cycles of matter).

 

Student troupes should let the instructor know by the end of class Tuesday if any special materials are needed. Practice time is on the long period day, and a playbill and poster about each cycle is due by the end of class that day. Performances are Friday.

News and pictures

If it seems like there's a lot here to read, scroll down. The second half of this post is the best part. Also, don't forget that the two posts prior to this one were exceptionally important – they're still there, just scroll down!

It's break and time to reflect amidst the family time, relaxation, strange work schedules, lingering bits of homework, etc. The Copenhagen Summit is over, President Obama is home, and it's still not clear exactly what it all means. Either I'll try to figure it out by the time we get back, or some savvy journalists will do that for me.

Here's some concrete and definitely positive news, for those who don't yet know. First, Nathan Hale won a $15,000 grant from Symetra Financial and the Seattle Seahawks to buy new science equipment – not to replace the old stuff, but to bring us into the modern age. This will make us a true leader in science education, and if the information about last year's winners is any indication, Hale winning this grant may eventually involve a Seahawk player leading a "Go, Raiders!" cheer without irony! Our very own English teacher Shannon Conner won the Symetra Heroes in the Classroom award, making us eligible for the grant. Students Gareth C., Aki N., and Henry O., who are starting a Science Boosters group for their senior projects, presented the proposal to a panel at Qwest Field with Principal Jill Hudson, science teacher Karl Englert, and me. Here's Englert and Gareth (to Englert's his left) serving ice cream at the Science Booster table at the recent Bite of Hale:

Second, an Environmental Science concept map is now hosted on the Hale Web site – check it out; it may just help you study, organize your thoughts, etc.

Third, many of you know that I advise the YMCA Earth Service Corps club at Nathan Hale. This year's student members – especially leaders Lisa B., Thomas H., Becca L., and Charlotte N. – are an exceptionally enthusiastic bunch, as evidenced by this attendance graph put together by Thomas H.

Fewer words, more images. Click for full size.

Taken by me:

By Audrey W.:

By Thomas H.:

By Charlotte N.:

By Devon A.:

By Alex T.:

Things to do over break

Though your break is well-deserved, you do have a bit of work.

1. The Lithosphere Test is online. You are responsible for taking the test prior to midnight on December 31, 2009. It will take you less than an hour. The test can be started at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=0AmlslyiNqw-ncFFRN2RBZndERGRFY3ZnWl9JXzRvRXc&hl=en.
2. The Personal Energy Audit assignment is due Monday, January 4. It's tricky; be careful. It is posted to this blog at http://haleenvisci.blogspot.com/2008/12/where-does-your-energy-come-from.html.
3. (Re) read Miller Ch. 3 to prepare for your return to class.

Where does your energy come from?

Where does your energy come from?

 

Introduction

A great deal of energy will no doubt cycle through the system of your home (or a family member's home, friend's home, condo, hotel, tent, etc.) over break. Your task is to make a quantitative estimate about how much energy you used, and where it came from.

 

For background information, check out the Web links posted to http://trackstar.4teachers.org/trackstar/ts/viewTrack.do?number=370209

 

You will need to know or closely estimate your daily, monthly or yearly use of electrical energy, natural gas, heating oil, gasoline and any other source of energy. Looking at your family's heating and electric bills can reveal this information.

 

Other background information includes the following. Note that units vary between English and metric as do industry standards. (Molnar 173) 

• 
  
  1 kWh = 3.41 x 10³ BTU
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 BTU = 2.93 x 10^-4 kWh
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 BTU = 1.055 x 10³ J
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 barrel oil produces about 19.5 gallons of gasoline
  
  
  

 

• 
  
  1 pound bituminous coal = 1.2 x 10⁴ BTU = 1.3 x 10⁹ J
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 barrel oil = 5.6 x 10⁶ BTU = 5.91 x 10⁹ J
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 cu. ft natural gas = 1.030 x 10³ BTU = 1.09 x 10⁶ J
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 g ²³⁵U = 4.0 x 10⁷ BTU = 4.22 x 10¹⁰ J
  
  
  
• 
  
  1 gal heating oil = 1.39 x 10⁴ BTU = 1.47 x 10⁸ J
  
  
  

 

• 
  
  U3O8 costs $10.15/pound = $0.022/gram
  
  
  
• 
  
  Coal costs $24.38/ton. 1 ton = 2,000 lbs.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Natural gas costs $4.67/1000 cu. ft
  
  
  
• 
  
  How much does your electricity cost? Why?
  
  
  
• 
  
  What about gasoline?
  
  
  

 

Assignment

Your personal energy assessment is due Monday, January 4. You are limited to one double-sided page.

• 
  
  How much energy do you use as a family? What about you individually? Show your caluculations, with units throughout.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Show your energy use graphically – how much of the energy you use comes from different sources? Which of these are renewable? Which are nonrenewable? Which ones came from the lithosphere?
  
  
  
• 
  
  What other uses of energy were you unable* to quantify? How much would these change your result? (*Not because it was difficult – because it was impossible.)
  
  
  
• 
  
  Show, in a flow chart, how energy flows from natural resources through your system. Be as complete as possible.
  
  
  
• 
  
  Compare the costs and benefits of as many different sources of energy as you use.
  
  
  

 

References

Molnar, William. Laboratory Investigations for AP Environmental Science. Saddle Brook, NJ: Peoples Publishing Group, 2005.

 

 

Lithosphere Review

Environmental Science lithosphere unit review

 

Exam information

• No notes allowed, no calculators allowed. Use of notes or calculators constiutes cheating and will result in a score of zero for the entire exam – no warnings.

• 15 multiple choice items – 15 minutes

• One four-part or two two-part free-response item(s) – 22 minutes

Study hints

• The test may include material from the previous unit – not in stand-alone items that test your knowledge of the living world, but in items that involve both the biosphere and the lithosphere. A good example of this sort of integrated understanding is how lithospheric nutrient resources contribute to the world's food supply.

• Don't re-read all of the chapters. Skim them if anything, looking for major concepts in the headings of each section. If you feel like you don't understand something, re-read that section only.

• Look at the end of the textbook chapters – there are review questions designed to check and extend your understanding. You could do these questions in a study group with other students.

• Don't forget that in this unit, there was a great deal of material covered in class that is NOT in your textbook at all, and there were some concepts in your textbook reading that weren't discussed in detail in class. Study your notes.

• Again, look over your class and/or reading notes – if they're well organized, this should be your best resource for studying.

• Vocabulary will be key, since test items will use specific vocabulary with little or no context.

Topic study table

Note that a lot of things are interconnected. This is a bare-bones framework to remind you what understandig is expected of you. You should not interpret this as an exhaustive list but as a starting point.

Topic	Sub-topic(s), concepts	Lab investigations and activities
Geology	Plate tectonics Northwest/Washington geology Rocks – igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary Geologic processes Erosion/weathering Deposition/sedimentation Metamorphism Volcanism	Rock exploration and identification Sedimentation lab
Mineral resources	Mining Techniques/methods Impacts/pollution/etc. Examples	(Rock exploration and identification)
Soils and agriculture	Soil types and horizons Soil formation and chemistry Nutrients in soils Agricultural practices Sustainable vs. unsustainable The "green revolution" Soil conservation practices, problems affecting soils	Soils lab Rock weathering mini-lab Being outside with the soil   (Sedimentation lab – very tangentially related)
Scientific inquiry	Posing testable questions Designing investigations Interpreting data Applying results	All lab investigations!! Examples of other science research

 

Soil data entry

Soil data spreadsheet

Climate Change News

There's big news as far as global warming goes – as I write, representatives from 192 countries are gathering in Copenhagen to hammer out something to deal with the crisis of anthropogenic climate change. The science is in, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is there, and President Barack Obama is planning on attending, but the talks could still break down as a result of significant economic disparities in the world. Still, the outlook is promising, and a quick search of Google News for "Copenhagen Summit" shows the world is paying attention.



On Monday, the EPA announced a finding of endangerment stating their authority to regulate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases under the 1972 Clean Air Act. While such regulation may or may not occur, the finding is certainly a long-handled political lever that will help President Obama in Copenhagen and on Capitol Hill.



As part of the preparations for the finding, the EPA held public comment hearings – only two hearings for the entire United States – and one was in Seattle. Last year's Environmental Science students traveled to the Bell Street Pier to participate in a rally outside the convention center where Administrator Jackson was listening to public testimony – students themselves would have testified, but signups for delivering testimony were the hottest ticket in town since Pearl Jam played Benaroya Hall. Nevertheless, the students were there, holding home-made banners, listening to speakers, meeting politicians, etc.



Two thoughts. First, whatever comes out of Copenhagen, recent developments have made it clear that last year's Environmental Science students will have played an influential role. If you took the students at Bell Street Pier out of the equation, the results of Copenhagen would probably be the same – but take people like them around the world out of the picture, and the result would be decidedly different.



Second, someone asked: what's this about students protesting something? The short answer is that I don't know; the long answer has several parts. I'm not sure this was really a protest – if there's a difference between a protest and a rally, then this was a rally. I'm not sure that regulating carbon dioxide under the Clean Air Act is a political (or even moral!) decision – it is, most of all, a purely legalistic finding. Finally, even if you consider this a protest rather than a rally, and if you consider protesting a political act, then it is, after all, a moral act: I am certain that some regulation of greenhouse gases will help humankind. Last year's Environmental Science students were helping humankind.

Environmental Case Study Paper

Environmental Case Study Paper

Due dates

• Outline due Tuesday, December 8.
• Paper due Friday, December 18.
• You may turn in a rough draft on Friday, December 11 if you want feedback. You may also choose to take the risk of having your first draft be your graded draft; i.e., to not write a rough draft.

The objective of this paper is for you to use evidence to demonstrate your understanding of the Elwha Dam removal issue, show an ability to make connections between this issue and another environmental issue elsewhere in the world, present that environmental issue clearly, to show how individual people can be significant in solving environmental problems, and to show that you are capable of synthesizing multiple viewpoints by using citations correctly. A paper that meets all the parts of this objective is a good paper.



I considered giving you a description of exactly what to write in each paragraph, because I do have an idea of what this paper would look like if I wrote it myself – but I'm not writing it myself. In college, you will be asked to respond to complex writing prompts by developing your own papers entirely. Previously, we "scaffolded" your ability to write such papers by telling what each paragraph should say; now the training wheels are starting to come off, but the scaffolding that remains and is provided by me for your construction of a coherent argument is the outline that I require of you. Suffice it to say that there are multiple ways to write a good paper. Use the objective above and the questions below as a checklist to write a good paper; no "rubric" exists – each element will be graded and should be done flawlessly.



Important questions to consider when you are thinking about your paper are:

• What are the natural resources involved in the environmental issues you're writing about, especially the resources that are common to the Elwha and your topic?
• What are the human impacts upon these resources, and how do these human impacts create an environmental "problem"?
• What potential solutions are there to the problem? What are the tradeoffs associated with each solution?
• Who is an individual who matters in this environmental issue? or How could an individual affect this environmental issue in a positive way?

Environmental Case Study Paper Brains...

Environmental Case Study Paper Brainstorming Homework - due 12/1

 

Purpose: Students will be able to name environmental issues and/or topics that are connected conceptually to the Elwha Dams Removal Project by concept mapping, and students will use this exercise to develop topics for the Environmental Case Study Paper project and find resources related to their topics.

 

Instructions: Draw a concept map with Elwha Dam Removal at the center or top. Draw big ideas that are related. For each big idea, name smaller concepts and/or environmental issues you have heard about that you think connect to them. Pick three specific environmental issues from your concept map, and for each of these find one written resource that pertains to it. Write a one-sentence summary of each of those written resources and cite it in MLA format.

Several reminders!

Don't be late for our field trip to the University of Washington Planetarium on Friday, November 20. We'll meet outside Room 123 and head to the bus stop from there.

Fourth period students should use the fifth period data, available on a published Google spreadsheet, to write this week's lab. It's due the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and is a group lab report.

Fifth period students should have received a packet of reading and an advisory to check this space for homework due Tuesday, November 24 from students in fourth – see below for that homework.

Rock and mineral guide homework

Rock and mineral guide homework

 

Make a 1-sided 8.5"x11" guide to key out at least 20 important rocks and minerals. You should use the assigned reading as well as other resources you find for this assignment – be sure to site sources (the sources handed out this week are cited in the course syllabus).

 

This guide could be a table, decision tree, pictures, a labeled diagram, etc. – whatever you think will work to key out real rocks on Tuesday, November 24.

Sediment and water velocity data entry

Enter the data for your sediment lab in the embedded form. Press the back button on your Web browser to fill the form in again. The data can be viewed at http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=tecCSVpgHV0VJItNo2v9oww&single=true&gid=0&output=html.

NBC Nightly News | U.S. razing dams to restore waterways

H/T to Eva Foster of OPI for the link to this video that features the removal of the Elwha Dams!

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Lithosphere Unit Syllabus

Lithosphere Unit Syllabus

Ready to step it up a notch？ Me too. The pace is faster, the work is more grueling, the days are shorter, and the weather is worse. The tradeoff is that we'll be studying things that are super-relevant to your daily life, will make you an expert about the natural history of the Pacific Northwest, and are my own personal favorites. Additionally, I will give you the best handout you will ever receive in your entire career as a student.



Just so you know, I know what the lithosphere is and is not. Suffice it to say that this unit includes the study of things outside the lithospere.



Important dates to remember

• 
  Present-12/18 - ESITNAs. Don't forget yours!
  


• 
  12/16-12/17 - Unit exam (long period)
  


• 
  12/18 - Environmental Case Study paper due
  

Schedule - subject to change









































n/a

Dates and topics	Homework and supplemental readings (due Tuesdays of weeks shown)	Lab investigation (lab report due a week later; i.e., long period day)	Textbook (Living in the Environment) reading (by Fridays)	Standards alignment (see main course syllabus)
11/16 Intro to Earth and space systems How do we study the Earth and space? How old is all this stuff? What happened here?	None, but Circumference of the Earth Individual Lab is entirely HW.	Circumference of the Earth Lab (individual report) due 11/18-19! Sediment transport lab –  group.	Ch. 15	WA EALR 1, NSES B & D, AP 1.1, 2, 5
11/23 Rocks and Minerals What is the lithosphere made of?	Spaulding and Namowitz Chapters (handout) Rock and Mineral Guide HW.	Rock Weathering Lab – individual (all HW)	Washington Geologic History (handout)	WA EALR 1, NSES B & D, AP 1.1, 2, 5
11/30 Soils and agriculture What is soil? How do rocks and minerals become soil?	Environmental Case Study Science Resources HW.	Soils Lab – group	Ch. 13	WA EALRs 1, 2 & 3, NSES A, D, E & F, AP 1.1, 1.2, 1.4, 2, 3, 4, 5
12/7 Nonrenewable resources What do we use from the lithosphere and not put back?	Environmental Case Study Outline.	Personal Energy Audit – individual	Ch. 16	WA EALRs 1, 2 & 3, NSES A, D, E & F; AP 1.1, 1.5, 4, 5
12/14 Review and exam	Environmental Case Study Rough Draft.	n/a	n/a

Other important assignments

Environmental Case Study Paper

In this paper, you will connect your experience on the OPI Field Trip (or, if you did not attend, and environmental issue in the Pacific Northwest) to an environmental issue somewhere other than than Washington state through a topic theme that you pick.



Your paper is to address the following themes, but may be organized as you see fit:

• 
  Natural resources: You will identify the natural resources involved with your environmental case study.
  


• 
  Human impacts: You will identify how humans are impacting the natural resources involved - this is sort of the environmental problem involved.
  


• 
  Solutions and tradeoffs: What solutions to these problems are there? What are the environmental, social, economic, other tradeoffs?
  


• 
  Individuals matter: Introduce an individual who is a major player in solving the environmental issue you identified.
  

You will ned to cite many other pieces of work for this paper - this paper is designed to assess not what you know but your ability to synthesize what others have done. Further guidelines for what things you ought to cite will be forthcoming.



Papers will be 12-point Times or Times New Roman, double-spaced. Papers exceeding 12 pages in length will not be accepted.

Extra credit opportunities

• 
  Go on an Inner City Outings trip. See Thomas Hollowell or Ms. Balint for more information.
  


• 
  Ride heavy rail.
  


• 
  Attend the opening ceremonies/festivities for one of the new rapid transit systems opening during this unit: Swift Bus Rapid Transit or the extension of Link Light Rail.
  

This week in Environmental Science

Trust me when I say that the formatting of the most recent post (the press release) looks more professional in the version I actually sent. Suffice it to say the formatting interface Blogger uses is frustrating.





First, students should be prepared to be outside on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Heavy rain resulting in extremely high water velocity in the creek will cancel our lab (but heavy rain that doesn't result in this won't cancel - let's hope those storm runoff systems do their job!).





Second, on Friday, we have a field trip to the University of Washington Planetarium for students to understand the Earth-Moon-Sun system. Fourth period students will leave their third period class at 10:30 a.m. to catch Metro Route 65 southbound, will attend an 11:30 a.m. planetarium show, and will return via this bus midway through 5th period. Fifth period students will leave their fourth period class at 11:30 a.m. to catch Metro Route 65 southbound, will attend a 12:30 p.m. planetarium show, and will return via this bus midway through 6th period. If significant conflicts exist, some students can opt to attend the other period's show. Students may pack a lunch or eat on the UW campus.