My Science Homework

Day 171: The Global Warming Debate

Mr. G — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:49:33 +0000

Today, we took a short quiz over the final units of the meteorology section of our class. These quizzes will be graded over the weekend and grades updated my early next week.

We then watched another 15 minutes or so of Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”. Students were again encouraged to jot down notes regarding the thesis of the film as well as the supporting evidence that is discussed. We then took a few minutes to discuss the main points covered in the film. With this information, students are able to finish writing the second of four portions of their climate change paper.

To finish out the week, we began watching the second film: The Great Global Warming Swindle. To watch the first 10 minutes of this film (which includes a very concisely-stated thesis), press “play” below or click here. This is the portion of the film we viewed in class today.

To watch more sections of the film, click the links below. We will finish watching this film on Monday of next week. Your best strategy to successfully complete this paper is to work on it in small pieces - don’t wait until Tuesday night to write the entire paper! It is due on Wednesday, 05/21/08. Have a great weekend!

View all chapters of The Great Global Warming Swindle:

Day 169: Intro to Climate Change

Mr. G — Wed, 14 May 2008 14:09:49 +0000

The final unit of the year: Climate change. We will be spending several days studying the climate change debate from the scientific viewpoint. We began by discussing the history of climate change on the earth. In a nutshell: the earth’s climate is indeed changing and it always has been. What sets the current changes apart from the others is that they are going on while humans are keenly aware: we are studying the climate more than ever before. We are becoming increasingly aware of the smallest changes, the implications, and funding continues to increase to further study climate change.

Today’s objective was to gain a better understanding of the history of climate change. The test-grade paper was also introduced. All students were given copies of the Climate Change Paper outline form. All students are encouraged to start this paper TONIGHT! Since the paper is expected to be detailed and in-depth, giving attention to the project over several different days/evenings is the best way to complete the project on time. The paper is due on Wednesday, May 21st. Due to the end of the semester grading deadlines, absolutely no late papers will be accepted.

Tomorrow we will continue watching Film #1: Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. Then we will follow that by watching a second film: The Great Global Warming Swindle. For now, you should focus your energy on completing the first of four parts of the paper: The history of the Earth’s climate.

——————-

More resources on the history of the Earth’s climate change:

Day 82: Final Exam Prep & A White Christmas?

Mr. G — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:42:21 +0000

Today’s class started with a discussion about our probabilities of a white Christmas. As you can see by the above map, our historical odds (averaged over the 30-year period from 1970-2000) are between 11 and 25%. I would currently place our odds on the high end of that range, as it does appear as though there are a couple of storm systems that could affect us between now and Christmas morning: One on Saturday, the 22nd and another on Christmas Eve or Christmas day!The remaining class time was spent preparing for the upcoming Final Exam.

Homework: STUDY for the final exam!