Geology 206 RESOURCES, ENERGY, AND
Syllabus ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
Instructor: Maria Luisa Crawford: office: 195 Park; tel: 526-5111; email: mcrawfor@brynmawr.edu
Class schedule: MWF 11-12, Room 259 Park Hall.
Text: Energy Systems and Sustainability. B. Boyle, B. Everett and J. Ramage.
Other material will be added as the course proceeds.
The course syllabus will generally follow the outline of the text. I hope to cover a number of energy, resource and environmental issues this semester. The course will not hold to a rigid schedule. When material is covered adequately we will move on. However, if we want to spend more time on a given topic, we can do that, as long as discussions are meaningful and productive.
The goals of this course are to address the following broad questions:
1. What should we as citizens know about energy and, by extension, how should we address both personal and societal issues concerning energy production and use?
2. What do we need to know from the store of scientific and technical knowledge about energy in general, resources involved in energy production, and specific means of energy production and use in the world?
3. What are the energy requirements for the modern world?
4. What are the consequences for the future of current approaches to energy use?
5. We will also discuss other resource requirements for the modern world if time is available. Selected topics may include soil, water and other industrial and non industrial resources.
Topics that will be addressed include:
1. The physical concepts behind the nature of energy, mechanisms of energy production and transfer, the concept of energy efficiency;
2. resource availability;
3. Alterations to the earth system resulting from energy production and consumption and resource extraction and use.
Class participation is an essential part of this course. I will prepare a number of lectures and lead some discussions, but the students are the focus of the course. Several presentations on topics we want to discuss will be prepared and delivered by class members. In particular, course participants will be expected to research issues related to two topics selected during the first week of the course, to prepare summaries of current policy in these matters and, if appropriate, to present suggestions for future action. To do this each student will:
· keep a journal of about 3 pages per week that reflects:
- a summary of the material covered in class
- related items of interest that the student has encountered (for example newspaper articles, news stories on TV or radio, comments from the prior experience of the student, input based on material from other courses, etc.)
These journals will be turned in every 2 weeks and will be evaluated both for content and for writing technique.
Suggestions for journals:
- Find one extra article (minimum) each week to read.
- Pose 1 question per week to the class.
- Comment on at least one question posed by another class member.
Define terms and/or concepts you did not know before.
· write two 5-10 page summary papers that will be made available to the rest of the class;
· make oral presentations on the subjects of your papers; and
· engage in debates concerning policy. Students will identify the issues involved in the debate topic and then will select a position to support. This will be done in such a way that all sides are presented. All class participants will be expected to interact with the debate as affected citizens. This debate will be carried on in designated class sessions as well as electronically to ensure maximum participation.
Grading
Class participation 30%
Oral presentations 30%
Written work 40%