EII movie on the CCC

Movies for EII this week

On Monday we talked about the Romantics, the Hudson River School of painters, the Transcendentalists, Civil Disobedience (H.D. Thoreau), John Brown, and George Perkins Marsh.

Wednesday, we will pick up the story with Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir, and the founding of the federal conservation and preservation agencies, as well as the Great Depression and the CCC.

All of these are easily researched online.

Physics final project

From Janet's syllabus:

Final Project: In the lab portion of the class you will create a Final Project. The project should involve something you are especially interested in or perhaps something you need.  The idea is to demonstrate or explain the physics behind your special interest or need.  For example, if you have a particular activity that you do, find the physics involved.  It might be rock climbing, canoeing, soccer, or biking.  If you are artistic, you might create an art project illustrating physical principles. If you like animals, you might explain the forces at work on an animal or animal part. If you like to build things, you might create a machine that performs a task. You might also like to “hack” a repair or modification to a broken machine, appliance, or vehicle to make it work again, do something different, or last longer. You may work together with someone else, a small group, or alone, but all projects will be demonstrated to classmates, and all participants must be able to explain during the demonstration what their particular contribution was. Be sure to talk your ideas over with the lab instructor, who has a workshop for you to use, lots of experience making and fixing things, as well as tools, parts, and special shop equipment, all of which may help. (You need permission and training to use the shop tools. It also takes a few weeks to order parts, so be sure to plan ahead.)

Physics Lab Reports: Assignment

All students in PS 2003 Physics Mechanics and Energy are assigned to produce two lab reports this semester:

1. On a Physics Lab experiment of your choice, from the number of different experiments we have done so far
2. On your final project

The first of these is now assigned, due by email or hard copy by five pm, Friday October 30th.

Some hints:

• Pick an activity for which you have good notes
• Use the Physics Lab notes grading rubric as your guide (particularly to completeness)
• Add a discussion that relates the experiment or activity to the Physics lecture material
• Get help with writing if you need it. See the instructor or a writing tutor

Draft Focus Group Questions for ESS

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• What is your major?
• Can you describe the environment you grew up in? For example, was it rural, suburban, or urban?
• What did you learn about the environment before college?
• Can you describe your environmental values?
• Which environmental issues concern you the most?
• Do you think Unity College is “America’s Environmental College”?

EII second assignment

This assignment is an exercise in research, critical thinking and informal writing.

Follow all instructions. Due Friday October 30th by email or hard copy.

1. Identify two extant US environmental organizations, one you generally agree with and support, and one you don't
2. Research their missions, goals and methods carefully, using online and print resources, as well as any other social science case study methods you like. Be sure to ask the instructor ahead of time if you choose to interview human subjects
3. Identify some of the different types of careers that are possible within both institutions, and determine the qualifications and experience required
4. In an informal essay, compare and contrast the two organizations and summarize these career pathways
5. Conclude with your own considered viewpoint of each organization
6. (Added after class discussion) Cite your research sources. No particular citation format is required, but your citations should be consistent and give complete information to the reader in case they wish to review your sources.

For EII today

http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002566509/love-canal-a-legacy-of-doubt.html

EII today and Friday

http://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000002566509/love-canal-a-legacy-of-doubt.html

Poster child

 

The World Wildlife Fund, one of the "Big Ten" environmental groups, has sponsored a poster competition for the UN Climate Conference, scheduled for Paris this December.

The caption directly translated reads, "To change everything, we have need of everyone," or in slightly better English, "To change everything, we need everyone." This is a very direct reference to Naomi Klein's recent book, This Changes Everything, which is interesting to me, considering that historically the WWF was never quite as radical as Klein's book is.

All this might be a good kick-off for the discussion of the history and background of the environmental movement that we'll begin next week in EII. 

The original for the poster is a classic revolutionary painting, considered a French national treasure, titled Liberty Leading the People (La Liberté guidant le peuple). The allegorical French female Liberté, also sometimes called Marianne, is of course "Lady Liberty" in the United States.

The new, and very obviously millennial version of Liberté has a skateboard and headset. 

Really? Isn't that rather a distraction from the revolutionary mission?

Just saying. 

 

La liberté guidant le peuple by Eugène Delacroix

General problems with EII written work

First and foremost: you must proof-read. To catch sentence level errors, proof-read aloud.

If you get distracted by your own beautifully-forged outline, read the last sentence aloud first, and then the second last and so on.

Major problems:

1. No proof-reading
2. No outline, or contradictory outline
3. Sentence fragments
4. Run-on sentences
5. Multiple parenthetical phrases
6. Comma splices
7. Misuse of commas
8. Repetitive words
9. Tense choice problem

Minor problems:

1. Spell out small numbers, eg "seven" not 7. Large numbers eg "$10,000", are fine.
2. Comma after prepositional phrase
3. Its versus it's
4. There versus their

Model of societal change