ENVR 30: Environmental Issues: Natural Sciences Fall 2009 Instructor: Kim Griest Lecture: MWF 11-11:50pm, room CSB 001 Discussions (help with homework; ideas and issues. You will sign up for one discussion section. Attendance will be taken and count towards the grade.) Mon 9-9:50am, APM 2301 (Nick) Mon 1-1:50pm, U413 1 (Nick) Wed 1-1:50pm, WLH 2113 (Nina) Fri 12-12:50pm, U413A 3 (Nick) Fri 1-1:50pm, U413A 2 (Nina) Griest Office: 337 SERF, 858-534-8914 Griest Office Hours: Tuesdays 11-12pm (337 SERF) or call for appointment T.A.s: Nina Sawhney, nisawhne@ucsd.edu Nick Stavros, nstavros@ucsd.edu T.A. Office hours: Nina, Cafe Roma, Tuesday, 2-3pm Nick, Mandeville coffee cart, Thursday 2-3pm Text: Environmental Science: Systems and Solutions, 4th edition, McKinney, Schoch, and Yonavjak Midterm: Wed, Nov 4, in class Final: Tues, Dec 8, 11:30am - 2:30pm [NOTE: NO LATE OR EARLY FINAL; no makeup for midterm; CHECK YOUR SCHEDULE NOW!] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GRADING POLICY I add up points based on the percentages below and then set A,B,C, etc lines based upon what I consider A,B,C, etc. work. There is not a fixed percentage for A,B,C, etc., i.e. it is possible for everyone to get an A. final 45% midterm 30% graded homework 25% participation upto 10%, (final and midterm will count less) Homework will be assigned weekly. It will consist of short answer, essay questions, calculations, and small research projects. It will be graded only by spot checking one or two questions and looking quickly over the rest. It will be graded on a scale: 1 (not really adequate), 2 (ok), 3 (exceptional effort made). Most everyone should expect to get 2's on their homeworks. Since everyone will be getting the same scores on the homework, it means that as long as you do the homework, the bulk of your grade will come from the midterm and final. You should sign up for one of the above discussion sessions. Attendance will be taken at your discusion section; in addition, there will participation questions asked during lecture which will be turned in. A total of up to 10% of the grade can come from participation. For example, if you participate 80% of the time you will receive 80% of 10% or participation credit of 8%. Your final or midterm (which ever is worse) will then be worth less (for example your final will be worth only 45%-8%= 37% of the grade, the rest being made up by participation credit). There will be a midterm on Nov 4 and a final on Dec 10. There will be no make-up exams, so if you cannot make both these exam dates, you should not take this class. The midterm and final will be multiple choice exams, taken on a scantron (requires scantron form X-101864-PAR). The reading will be assigned out of the textbook as well as other readings posted on the course website. Note that ALL work handed in on the homework must be written by you alone. You may work together, but you must compose and write out everything yourself. I do not want any cheating done by anyone in this class. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OUTLINE OF TOPICS In 10 weeks we cannot cover in depth all of the topics list below. The textbook contains more material than we can adequately discuss. So we will be jumping around some. We will touch on all of these listed topics and go into depth on several. 1. Overview of Environmental Science 2. Human Population and Consumption 3. Biosphere: water, air, energy 4. Life on Earth: evolution, biodiversity, biomes 5. Planet Earth: plate tectonics, climate, earthquakes, volcanoes, weather, fires 6. Resource use: renewable and non-renewable 7. Energy: overview, current and total fossil fuels (coal/oil/natural gas), 8. Energy: nuclear, hydro, biomass, solar, and wind 9. water resources, hydrologic cycle, supply and demand, coming scarcity 10. Mineral resources: use, reserves, how long will they last 11. Conservation: biodiversity loss, extinctions. 12. Land use: parks and preserves 13. Food and soil: agriculture, fertilizers, sustainability 14. Pollution, pesticides, water pollution, air pollution 15. Climate change and global warming 16. Hazardous wastes: dumps and toxics 17. Transportation: gasoline, electric, fuel cells, mass transit, bikes