SENIORS TAKE NOTE: CLIMATE, FOSSIL FUELS, RENEWABLE ENERGY, DEADLINES!

Seniors will take their final this week.  

A Study Guide was issued at the beginning of Tuesday's classes.  

There will be an after-school study session tomorrow (Wednesday, May 30th) for the Senior Final between 3:00 and 5:00 in Room N-63.   Those seniors who attend the two-hour session will earn ten points of extra credit and have their questions answered.  

Mr. Hatfield will be available at lunch and after school on both Tuesday and Wednesday.  Additional time is available on exam day at lunch for Seniors who haven't completed their final.


Links to Power Point notes are found below:

FOSSIL FUELS


GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE


IPCC FINDINGS


HYDROELECTRIC AND GEOTHERMAL POWER


SOLAR POWER


ALTERNATIVE ENERGY

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: THE MAGNETOSPHERE

This is the final section of notes for the unit on the atmosphere and weather that will be tested tomorrow (Friday, April 13th) in my Environmental Science classes.

Students are allowed to use their Cornell Notes during the exam, but the Notes will be assessed during the examination period. If student's Notes are incomplete, or the Notes are present but not completed Cornell style (questions/comments, summaries, headings, highlighting, etc.), then the Notes will be confiscated. Students need to be prepared!

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: NOTES ON GLOBAL WIND PATTERNS

This Power Point covers some of the material in Chapter 13.1 of the Environmental Science text. As mentioned, this material (also covered by an RA on Monday) will be quizzed in Wednesday's class. Be prepared.....

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: "WIND!"

Here are links to the video shown in class featuring Donal MacIntyre, the episode "Wind!" from the BBC series "Wild Weather". Very entertaining! Topics covered include global wind patterns, the solar wind, hurricanes, tornadoes and the layers of the atmosphere.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: AIR PRESSURE AND WEATHER

Here are the Power Point notes on Air Pressure and Weather. This does not contain the next set of notes, on global wind patterns and the magnetosphere, which will be added next week.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: ATMOSPHERE NOTES

Environmental Science students: Here are the Power Point Notes on the Atmosphere we've covered this week.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: WATER NOTES

This post contains the final section of notes on water resources (from Ch. 11). These notes, and the previous notes on abiotic cycles and properties of water are all fair game for our first Unit Test this semester, which will be on Wednesday, Feb. 29th (LEAP DAY!)

Students will receive a Study Guide in-class on Friday, Feb. 24th. They should use this Guide and the blog posts to make sure that their Cornell Style Notes are complete.

Students are allowed to use their Notes during their scheduled Unit Test, but they should be aware that Mr. Hatfield will review their notes to see if they are completed: 3-4 questions or comments in an extended margin on each page, proper headings, underlining/highlighting, original summaries at the end of sections.

If the Notes are complete, students will receive an above-average grade on the Notes and be allowed to use them throughout the Exam. If they are below a certain minimal standard of completion, the Notes will be confiscated and receive a lower grade----and of course students will not be able to employ these Notes for the rest of the Exam.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ADDITIONAL TIME IS AVAILABLE on the date of the Unit Text (Wednesday, Feb. 29th), either at lunch or after school. Students who do not plan their schedules to take advantage of the additional time, or who miss the scheduled exam date for whatever reason, will be assigned a Makeup Test when they return to class.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: PROPERTIES OF WATER (ACIDS AND BASES)

HEY!

Here is the link to the Power Point on acids, bases and the pH scale.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: ABIOTIC CYCLES

Here is the Power Point for 'Abiotic Cycles'.

ABIOTIC CYCLES

MULHOLLAND'S DREAM

Environmental Science students are studying the impacts of water delivery systems on the environment and human civilization. They have received a worksheet that contains questions based upon a video, shown on class, called "Mulholland's Dream", which is based, in part, on a famous book by late environmentalist Marc Reisner, called "Cadillac Desert".

For students who were not in class when the video was shown, or who wish to see the entire (unedited) program again, I have provided the following links:




















In addition to completing the worksheet, Environmental Science students must research and answer the following questions:

1. What is the estimated current population of Los Angeles County? Make sure you tell me the source of your estimate!

2. Water has many uses, but let’s just focus on drinking water. Find a source that estimates the amount of water in liters needed by a single human being, each day. Tell me the source, and provide the estimate.

3. Using your research from questions 1 and 2, estimate the total amount of drinking water in liters required annually by the population of Los Angeles County. SHOW YOUR WORK!

4. Based on your answer to question 3, do you think that Los Angeles County will have to find new sources of water in the future? Give a reason to support your claim.

5. Los Angeles relies on aqueducts and canals to obtain most of its water. What are the sources of water here in Fresno County?

POWER POINT: PROBABILITY!

Here is the (brief) Power Point discussing, and giving examples of some basic principles of probability. This is, of course, math....but an essential tool, also, for doing science.

PLEASE NOTE: BOTH MY BIOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE CLASSES SHOULD HAVE THESE NOTES!!

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: FINAL NOTES

You can access the Final Power Point by clicking on the image below:

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE POWER POINT #6: "DARWIN'S DANGEROUS IDEA"

Here's the Lecture Notes.

Here's a PDF file of the Lecture Guide based upon the notes.

The title, incidentally, is taken from the Daniel Dennett book which also inspired a two-hour episode of the NOVA 'Evolution' series.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: "EXTINCTION!"

EXTINCTION Tuesday and Wednesday's classes featured excerpts from 'Extinction!', which is Episode 3 from NOVA's 'Evolution' series (2001). The video begins with paleontologist Peter Ward hunting for Permian fossils in South Africa's Karoo Desert, and relates ecological pyramids (which are like a 'house of cards') to mass extinctions, which are believed to be rare but important events in the history of life. It then follows the work of American Museum of Natural History researcher Michael Novacek in building the fossil record of small, shrew-like mammals from the Mesozoic, representative of the lineage that will survive the next mass extinction (the K/T event), which will claim the dinosaurs.

It concludes with an examination of the role of human activity in accelerating the rate of extinction, with important attention to conservationists like Alan Rabinowitz.


Students have been given a worksheet based upon this video as homework, which is due on Monday. I encourage students to watch the video in its entirety for themselves if there are points that they don't get in class. We simply do not have enough class time to review this, but I know many students will want to see the whole story again, either by going to Google Video or watching it here:

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE POWER POINT #5: "DEEP TIME"

The Power Point Lecture Notes on 'Deep Time' are available

The Power Point Lecture Notes on 'Deep Time' are available here.

A PDF of the Lecture Guide based upon those notes can be downloaded here.

The Power Point Lecture Notes on 'Deep Time' are available here.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE POWER POINT #4: DIVERSITY AND CLASSIFICATION

This is a post just for my Environmental Science students.

These notes were given to students on September 22nd-26th. The Power Point on "Diversity and Classification" can be uploaded here. The Lecture Guide based on the Power Point can be found as a PDF file here.

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE: POWER POINT #3

This is a post just for my 1st and 2nd period Environmental Science students.

Click on the image above or this link to download the (brief) Power Point, which introduces some basic concepts in ecology and populations, and presents the cycle of activities above, in which the scientific community interacts with the public and governmental agencies.