Category: Natural science

A) Compare Ulrich Becks concept of the Risk Society to Elizabeth Rushs discussion of risk on pp. 149-156 of the book Rising. To what extent are they talking about the same thing? How are these notions of risk different from each other? How does Rushs concept of risk apply to peoples experiences with climate change/disruption?  (4 points)

B) On pages 53-54 of the book Rising, Elizabeth Rush presents a particular way of thinking about the history of the world. How do you interpret this framing for thinking about our climate, both past and future? In other words, what does this framing mean to you and how does it affect your thinking about environmental and climate protection?
(4 points)

C) Discuss at least 1 example of climate injustice or climate justice from the course materials in Week 5 (readings, films). If you are focusing on an example climate injustice, then what are the causes and consequences of that injustice and what might be a solution? If you are focusing on an example of climate justice, then offer an assessment or critique of those ideas and/or actions (in other words, how effective or inspiring are they and why?). (4 points)
no outside resources

This is a brief exercise designed to get you some cool information about what’s happening in Astronomy right now, as you are reading this. The enclosed assignment sheetPreview the document will give you the information you need to get started.

Make sure to read the requirements carefully, since you will be turning in several of these reports (and each report must be on a different article or announcement) throughout the semester.

Once you have read the requirements, fill out your report on this report sheet.Preview the document

For South Florida, what are the different air pollutant hazard and exposure factors? Discuss the extent to which they are preventable or can be managed to reduce their impacts. Also discuss whether you think there are long term impacts on health and economics in your area due to air pollution episodes.

Anthropological Description of the Neolithic Revolution
For the Paper, you will choose one civilization from the resource list (Links to an external site.) (also covered in Chapters 10-14 of the textbook), and summarize the impact of the Neolithic revolution on the selected civilization. The textbook also lists and explores seven characteristics of a civilization (pp. 345-349). You will choose three of these characteristics and assess how they are manifested in your chosen civilization. You must use a minimum of one scholarly source from the provided list of Ashford University Library resources, in addition to the text.
In your paper:
    Describe one of the civilizations from the list provided (i.e., location, environment, and relevant history of the civilization).
    Explain how the Neolithic revolution contributed to the origins of your chosen civilization.
    Summarize three of the characteristics of civilizations and assess how they are manifested in your chosen civilization.
    Provide supporting archaeological evidence that those characteristics manifested within your chosen civilization.
    Explain the factors that led to the downfall of the chosen civilization.

For this assignment, you’ll actually be working to write a story based on your answers to the homework.  You’ll see that there are 10 questions on the homework.  To do this assignment, you can pick any 5 questions that you would like the answer to, and then use those as the basis for writing your story.

You can find more information about how to write the assignment here:

Assignment Instruction Sheet for Weaving a Story from our HomeworkPreview the document

Please read it carefully, since you’ll need to do things like format the assignment with highlighting where you put in your homework answers, so I can read it more easily.  Also, if you want an example of a story that uses homework answers, so you can get an idea of how to do this, check out this example: The Time Warp EncounterPreview the document

This homework aligns with the chapter of our OpenStax Astronomy textbook mentioned in the title of the assignment (also you can find this on the last page of the Syllabus).

Finally, don’t forget that I check submissions for plagiarism using software that checks all submissions against each other and the Internet… and if you copy from another source, I’ll be forced to refer you to the Dean’s office for Academic Fraud.

Click here for the homework assignment with 10 questions.  Remember you only need to use 5 of them in your story.Preview the document

1.In addition to the what of our course (meaning facts about things), it’s also critical to consider how we know things. In this case, the question is “How can we know we actually went to the Moon, and it wasn’t a hoax of some sort?”

In order to see how we can examine such claims, you’ll need to complete the enclosed assignment sheetPreview the document, where you’ll be watching Mythbusters, and seeing how they do their tests!

And here is:

The episode of Mythbusters to watch (Links to an external site.)
https://www.3cmediasolutions.org/privid/106782?key=3e894c3cebae3780e62b450055ad3eaf90aafb95

The episode of Mythbusters to watch (with subtitles)
https://www.3cmediasolutions.org/privid/106784?key=c70471f387e65736bea3a21e7d96d233578b4290

2.”Why People Accept Claims” Forum

For this Forum, we will be having a discussion about “Why People Accept Claims”.

(Before you participate in this Forum, please complete the “Did We Land on the Moon?” Assignment and your response, so you’ll have a starting point.)

Our purpose in this forum is to reflect upon our own thinking (and the thinking of people in general), when it comes to how a person decides to accept a claim.  Of course, in science, we expect adherence to the scientific method … meaning we are expected to gather evidence, try to be objective, perform tests, and compare results with others performing tests.  Finally, and most importantly, we are expected to change our mind if that’s where the evidence leads.

Making one post to answer one of the questions below
  Of course, you are welcome to post more as the discussion unfolds, if there are things you’d like to say.
For your possible questions (pick one you’d like to give your assessment of.  You are, naturally, welcome to post answers to more than one, if you’d like to discuss it) pick one of these:

In the Mythbusters episode, a claim to whether or not there was evidence we landed on the Moon was refuted using tests. And yet, presumably, some people might refuse to change their minds, even in the light of evidence.  Do you have any ideas in your mind that you would refuse to change, even if tests were performed to show you were wrong?  If you do, why would you refuse to change your ideas?
Frequently, claims that are being dealt with like those in the Mythbusters episode are “conspiracy” types of claims.  Notice how complex and difficult it is to disprove a claim like this, since anyone who disagrees may be “part of the conspiracy”.  How would you attempt to unravel a claim someone presented to you that was a “conspiracy claim”?