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Professor:
Art Goldstein,
Professor of Geology Office: 308 Lathrop Phone: 7203 Home Phone: 824-3265 Email: agoldstein@mail.colgate.edu Office Hours (Fall ’03): M,W – 1:30 to 4:00 and T, Th 9:30 to 11:30 Class meeting times: MWF 9:20 – 10:10 404 Lathrop Energy availability is one of the most significant topics in the early 21st century. A war is being fought in Iraq and the large petroleum resources of that country are a significant factor in that conflict. The northeastern US and southeastern Canada were blacked out by power transmission line failures in the summer of 2003 leaving some without electricity for days. A comprehensive energy bill is stalled in the US congress largely over the issue of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Corporate scandals at ENRON, a company that dealt in buying and selling electrical power, rocked the country and the residents of California may have been overcharged by billions of dollars for electricity even while they were experiencing rolling blackouts. Residents of Arizona have waited for hours in line to get gasoline for their cars this summer. This seminar will examine the sources of energy currently in use and the prospects for energy in the future. In particular, we will look carefully at petroleum resources and will carefully examine the environmental consequences of all energy generation. I am working on scheduling three mandatory one-day trips for this seminar. One will visit wind and hydroelectric generation stations in the area. Another will visit the coal mining regions in central Pennsylvania. The third will visit a nuclear power plant. This last trip is speculative at this point. Nuclear power plants are targets for terrorists and plants require very strict security that may prohibit a visit. We’ll hope that I’m convincing enough to get us in. To date, I haven’t been able to get a “Yes” but I haven’t gotten a “no” either….keep your fingers crossed. Grading will be based on four assignments: 1) preparation of a course web page (30%) 2) one short essay (20%) 3) one long term paper (40%) 4) an oral presentation using PowerPoint (10%) We will meet with Debbie Huerta, head librarian of the Cooley Science Library, on Friday Sept. 5 during the normal class meeting for instruction in doing library research. This meeting will take place in the Picker Classroom at the main library, Case. The Picker classroom is equipped with computers that you can use while Debbie is showing you all the resources for searching out information for assignments in this and other courses. This classroom is on the first floor of Case Library; please get there a little early in case you have a hard time finding the room. It might be best to ask someone at the desk when you enter the library just to avoid confusion. Course web page: We will all work on the construction of a web page for this course. You will be divided into groups who will work on portions of the web page dealing with a) fossil fuels, b) nuclear energy and c) renewable resources. The web pages will be worked on throughout the semester. Early in the semester you will be assigned to groups and the groups will meet to discuss how they will organize their contributions and who will take responsibility for different tasks. I will meet with each group to listen to your plans and comment. The web pages will contain information you cull from other web sources as well as material you write yourselves. The goal is to assemble information dealing with the history, current usage and projections for the future of each energy source. It will be crucial that all information not created by you originally be carefully cited. Written Assignments: The bulk of your grade will come from written assignments because writing is still the dominant form of communication and developing good writing skills is probably the best preparation for your college career and beyond. 1. Short Essay. The first essay will be a short assignment, due in draft form on Sept. 19, final version due on Oct 6. The full assignment is attached to this handout. 2. Term Paper. A long term paper will form the basis for the bulk of your grade in this course. You will submit a proposal for your term paper topic in early October on some aspect of energy resources that you find interesting. The proposal will comprise one paragraph describing what you think the term paper will contain and you will list five preliminary references, only two from WWW. Oral Presentation: You will give a 10-15 minute presentation of your term paper at the end of the semester. This will be done using PowerPoint and I will give you some instruction on how to use this software if you need it. I will also give you some guidance on how to give a good oral presentation and will listen to you practice your talk and give comments. Academic Advising: As you know, I am your academic advisor for your first two years at Colgate, after which you will choose a concentration and an advisor in that department. It is my responsibility to see that you receive good advice on how to choose courses and proceed through the early stages of your college career. I take this responsibility very seriously and I expect you to take your college courses equally seriously. However, if you find you are having difficulty in any aspect of your Colgate experience, I strongly encourage you to speak to me. The single biggest mistake that first year students have is waiting until the last minute to see help. You may contact me by e-mail, phone or just dropping in at any time. |
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