Week 5, Chapter 5 -- Starting Assumptions Course home | Weekly schedule | Announcements | Instructor Info | Desire2Learn | MasteringBiology® | Honor Code | FAQs | HELP!

Instructions:

Part 1:

Read through the questions below. Record a video, 60 seconds minimum, in response to one or more of the questions below that interest you. Also, please provide your first name on the video, mention OU's Biology 1003 course, and tell which week's assignment it is.

Technical details: You should be able to record this video on a smartphone, iPad, digital camera, or webcam. If you need equipment, check with the Student Learning Center in Wagner Hall 245. You can log in to mymedia.ou.edu to either record a video directly there or to upload your previously recorded video file (make sure you set the permissions to allow us to view it; DON'T make it "private"). Then, you can post a hyperlink to the file or embed it in your D2L discussion board forum. Alternatively, you're welcome to post your video at a publicly accessible site at your own risk (e.g., YouTube, dropbox.com, portfolio.ou.edu, or your own server space), and post a stable, hyperlinked address to your production in the D2L forum.

Part 2:

Post a typed response to the Starting Assumptions posts of at least two other students. (If you are the first or second person to post, you will have to check back later to complete this part of the assignment).

• Please spell check and proofread your typed responses.
• Please respond to posts with 0 responses first; once every post has at least one response, you are free to choose any post to respond to.
• When you respond, please use the name of the student you are responding to. That is, say "Hi Jessica" or "Hi Paul" so that you can get used to the names of the people in class. (You can find a list of "real" names and preferred names posted on D2L).
• What constitutes a substantive response? This means that you have read and thought about the original post, and that after some reflection, you are extending one or more of the thoughts in the original post or offering an additional perspective as you might in a good conversation. It is not enough to say simply "nice job," "I liked that," "I think you're right about XXXX," "I disagree," etc. It is OK to disagree or agree, but the goal is to thoughtfully add something else interesting and new related to the content of the original post. At a minimum this should be at least 50 words, and 50-100 is preferable. Check out this page for more on the topic of good and bad responses.

After you have posted your video and responded to at least two other students, go to Desire2Learn and complete the Gradebook Declaration for this week's Starting Assumptions assignment. (Do not declare that you have completed these assignments until AFTER you have made your posts. Your Gradebook Declaration is subject to the Honor Code.)

Here are the questions to get you started:

• People's attitudes about global climate change are correlated to some extent with their political views. Why do you think this is? Do you think this is changing as scientists learn more about the climate?
• What do you think of charging a "Carbon tax" to businesses that are shown to be contributors to climate change? For information, see/hear this NPR story.
• Check out this TED talk by James Hansen, a NASA climate scientist who accused the George W. Bush White House of muzzling his scientific views on climate change (read about it at the James Hansen article on Wikipedia). What is your reaction to the video and to the controversy around Dr. Hansen?
• How would you rate your level of understanding about climate change: above average, average, or below average? From what sources do you get information about this topic?
• Climate change is a hot topic in the media and there is a lot of jargon associated with this phenomenon. How would you describe “global warming?” What do you think “greenhouse gases” are?
• Do you think the average citizen should be concerned about climate change? Why or why not?
• Some people argue that climate change is a natural process and that governments can do nothing to prevent it. Do you agree or disagree? Why or why not?
• Do you think climate change will affect nations in the developing world (e.g. nations in Africa) differently than it will affect nations in the “developed world” (e.g. the US)? How?
• Have you heard of the “What Would Jesus Drive” campaign, or do you know of any other examples in which religious groups have expressed concern about global warming? What do you think about this?
• Do you think the U.S. should open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil drilling to help reduce our dependence on foreign oil, even if it puts a wild place at risk of environmental damage? What factors influence your decision?
• Just like machines, organisms require inputs of energy in order to function. What sources of energy fuel your body?
• What is photosynthesis? Why do you think photosynthesis occurs? Do you think that this process is important to life on Earth? Why?
• The World Wildlife Fund has a Polar Bear Tracker website in which you can see the movements of individual polar bears in the Arctic (an area significantly affected by global warming). Do you think sites like this are interesting and helpful?

Contemporary Issues in Biology -- BIOL 1003 Mariëlle H. Hoefnagels, Ph.D. © 2004-2015. biology1003 at OU dot edu (at = @, dot =.) Last Updated August 5, 2014 11:02 PM