| Geology 140 - Environmental Geology | |||||
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If you are missing homework assignments, you may make up the work by listening to your choice of the radio stories or watching a video, and writing up a summary of the story, using the questions below. You may submit as many of these assignments as you have missing homework assignments.
Everyone (even folks who are up to date on their homework) may choose one story to listen to or watch and summarize for extra credit.
The stories vary quite a bit in length. If you choose one of the Nova episodes (which are about an hour long) you can write your paper on the first 20-30 minutes - or watch the whole thing, if you prefer.
Write a summary of the story you listen to or watch, answering these questions:
1. What was the most surprising part of this story? Explain why it was surprising.
2. What aspect of this story will be the most important for the way we deal with this hazard or resource in the future?
3. Choose one thing from this story that you will share with a friend or family member. Describe that thing in your summary.
Radio podcasts:
The Worldwide Thirst for Clean Water: Terry Gross of NPR's Fresh Air interviews Charles Fishman, author of The Big Thirst. Aired April 11, 2011.
Denying the Invisible: Start at 31:00. Ira Glass of This American Life presents dramatizations of interviews with Ukranians about the cover up of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, from Voices from Chernobyl, by Svetlana Alexievich and translated by Keith Gessin. Aired April 9, 2011.
Why Can't We Predict Earthquakes? Freakonomics Radio, aired April 1, 2011.
Nuclear Power - Setting Sun? Interview with nuclear experts as part of the Commonwealth Club's Climate One program
Game Changer: This American Life presents two perspectives on hydraulic fracturing. You can use each of the two acts in this podcast as a separate extra credit assignment.
Videos:
Japan's Killer Quake: March 30, 2011 episode of Nova, from PBS
Detecting Earthquakes: Feb 23, 2011 episode of Nova
The Price of Gas: a PBS Need to Know Investigation about hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") of shales to release the natural gas within the rock. AIred
Revisiting Chernobyl: A Nuclear Disaster Site of Epic Proportions: PBS News Hour report, March 29, 2011.
Are California's Schools Ready for the Next Big One? PBS News Hour report, March 29, 2011.