2/28/14

This weekend's homework is two-fold. You need to:

1. Complete your home electricity use audit. Feel free to do all of the math now or just tally up how many hours you use various appliances (which means you will do the math next week on top of other homework).

2. Write a solid, supported response (~1 page) to the following, "Should New York State approve hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within its borders?" Support your answer with evidence from...

Gastown (streaming on Netflix or available here)
your notes
the textbook
The Debate on Fracturing - NY Times
Natural Gas May Be Easier On Climate Than Coal, Despite Methane Leaks - NPR
The Evolving Truth about Fracking for Natural Gas - Scientific American
Learning Too Late of the Perils in Gas Well Leases - NY Times

Oh! I'm thinking we'll have a quiz on Thursday Friday (since some of you will be out on a trip with Ms. McGinnis on Thursday) on nonrenewable energy. And there will be a few questions to answer for a grade upon your entry on Monday.

2/27/14

Tonight's homework is to write a response (1/2 to 1 page) to the following questions, "How sustainable is our energy supply? What concerns about our energy supply do you have?"

Additionally, the home electricity audit is due on Monday and we'll be having both a math check-in as well as a few questions about the notes from the nonrenewable energy unit so far.

2/26/14

Today's task is to evaluate the benefits and costs of drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. You have been assigned to either argue for or against exploratory drilling (and the subsequent drilling and pumping that would follow). You will produce a 1 to 2 page debate brief that:

- clearly indicates your position
- argues in favor of your position
- contains textual and statistical evidence to support your arguments and position
- refers to sources of its evidence/statistics

This is a controversial topic that is regularly discussed by legislators so information abounds. To help you get started, check out...

Committee on Natural Resources
anwr.org
National Resources Defense Council

Our debate will take place tomorrow in class and you will be evaluated on:

- your completed debate brief
- the persuasiveness of your debating
- the strength of your arguments and evidence

You will then complete a brief reflection about the controversy.

2/25/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 42. Remember that there will be a dimensional analysis check-in tomorrow. Look over the examples that you've worked on so far and come prepared with questions.

Interesting video clip - "Germany's Coal Addiction" NY Times

Assignment 42 Coal Usage Calculation and Comprehension Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability. Write in complete sentences where appropriate and show your work.

1. A large, coal-fired electric power plant produces 12 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each day. Assume that an input of 10,000 BTU’s of heat is required to produce an output of 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity.

a. Showing all steps in your calculations, determine the number of

i. BTU’s of heat needed to generate the electricity produced by the power plant each day,

ii. pounds of coal consumed by the power plant each day, assuming that one pound of coal yields 5,000 BTU’s of heat,

iii. pounds of sulfur released by the power plant each day, assuming that the coal contains one percent sulfur by weight.

b. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standard for power plants such as this one is that no more than 1.2 pounds of sulfur be emitted per million BTU’s of heat generated. Using the results in part a. above, determine whether the power plant meets the EPA standard.

c. Describe two ways by which a fuel-burning electric power plant can reduce its sulfur emissions.

d. Other than mining and reclamation, describe two environmental impacts of using coal for energy.

e. Explain why per capita coal consumption in the United States is likely to increase.

2. Which of the following is a provision of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977?

A. All deep shaft mines must be filled in when they are shut down.

B. Strip mining is not allowed on public lands.

C. Mining companies must replant vegetation on land that was strip-mined.

D. Mining companies must replant vegetation on land that was deep-mined.

E. Mining companies must clean up the water supply on land that was strip-mined.

3. Which form of coal has the highest sulfur content?

A. Peat                                                                         D. Anthracite

B. Lignite                                                                     E. Sub-bituminous coal

C. Bituminous coal

4. Which of the following has the largest proven coal reserves?

A. South America                                                        D. Indonesia

B. The United States                                                   E. Africa

C. Australia

5. Which of the following forms of coal burns the hottest?

A. Peat                                                                         D. Anthracite

B. Lignite                                                                     E. Sub-bituminous coal

C. Bituminous coal

6. How does today’s lesson relate to sustainability?

Math Help

Some students expressed some concern about the math that was part of today's assignment. This type of math is common in physical science classes in college and can be relatively useful in daily life. On the AP exam, it is quite common to encounter a long free response question that involves some dimensional analysis. Thus, we are going to practicing dimensional analysis in class and outside of it. Of course, I will do my best to help you in class and support you outside of it. In the meantime, here are a potentially useful resource and a video that goes along with it.

2/24/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 41. See below.

12A

Also, remember that the take home exam is due tomorrow.

Assignment 41 Energy Basics and Conversion Practice Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability. SHOW YOUR WORK. You are going to need looseleaf. Please do not try to be that kid that scrunches their lame answer in between questions and does not show work. Please and thank you.

1. A 100 Watt incandescent light bulb uses 100 J/sec of electrical energy. If it is 20% efficient, then the bulb converts 20% of the electrical energy into light and 80% is wasted by being transformed into heat (light bulbs are hot).

a. How does this demonstrate the 1^st and/or 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics?

b. How much energy (in joules) does the light bulb consume in a week?

c. Express your answer to 1b. in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

2. Wes wants to help his mom save money by not vacuuming the house daily. He suggests that the house only needs to be vacuumed once a month. If their vacuum cleaner uses 1500 watts and it takes one hour to vacuum the house, how much can Wes save a year if his mom accepts his plan? Assume 1 kWh costs $0.10.

3. The average household consumes 10,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year.  A family decides to add a solar water heater to reduce their electric bill. The solar water heater will reduce their power consumption by 20% each year. Assume 1 kWh costs $0.10, how much will they save in five years?

4. The Cobb family of Fremont is looking at ways to decrease their home water and energy usage. Their current electric hot-water heater raises the water temperature to 140° F, which requires 0.20 kWh/gallon at a cost of $0.10/kWh. Each person in the family of four showers once a day for an average of 10 minutes per shower. The shower has a flow rate of 5.0 gallons per minute.

a. Calculate the total amount of water that the family uses per year for taking showers.

b. Calculate the annual cost of the electricity for the family showers, assuming that 2.5 gallons per minute of the water used is from the hot-water heater.

c. The family is considering replacing their current hot-water heater with a new energy-efficient hot-water heater that costs $1,000 and uses half the energy that their current hot-water heater uses. How many days would it take for the new hot-water heater to recover the $1,000 initial cost?

5. How does today’s discussion of energy relate to sustainability?

12D

Assignment 41 Energy Basics and Conversion Practice Questions

Answer all of the following questions to the best of your ability. SHOW YOUR WORK and write in complete sentences. You are going to need looseleaf. Please do not try to be that kid that scrunches their lame answer in between questions and does not show work. Please and thank you.

1. A 100 Watt incandescent light bulb uses 100 J/sec of electrical energy. If it is 20% efficient, then the bulb converts 20% of the electrical energy into light and 80% is wasted by being transformed into heat (light bulbs are hot).

a. How does this demonstrate the 1^st and/or 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics?

b. How much energy (in joules) does the light bulb consume in a week?

c. Express your answer to 1b. in kilowatt-hours (kWh).

2. Wes wants to help his mom save money by not vacuuming the house daily. He suggests that the house only needs to be vacuumed once a month. If their vacuum cleaner uses 1500 watts and it takes one hour to vacuum the house, how much can Wes save a year if his mom accepts his plan? Assume 1 kWh costs $0.10.

3. The environmental impact of washing a load of dirty dishes in an electric dishwasher differs from that of washing them by hand in a sink. Use the information and data below to answer the questions that follow. Show your calculations.

Assume the following:

·         The dishes all fit in one load.

·         The water coming into the water heater for the sink and into the water heater in the dishwasher is at 50°F.

·         The water heaters for the sink and the dishwasher are both 100 percent efficient.

·         In one complete cycle, the electric dishwasher uses 10 gallons of water heated to 140°F and the dishwasher also uses 0.500 kilowatt-hour of electrical energy for its mechanical operation.

·         Washing the dishes by hand requires 20 gallons of water heated to 110°F.

Other Information:

1 gallon of water = 8 pounds of water

1 BTU = the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water by 1°F

1 kilowatt-hour = 3,400 BTU

a. Calculate the total energy (in BTU’s) used to heat the water and run the electric dishwasher to wash a load of dishes.

b. Calculate the energy (in BTU’s) used to heat the water for washing the load of dishes by hand.

c. Discuss the economic and environmental costs and benefits of

            1. using the electric dishwasher (including its manufacture and disposal)

            2. washing the dishes by hand

4. Answer the questions below regarding the heating of a house in Minnesota. Assume the following.

• The house has 2,000 square feet of living space.

• 80,000 BTUs of heat per square foot are required to heat the house for the winter.

• Natural gas is available at a cost of $5.00 per thousand cubic feet.

• One cubic foot of natural gas supplies 1,000 BTUs of heat energy.

• The furnace in the house is 80 percent efficient.

Calculate the following, showing all the steps of your calculations, including units.

a. The number of cubic feet of natural gas required to heat the house for one winter

b. The cost of heating the house for one winter

5. How does today’s discussion of energy relate to sustainability?

2/14/14

Your homework for break is to complete the take home exam and read the following in order to answer and submit the questions below.

Reading: Botkin and Keller - p. 287 and 291-292 from Chapter 14 and all of Chapter 15

Non-Renewable Energy Reading Check-In

Multiple Choice

Answer all of the following to the best of your ability. In order to expedite grading and scoring, please record all of your multiple choice answers in one place.

1. The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has made headlines because: 

a)  it is the leading source of coal in North America

b)  of proposals to explore for oil there

c)  it is the proposed site for disposal of high-level nuclear waste

d)  the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred there

e)  further oil migration there is blocked by a trap

2. Which of the following geological processes initiates the chemical transformation of the sediment’s organic material into oil and gas? 

a)  deposition of organic-poor material

b)  elevated temperatures and pressures

c)  migration of oil into the source rock

d)  secondary enrichment by escaping gases

e)  migration out of the reservoir rock blocked by a trap

3. According to the Environmental Science text, the estimated peak oil production will be about 50 billion bbl per year and it will arrive sometime between 2020 and 2050. In 2004 the growth rate for oil was 3.4%. What will happen when the peak production occurs and demand is not met?

a)  the price of oil will increase

b)  disruption to society is likely to happen

c)  a gap between demand and production will occur

d)  all of the above

e)  the predicted peak production will never take place because there are many unknown reserves to be discovered

4. All of the following correctly describe fossil fuels except:

a)  it is a form of stored solar energy

b)  it created from incomplete biological decomposition of dead organic matter

c)  it comprises long-term energy reserves

d)  it is a renewable energy resource

e)  it is organic material, dead and buried

5. Oil production, refining, and transportation have been associated with all of the following environmental problems except: 

a)  disturbance of the land surface

b)  land subsidence

c)  acid mine drainage

d)  release of harmful gases

e)  pollution of groundwater

6. All fossil fuels require a certain amount of energy input to get them out of the ground and process them into useful forms.  Which of the following energy sources generally requires the most energy before it can be used as a fuel:

a)  oil

b)  low-sulfur coal

c)  natural gas

d)  oil shale

e)  high-sulfur coal

7. Which of the following sets of adjectives describe the formation of oil, gas, and coal?

a)  inorganic, subducted, not oxidized

b)  organic, buried, not oxidized

c)  inorganic, buried, oxidized

d)  organic, eroded, reduced

e)  acidic, subducted, oxidized

8. In some ways, natural gas is considered a better fossil fuel than oil.  This is primarily because:

a)  gas is found at shallower depths than oil

b)  gas is easier to transport over long distances than oil

c)  gas is a renewable resource

d)  once a reservoir is located, gas commands a higher price than oil

e)  burning natural gas is cleaner than burning oil

9. One problem with petroleum as an energy source is that the resource is not distributed evenly throughout the Earth.  The largest proven reserves of oil are located in:

a)  the North Sea

b)  the Gulf of Mexico

c)  South America

d)  the Middle East

e)  the Far East and Australia

10. Today, the most abundant economic fossil fuel resource is:

a)  oil

b)  gas

c)  coal

d)  oil shale

e)  hydroelectric

11. All of the following are options to reduce the air pollution caused by coal combustion except:

a)  scrubbing

b)  boiler designs that allow combustion at lower temperatures

c)  cleaning coal prior to combustion

d)  consumer education about energy conservation and efficiency

e)  use of more high-sulfur coals

12. Which of the following is usually associated with the most intense disruption of the surface environment?

a)  strip mining

b)  scrubbing

c)  natural gas production

d)  allowance trading

e)  petroleum combustion

13. Where are methane hydrates found?

a)  in permafrost areas

b)  beneath the sea floor

c)  in Africa and Australia

d)  in formerly glaciated valleys

e)  a and b

14. Oil is:

a)  organic matter transformed into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons

b)  inorganic matter transformed into liquid hydrocarbons

c)  bituminous coals transformed into liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons

d)  a variety of natural gases compressed by pressure

e)  organic particles in water

15. Of the four common classes of coal, which is generally the highest energy content?

a)  lignite

b)  anthracite

c)  subanthracite

d)  subbituminous

e)  bituminous

Short Answer

Please answer the following in complete sentences.

16. Define peak oil.

17. List four proposals for reducing gasoline consumption in the U.S. 

2/13/14

Tonight's homework (whether or not you were present in class) is to read p. 316 through 319 of Section 15.3 and p.526-528 of Section 23.5 in Botkin and Keller. In class today we watched the first half of "30 Days: Working in a Coal Mine." If you have streaming Netflix, then it is encouraged that you watch the first half of the episode. I will post a relevant Youtube link ASAP.

The questions to guide your notetaking are the following:

- What do we mine?
- How do we mine?
- What are the consequences of mining (as we currently practice it)?

Remember that you will be receiving your take-home exam tomorrow. Additionally, there is another AP Exam Review session on Saturday, March 22nd. Think about if you would like to attend and let me know tomorrow (the organizers are already asking for a rough head count).

2/12/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 40. Below are the TED Talks that I was mentioning.

Michael Green: Why we should build wooden skyscrapers
Richard Preston: The mysterious lives of giant lives

Assignment 40 Forest Management Practice Questions

Multiple Choice

Refer to the following terms as answer choices for questions 1-4:

A. Clear-cutting

B. Shelterwood cutting

C. Whole-tree harvesting

D. Seed-tree Cutting

E. Strip-cutting

1. Nearly all of a stand’s trees are harvested in one cutting, leaving a few uniformly distributed fertile trees to regenerate the stand.

2. Removal of all trees from a given area in a single cutting.

3. Removal of all mature trees in two or three cuttings over a period of about ten years.

4. A corridor of trees is cut completely along the contour of the land, with the corridor narrow enough to allow natural regeneration within a few years

5. Which of the following is NOT affected by deforestation?

A. Soil erosion                                                             D. Biodiversity

B. Water cycle                                                             E. Ozone layer hole

C. Global temperature

6. Which tree harvesting method is the worst ecologically?

A. Selective cutting                                                     D. Seed-tree cutting

B. Shelterwood cutting                                               E. Slash and burn

C. Clear-cutting

Math Practice

7. For tree farmers who harvest wood for lumber or paper production the greatest profit can be realized by growing the maximum number of trees on an acre of land. The table below shows three different tree species and how many trees can be grown per acre.

Type of tree	Trees per acre
Loblolly Pine	350
Red Oak	200
Tulip Poplar	180

a. How many more pine trees than oak trees can be grown on 1000 acres of land?

b. How many more pine trees than poplar trees can be grown on 1000 acres of land?

Free Response

8. Answer each of the following questions to the best of your ability in complete sentences.

a. Describe two environmental effects of decreasing the rotation time in forests from an average of 60 years to 10 years.

b. Explain how these effects would be different for a woodland in a dry climate with sandy soil compared to a rain forest.

c. Describe what would happen in the aftermath of a fire. Identify which types of organisms would be present soonest after the fire.

d. Describe two reasons why fires can be beneficial for forests.

Discussion Questions

Read Henry David Thoreau’s “Death of a Pine” and answer the following questions.

9. What does the tree represent for Thoreau?

10. What does Thoreau mean when he says, “It is lumber. He has laid waste to the air?”

2/11/14

Tonight's homework is to complete Assignment 39.

2/10/14

Tonight's homework is to review your midterm exam and to complete Assignment 38. Feel free to ignore the question on the third page.

AP Exam Review Session - 2/8

I mentioned this previously, but there AP study sessions will start taking place once a month until the exam on May 5th. Remember that doing well on the AP exam is a great way to earn college credit - allowing you to potentially: save some money, take a lighter course load for a semester, have more choices for elective classes, and more.

The first review session takes place on Saturday (I know), February 8th at Murry Bergtraum High School located at 411 Pearl Street, Manhattan from 9am to 3pm. Extra credit will be offered and there will be pizza(!). I will be attending and eating all of said pizza.

Here is a flyer. You need to let me know if you will be attending and also fill out a permission slip.