ENTS 100 Spring 2003

Reading Assignments (listed here in reverse chronological order)
[Please remember that you need to assemble a prep sheet for each day's reading!]

For Wednesday, June 4:

• Read Chapter 7 and the Epilogue in the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environemental Choices

For Monday, June 2:

• Read Chapters 5 and 6 in the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environemental Choices
• Read (or listen to) these two short reports from a 2002 Minnesota Public Radio feature called "Are We There Yet?"
  • The Twin Cities Commute
  • Minnesota's Transportation Funding System
• If you are interested, you can find out about the Twin Cities' Hiawatha Light Rail line from the MN Department of Transportation
• I tried to find a short, balanced FAQ on the key issues in transit, but I just couldn't...sorry! =( The readings above will serve to frame our discussion.

For Friday, May 30:

• Read Chapter 4 in the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environemental Choices
• Read the handout on the science of global warming
• Choose and read one of the following three global warming counterpoints:
  
  • A general, somewhat financial argument from the Heritage Foundation
  • A more scientific argument against global warming as a hazard from the Cato Institute
  • A more cautious, technology-driven approach to global warming encouraged by the Rand Corporation
    
• Check up on one "fact" presented in these readings and try to find corroboration/disagreement on it. Or, pick one person or organization involved in any of these readings and find out a little more about them.

For Wednesday, May 28:

• Read Chapter 3 in the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environemental Choices
• Read pages 46 and 47 in the reading packet, a brochure from Excel Energy on power generation sources

For Monday, May 26:

• Unless you've written yourself an extension, your Final Project is due today!
• Read Chapter 2 in the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environemental Choices
• Our in-class discussion will be about recycling and trash, the economics and realities of both. If you have any questions or experiences with these, please include them on your prep sheet!

For Friday, May 23:

• Attend Friday's convocation!!!
• Read the executive summary of The President's Council on Bioethics 2002 report, Human Cloning and Human Dignity: An Ethical Inquiry
• You need not take detailed notes on Convo or the executive summary, but please *do* write down your thoughts and also any questions that come to mind as you read and listen, as grist for our conversation with Professors Green and Dresser. Also include a bit of integration, as usual. We'll ask you to turn that sheet in after class.
• Bring a separate sheet of paper indicating when and where you will submit your final project, if you would like to spend a bit more time on it
  • If we don't get a sheet from you, we'll assume you are committing to handing in your project on Monday, May 26, in class
  • If you would like to spend more time, specify you own due date and time, some time before class time on Monday, June 2
  • Also specify where you would like to submit your project. Your options are:
    • in class
    • in Joel's mailbox (outside the physics department office, 3rd Olin)
    • in the box outside Rob's office, or under his office door (167 Mudd)
  • We will hold you to the due date you specify: no more extensions beyond that date and time!
  • If you are pretty well along on your project, and satisfied that you've spent the suggested 20 hours working dilligently on it, we suggest handing it in and not worrying about it an extra week! This opportunity is being offered because we know it's crunch time (we're feeling it too) and the next few days may just be dismally bad for you. Don't expect that you'll have all the time in the world next week, though, and if you've not gotten a good start on this, don't procrastinate further!
• I highly recommend re-reading the final project assignment sheet. Be doubly sure that you are doing what the assignment asks of you!!!
  

For Wednesday, May 21:

• Read the stuff in the short handout packet
• Read the preface and Chapter 1 in the Consumer's Guide to Effective Environemental Choices
• Read this nice summary on Stratospheric Ozone Depletion put together by the EPA (Understand as much of the science as you can, but don't freak out. You can skim from page 7 onward, but read pages 2-5 and the conclusion carefully, please.)

For Monday, May 19:

• Learn what global warming is all about in five pages - Sorry, I know it won't be all some of you want to know! (There's more info on the links page)
• Read about The CAFE Standard System
• Look through the latest CAFE report from the Department of Transportation
• Learn about where all the "extra" energy goes when you drive a car with an internal combustion engine
• Learn about hybrid vehicles, which provide one more avenue for wasting less of the energy in gasoline
• Read about alternate fuel vehicles, which run on fuels other than gasoline or diesel oil
• Read pages 47 and 48 of the reading packet, on the E85 network in Minnesota
• Read this summary on Minnesota's ethanol project
• Read pages 50 and 51 of the reading packet, on fuel cell vehicles
• Read about the next big thing - trash into oil? in the May issue of Discover Magazine
• Come up with one question that you would like answered about transportation stuff

For Friday, May 16:

• Read about the actual process that led to the discovery of TEL from the Chemcases site
• Finish reading The Secret History of Lead
• Read the follow-ups and letters linked into the f irst page of The Secret History of Lead
• Read the EPA Journal's "Lead Poisoning: A Historical Perspective"
• Read the following EPA Press Releases:
  
  • EPA Requires Phase-Out of Lead in All Grades of Gasoline [November 28, 1973]
  • EPA Sets New Limits on Lead in Gasoline [March 4, 1985]
  • EPA Takes Final Step in Phaseout of Leaded Gasoline [January 29, 1996]
    
• Check up on one "fact" presented in these readings and try to find corroboration/disagreement on it. The links page might help.

For Wednesday, May 14:

• Analyze and consider the information provided in the handouts on ethical failings in science
• Read pages 1 and 2 of Why Octane Rating (ROM) or Anti-Knock Index (AKI) matters
• Read part one (only) of An "enthusiast's" history of tetraethyl lead (This link has been shaky: if it doesn't work, try here) Only the history section is really important; don't freak if the more technical stuff doesn't make sense to you.
• Read "The Search for an Antiknock" (p. 3) up through the start of "Ethylized Science" (p. 15) in The Secret History of Lead
• Check up on one "fact" presented in the lead readings and try to find corroboration/disagreement on it.

For Monday, May 12:

• Read pp. 14 - 45 in the ENTS 100 reading packet ("Deconstructing Harry" and "Sisters")

For Friday, May 9:

• Chapter 6 and Conclusion in Davis

For Wednesday, May 7:

• One-page final project overview sheet is due in class today!
• Chapters 2 through 4 in Davis

For Monday, May 5:

• Midterm Break!
• If you haven't done anything on your final project assignment, now would be the time!

For Friday, May 2:

• Chapters 12 in Marks
• Introduction and Chapter 1 in Davis
• "How Cloning Works" from www.howstuffworks.com (This doesn't need to be included in your prep sheet)

For Wednesday, April 30:

• Chapters 9 through 11 in Marks

For Monday, April 28:

• Handout: "Energy Enters Guilty Plea" from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
• Executive Summary portion of the Final Report of the President's Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments

For Friday, April 25:

• Chapters 6 through 8 in Marks

For Wednesday, April 23:

• pp. 68 - 127 in Marks (Finish chapter 3; read chapters 4 and 5.)

For Monday, April 21:

• pp. 1 - 68 in Marks (Introduction, Ch 1, 2, and part of 3)

For Friday, April 18:

• Chapters 4 and 7, + Afterward (but not "Future") in Germs

For Wednesday, April 16:

• Preface and Chapters 2 and 3 in Germs
• Bikini Island opinion column handout (This doesn't need to be included in your prep sheet)
  

For Monday, April 14:

• Chapters 6 and 9 in Caldicott
  
• Background information on fissile materials and UN votes in the reading packet: pp. 10 - 13 (This doesn't need to be included in your prep sheet)
• Editorial handout on missile defense (This doesn't need to be included in your prep sheet)

For Friday, April 11:

• Introduction + chapters 1, 2, 3, and 5 in Caldicott

For Wednesday, April 9:

• Chapters 17-20 and epilogue in Jungk
• Handout on nuclear energy and weapons (This doesn't need to be included in your prep sheet)

For Monday, April 7:

• Chapters 13-16 in Jungk

For Friday, April 4:

• Chapters 8, 10, 11, and 12 in Jungk
• If you plan to attend the Nuclear Energy in Minnesota Panel, scan these links for background information: (These don't go on your prep sheet)
  Prairie Island Nuclear Waste Storage and the Pairie Island Indian Community
  MN Department of Commerce FAQ on the issue: see in particular pp. 13-16
  An introduction to How Nuclear Power Works
  A word from the current operators of Prairie Island
  A word from Excel energy, the owners of Prairie Island
  A word from one of the key opponents of Prairie Island
  

For Wednesday, April 2:

• Background information on fission materials in the reading packet: pp. 1 - 9 (This doesn't need to be included in your prep sheet)
• Chapters 1, 4, 5, and 6 in Jungk