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Your writing assigment will consist of several components which will relate to your research project. These are:
1. Write a 1/2 to 1 page abstract or summary of your research project.
2. Prepare a 1-2 page detailed outline of your research project.
3. Choose two references which you will use in your research project and do an annotated bibliography for each (about 1/2 page for each reference chosen). An annotated bibliography describes what is found in a book or journal article, and can provide a short evaluation of the usefulness or quality of the information.
In order to do this properly, you will need to spend some time in the library and the internet searching out sources and several hours reading papers or articles to get some sense of what you want to cover in your outline. Do not attempt to do the assignment without this preparatory work. Use your textbooks as a beginning source to the extent possible.
The choice of your topic should expand on the themes developed in the course by analyzing a topic related to individual or community energy use and could in addition evaluate potential alternatives that might be more sustainable. In all cases, you should quantify your analysis as much as possible. Your project should be somewhat narrowly focused and may involve some data collection and analysis. The project may involve the design and evaluation of some energy-related device, or an evaluation of the energy efficiency of a given process. It is important to narrow the subject considered so it can be dealt with meaningfully in a 8-10 page paper. Be specific; avoid generalities. A list of potential projects/topics is included. You are also encouraged to come up with your own ideas and to think of unique and creative projects of value. If you need help in developing the project, or have questions about the suitability of your topic, please see me.
Your assignment will be due early in the semester and will be given a tentative grade from 0 to 10. It is expected that the student will then incorporate instructor comments, if needed, and develop the final version. The assignment will then be regraded carefully. Because the assignment is crucial to developing a good research project, it is important that you refine your outline until it is acceptable regardless of its grade. The final approved outline must be included with your final research paper.
See the Bulletin Board for when the assignment is due. This is a firm deadline, especially since you may need to rewrite the assignment. One letter grade is subtracted from the assignment's value for each three days you are late. This cannot be made up. Rewrites should be gotten back in two weeks (the new due date will be listed on the top of your paper). Approval of your writing assignment means you should then continue to work on the research project.
Homework is assigned from 3 sources. (A). Hinrichs. (see below), (B) Three extra problem sheets attached with your syllabus. (C). The modules. You should work out all activities in the modules (all answers are given in the modules and the worked out solutions are on library reserve.). You should be working on all of these throughout the semester as they are covered. Homework will not be collected.
The listing below are all the assigned questions and problems from Hinricks. All quantitative problems in Hinricks are worked out and the solutions are on reserve in the library. In addition, there are 3 assigned problem sheets. Again, solutions are worked out and are on reserve.You should not look at library solutions until after you have tried working the problems.
Almost all qualitative questions are answerable from reading Hinrichs. You should answer them immediately after you read the chapter. Jotting down the answer will help you to remember it.
While the homework is not handed in and counted as part of your grade, it is a critical that you know it in order to prepare for the quizzes and exams which do count 60% of your grade.
There are some samples of old quizzes and exams on reserve in the library so you can get some idea of the kinds of questions asked. These are illustrative. There are many possible questions so you need to really understand how to think through and solve problems, not memorize particular solutions.
Hinrichs Assigned Questions and Problems
Ch 1 - Introduction - pp. 33-34 Q 1, 3-6,8,9,11,13,22
Ch. 10 - Electricity - pp.349-352 - Q 3,4,6,7,12,14,17,18,19 Prob. 2,7,8,11,13
Ch. 11 - Generation of Electricity pp. 382-383 - Q 4,5,8,10 Prob. 1,4
Ch. 2 - Energy Mechanics - pp. 57-59 - Q 1-6,10 Prob. 1,2,4,6,9,10,14
Ch. 3 - Cons. of Energy - pp. 89-91 - Q 1-7, 11 Prob. 1-6
Ch. 4 - Heat and Work - pp. 121-123 - Q 1-6,8-14 Prob. 2,5,8,9,11
Ch. 5 - Home Energy Conservation - pp. 151-152 Q 1,3,5,8,11,12 Prob. 1,2,3,7
Ch. 6 - Solar Heating - pp. 193-194 - Q 1,3,5,7,8,14,17 Prob. 2-8
Ch 12 - Solar Electricity - pp. 418-420 - Q 1,3,6,7,9,13 Prob. 1,2,4,5,6,7
Ch. 7 - Fossil Fuels - pp. 230-231 - Q 5,6,8 Prob. 3,4,5
Ch 8 - Air Pollution - pp. 279-282 - Q 3,4,6,10,19,22 Prob. 5,6,7
Ch 9 - Global Warming - pp. 315-316 - Q 1,3,8,14,16
Ch 13 - The Atom and the Nucleus - pp. 443-444 - Q 1,4,7,8,9,10,11,12,13
Ch. 14 - Nuclear Power: Fission - pp. 496-497 - Q 1-12, 14-16
Ch 16 - Fusion - p. 538-539 - Q 1-3, 6-9
GENERAL GUIDELINES:
The research project should expand on the themes developed in the course by analyzing an energy-related topic. See the list of projects given out with this assignment. Besides obvious energy topics, many other topics such as food, water, and resource use will have a strong energy connection that can be investigated. One possibility is that you take some aspect of individual, community or societal energy use, and analyze it together with an alternative that is more sustainable. It analyzing alternatives, it is important to quantify the energy and monetary savings as much as possible. It is also important to narrow the subject considered so it can be dealt with meaningfully in a 10 page paper. A list of potential projects is provided, but you are encouraged to come up with your own ideas and to think of unique and creative topics. If you decide to compare alternatives, you should evaluate the subject in terms of: energy savings, economic savings, environmental benefits, sustainability and societal acceptance. If you look at an energy technology or source, you should include sections on technology, economics, and environmental, social and political impacts.
The paper will be graded on four criteria: writing, depth of analysis, integration of thought, and use of references.
You should have at least 5 substantial up-to-date references. (Encyclopedias, newspapers and general magazines do not count as substantial references; they of course may be used as additional references). Many topics will require you to get up-to-date references since the topic area is continually being affected by new data, new technology, and new understandings and changes in the environment. You should use and integrate the course text in your project to the extent possible. You are encouraged to use the internet for some but not all of your sources. Include at least 2 up-to-date journal (not internet) sources in your paper. In addition, all references should be correctly cited (footnoted) throughout the paper and listed in a bibliography at the end. There are a number of ways of doing this. One of the easiest ways (and the one I recommend) is to list the citation in the text as (Name, year of publication) i.e., (Smith, 1987) and list the complete citation alphabetically in the bibliography at the end of the paper. Quotations should also have the page number included in the citation, i.e., (Smith, 1987, p. 5)
The paper should be typewritten, double-spaced, and about 8-10 pages in text length (Don't count title page, bibliography, diagrams, attachments, etc. as part of the length).Any diagrams included should be referenced and discussed in the paper. Detailed calculations of energy savings or use should be put in appendices and referred to in the paper. Please clarify all assumptions made in your calculations. It is recommended to use a word processor. Use the spell check and grammar check, while recognizing their limitations. Be sure to save your paper on a disk. It is often useful to save it on two separate disks.
Your research project is tied in with your writing/outline assignment (see other sheet: Writing/Outline Assignment). Successfully completing the outline ensures that project is a suitable one and that adequate references exist. Approval of your outline assignment indicates that you should go ahead and complete the research project. You must hand in a copy of your approved final outline with your research paper. The research paper is due a week before the end of the semester. This is a firm deadline. The project will be penalized one letter grade for each three days that it is late. Papers more than 7 days late will not be accepted.
Your writing/outline assignment and project/paper represent more than one third of your total grade in the course. For people who are doing poorly on exams and quizzes, these assignments can represent the difference between passing and failing. For other people, it can mean the difference between doing well and doing just ok. The following are very common problems with research papers that significantly affect the grade. Check your paper carefully so that you do not have any of these problems. Be sure to avoid number 6 below.
1. The topic treated is too broad to be adequately covered in an 8-10 page paper. Solution: narrow your topic.
2. The references cited are very old yet the topic area has had a lot of recent work. Solution: get up-to-date articles from magazines and journals. Don't depend just on books.
3. The paper is inadequately referenced. (This may be ok if you are doing some original work or analysis). Solution: Provide citations as needed throughout the paper and provide a complete bibliography at the end of the paper. For a well integrated paper, you should expect to have several citations per page as a minimum.
4. The paper is not logically developed. Solution: A detailed outline that develops the topics in a logical order should help here. Sometimes using headings for different parts of the paper helps to focus the topics. You should not repeat material in several places in the paper. Attached figures should be discussed in the paper and not just appended with no explanation.
5. The paper does not have a good introduction and a conclusion. Solution: Your introduction should serve to introduce the purpose and scope of the paper as well as provide a transition. The conclusion should be based on the arguments developed in the paper. It is ok to provide your own judgments in a conclusion if it is based on an evaluation of the work presented in the paper.
6. The paper is plagiarized. Solution: Write your paper in your own style and in your own words. You cannot use sentences from your sources without changing both the sentence structure and the language considerably, even if you reference the source. Changing a few words in a sentence is not enough. Any sentences taken exactly from a source must be quoted. Warning: I check any suspicous papers for plagiarism. Plagiarism will lead to an F for the paper and for the course.
7. The paper does not treat the topic in enough depth, or there is important material left out of the paper. Solution: Get enough sources and get up-to-date sources.
Potential Subjects for the Research Paper
1. Analyze the present energy efficiency of your home with regards to heat loss. Make suggestions for changes and analyze the energy and monetary savings.
2. Analyze the present energy efficiency of your home with regards to heat gain. Make suggestions for changes and analyze the energy and monetary savings.
3. Pick an appliance in your home and analyze its energy consumption over a year. Consider how it might be improved and quantify the savings.
4. Analyze the energy use of your eating habits. Consider the full food supply system and analyze alternatives that would be more sustainable.
5. Analyze the energy use of your waste disposal habits. Consider the full energy implications of waste disposal and potential alternatives.
6. Analyze the energy use of your water consumption. Provide an analysis of alternatives and the energy and water savings.
7. Analyze the energy use in your transportation use. Analyze alternatives and their possible energy and monetary savings.
8. Analyze the energy inherent in your use of a manufactured product. Analyze the energy savings if you used alternative product instead.
9. Analyze the energy that might be provided by a sustainable energy technology on an individual or a community scale.
10. Analyze the energy that might be saved by some new energy efficient technology.
11. Analyze the energy savings that may occur by recycling or reusing a given product.
12. Analyze the energy savings that may occur by efficient landscaping design.
13. Analyze the energy flows in some institutional or community activity and consider the alternatives to such flows.
Some Applications and Technologies
heat loss analysis /photovoltaics /computers & energy
heat gain analysis/ insulation /weatherstripping
daylighting /heat pumps/ refrigerators
passive solar heating/ wind generators/ energy in agriculture
superwindows /efficient water use/ drip irrigation
solar greenhouses/ electric vehicles /recycling
solar water heaters/ composting & energy/ battery recycling
solar cookers /paper recycling /hydrogen fuel
solar food dryers/ fuel cells/ lighting efficiency
efficient furnaces/ efficient hot water /bicycle energy use
energy efficient landscaping /wood energy /small scale biofuels
efficient cooling/ solar distillation/ methane generation
air to air heat exchangers/ heat storage systems /solar collectors for heating
ventilation design /water pumping /green manure
metal recycling /composting toilets /efficient appliances
clothing /metal recycling /permaculture
energy in food storage and processing / energy in the food system
mass transportation /hybrid vehicles/ fuel cell vehicles
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