Contents of this page:

Group Projects

Divide & Conquer

Class pres & web

Individual paper

Grading

Getting started

The group projects will be team efforts.  In groups, students will research the details of Earth's past climate over specific time periods and present their findings in class. You will be required to: 

• contribute to the group's effort; 
• participate in the oral presentation of results, or in putting the group's work on the web; 
• turn in an individually-written paper describing the group's work and your contribution to it. 

Working groups have been assigned in an attempt to distribute, as evenly as possible the scientific, presentation, and computer expertise, that resides within the class as well as the personal preferences you have indicated (based on the survey conducted during the first day of class).
 

Divide and conquer
You are free to divide the various responsabilities as you wish.  For example, you can divide the work between information gathering, text writing, and presenting. It is up to each group to find out where its skills lie and to organize in a way that makes best use of them. 

Class presentation and web display
Each group will present their results in a 30 minute classroom presentation.  You can for example have three members of your group each give a 10 minute presentation.  The method of presentation is up to you (viewgraphs, powerpoint presentations, web presentation).  All the material you present should be available as a web display that will serve as a set of notes for the entire class to use in preparing for the final exam.  Both the class presentations and web display will be built around a set of no more than 15 "pages" that will take the form of viewgraphs in the classroom presentation and screen images on the Web.  The "pages" should be supplemented by text, as needed, to explain what's in the images that contain graphics.  In preparing your class presentations use as a rule of thumb 2 minutes for each viewgraph/web page.  It would be useful if you could rehearse your presentation ahead of time to make sure that you stay within the 30 minute limit.  This will leave ample time for class questions and discussions following the presentation. 

Here are links to web displays from the previous class (winter 2001):

              Group A - Overview of history of Earth 
              Group C - Past million years
              Group X - Evidence of the past climates and conditions on Earth 
              Group Y - Impact of climate on human history 

Individual paper
Individual papers will deal with the same topic areas as the group projects and they may overlap with the group projects to some degree. They should identify and expand upon the student's contribution to the group project. They should be at least 1000 words in length (equivalent to 4 double spaced typewritten pages).  Students taking ATMS 211 as a writing course will be required to submit a 10-page (2500 word) paper which they will have the opportunity to edit in response to suggestions from the instructor. 

Supplementary tables or figures are encouraged and datasets, references (including web references), and other sources of information used in the paper should be listed in sufficient detail at the end so that an interested reader will know how to locate them. It should be clear from reading the paper what piece of information came from what source. 

Grading of the projects
In rating the presentations, the primary consideration is educational value. All members of a group, regardless of how they participate, will receive the same base grade for the project, but some adjustments may be applied to take into account the differences in individual contributions to the group effort.  The presentation will count for 10% of your total class grade, and the individual paper will count for 15% of your total class grade.
 

Getting Started
Listed below are suggested topics for each group.  Your textbook has a lot of relevant information scattered throughout the various chapters, especially Chapter 8 (group A, B), Chapter 11 (Group C, D) and Chapter 12 (Group E).

Group A - Overview of history of Earth. 
Asteroid and meteor bombardment, evolution of atmosphere and life, continental drift. Might also consider the question of whether the earth may be unique (or nearly unique) as a habitable planet. 

Group B - Past 100 million years. 
Recent stages of continental drift. K-T mass extinction; cooling of earth, formation of Himalayas, Rockies and the influence on climate. 

Group C - Past million years. 
Alternating glacial and interglacial epochs of the Quaternary period. Extent of continental ice sheets, impact on sea-level. Temperature and rainfall in ice free parts of the earth. Carbon dioxide, dust, sulfate aerosols. Effects on land forms. 

Group D - Past 20,000 years. 
Emergence from the most recent ice sheets. Withdrawal of the ice sheets. Effects on land forms. The Younger Dryas Period. The Bond Cycle. 

Group E - Past 2,000 years. 
Climates of the Roman period; the 'Dark Ages', the Medieval Warm Period; the 'Little Ice Age'; the 'Dust Bowl'. Does NOT include greenhouse warming and the 'ozone hole'. 

Group X - Evidence of past climates and conditions on earth
Before each presentation from groups A-E, this groupd will discuss evidence used on the various timescales.  Geological formations, sediments, fossils, tree rings, varves, pollens, corals, ice cores, historical written records...

Group Y - Impact on climate on human history. 
Coordinate with Groups D and E.  A good starting point: Jared Diamonds's book "Guns, Germs and Steel".  Also look at William Calvin's page below.
 

Here are some web links and references that you might find useful.  You can also do your own web searches and see what material you come up with. Also listed here
are some seminars on subjects related to the group presentations. 

Seminars
Tuesday April 10 3-4:30 pm in ATG 310:
lecture by William Calvin: "Human response to fast climate change". This should be particularily interesting to group Y. Check out the notes and reading material prepared by Professor Calvin at:
http://www.williamcalvin.com/readings/
 

Links
Review article by Thomas Crowley in "Consequences, the nature and implications of environmental change" (http://www.gcrio.org/CONSEQUENCES/winter96/geoclimate.html)

Another starting point: NOAA paleoclimatology program (http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/)

Ice age climate reconstructions (http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/nerc.html)

Reference list for ice age climate (http://www.esd.ornl.gov/projects/qen/refs.html) 

Books available in the libraries on campus (check availability in UW libraries catalog)
Global Climates Since the Last Glacial Maximum. Editors: Wright H.E. Jr., Kutzbach J.E., Webb T. III, Ruddiman W.F., Street-Perrott F.A. & Bartlein P.J. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1993.

The World at 18,000 BP.  Edited by Soffer O. & Gamble G. Unwin Hyman, London, 1990. 

Palaeoclimatology.  Crowley T.J. & North G.R. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991. 

The Last great ice sheets.  Edited by George H. Denton & Terence J. Hughes. Wiley, New York, 1981.

From Eros to Gaia.  Freeman Dyson.   Pantheon Books, New York, 1992. (Chap 12)

Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery. J. Imbrie and K.O. Imbrie.  Harvard University Press, 1986. 

Articles in journals:
Kasting, J.F., O.B. Toon, and J.B. Pollack, 1988: "How Climate Evolved on the Terrestrial Planets." Scientific American, p. 90-97. 

W.S. Broecker and G.H. Denton, "What Drives Glacial Cycles?" Scientific American, January 1990. 

W.S. Broecker, "The Ocean". Scientific American, September 1983. 

W.S. Broecker,"The Great Ocean Conveyor". Oceanography, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1991. 

 Last Updated:
03/13/2001