Contents of this page:
Projects
The research
projects are
an opportunity for you to learn about an air pollution topic in more
depth
and to share your knowledge with classmates and with the instructor and
TA.
Start
your research early to ensure success, and feel free to discuss your
research
or the rough draft of your paper with us at any point. This
project
forms one quarter of your course grade, so you should expect to spend a
lot of time on it. Your research must be extensive, your writing
must be of high quality, and your poster presentation must be clear.
Your project will consist of
a poster
and a short paper on some focused aspect of the project. If you'd like,
you have the option of doing the project in pairs, with a common poster
and individual papers.
By Friday, October 27, please identify at
least 2 topics that you
would like to study. Send an email to jaegle@atmos.washington.edu
with the names of the partners and your ranked choice of topics.
Indicate if the topic is from the list below or if it
is your own idea. Some of the topics below have an *; in the case of
those topics, please identify the focus of the topic.
Dates:
Choose partner and topic: Oct. 27
Paper due (W): Nov. 29
Paper due (non-W): Dec. 6
Final paper due (W): Dec. 11
Poster presentations: Dec. 6 & 7
Requirements
You will be evaluated
on
two major components: the written paper (15% of your course
grade)
and your poster presentation (10% of your course grade).
Students will read about the details of a specific topic in air pollution and write up their findings in a paper. They will also summarize their findings on a poster. Individual papers should be at least 1000 words in length (equivalent to 4 double spaced typewritten pages). Students taking ATMS 212 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. For more info on the "W" requirement, click here .
Individual
Papers (minimum 1000 words)
The written paper must
be a solid piece of writing. You will be evaluated primarily on
content,
including structure and accuracy, but we also expect correct spelling,
punctuation, grammar, and construction. The paper should include a
title,
an introduction, a discussion of the subject matter, and a conclusion.
Supplementary tables or figures are encouraged and datasets,
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. Use at least three
references (unless you are
commenting
on a book, in which case the book alone is probably enough). Your
references may include complete URLs, with date accessed, but at least
one reference should be from a printed source. You must list all
of
your
references, and any direct quotes must be indicated as such.
Please be really careful about your referencing. If you copy any exact wording from one of your sources, you must cite the source in your text. If you fail to do so, you run the risk of being accused of plagiarism. Even if you're paraphrasing in your own words something that is clearly one scientist's idea or opinion, you must mention the source. But much of what you write in your papers will hopefully represent your own synthesis of what you've learned in your own reading and through talking with other members of your group. It will represent not just the opinion of one scientist but the prevailing views of the scientific community. This kind of writing does not (at least for this course) require extensive referencing within the text, but you still must include a list of references at the end of your paper.
Length: about 4-8 pages (minimum 1000 words), not including references.
If you are working with a partner, each of you must submit individual papers.
"W" credit
If you are taking ATM S 212 as a writing course, you must submit a 10-page (2500 words) paper on November 29 (This is not a rough draft!). You will have the opportunity to edit the paper in response to suggestions from the instructors, and a revised version is due December 6 with everybody else's papers. We will grade only the final version. For more info on the "W" requirement, click here.Poster Presentations
Poster evaluation formYou are required to present your findings in a poster that will be shown at two poster sessions on December 6&7. The point of your poster is to communicate your project to each other (as well as the instructor and TA).
Your
poster should be
designed to fit and mounted on a 3’ x 4’ piece of paper or lightweight
poster
board. We will supply poster boards and bring them to the first poster
session for you to mount your illustrations on. The poster should
contain at a minimum:
- Title
and names of authors (underneath the title)
- Abstract
(1 paragraph) – this is a summary of what your poster is about
- At
least four figures; these
figures may be photographs, sketches or graphs. The figures should each
have a short caption (label).
- Connecting
words as necessary. The poster is supposed to tell a story so help the
viewer understand the story by connecting the figures.
- A
summary statement (1-2 paragraphs). What are the most important things
you learned and what to communicate to the viewer.
Check out
this
web site for some good ideas for poster construction.
Topics
The tabled below
includes
is a list of topics you can choose from. In most cases we can
point
you to references to get you started. You are certainly welcome
to
come up with your own
topic, as long
as
it has some connection to air pollution and provides the opportunity
for some
analysis and/or original thought. Let us know what topic you have
chosen by Oct 27.
1) Air quality in Puget Sound for recent years
2) Air quality winter burn ban
3) Local visibility
4) Ecosystem effects of nitrogen deposition
5) *Megacities and air pollution (case studies, choose one of the following: Beijing, Bombay, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Calcutta, Delhi, Jakarta, Karachi, London, Los Angeles, Manilla, Mexico City, Shangai, Tokyo)
6) Clean coal technologies
7) Fuel and fuel additives
8) Diesel engines, are they good or bad for air pollution?
9) Air pollution in art
10) Air pollution in literature
11)* Air pollution in your home town
Regional air pollution issues:
1) Surface ozone trends over the United States
2)* Trends in emissions over the U.S. (you can choose one or two of the following: NOx, CO, CO2, hydrocarbons)
3) Visibility in National Parks
4) Air pollution and health
5) Arctic air pollution
6) History and effectiveness of US Clean Air Act
Global scale pollution issues:
1) The
Kyoto protocol to regulate greenhouse gas emissions
2) The
Montreal Protocol and its amendments: is it working?
3) What
is the expected impact of global climate
change on water resources, ecosystems, coastal zones, human
settlements,
insurance, or human health?
4)
Discuss the moral and ethical dimensions of climate change
5) The
role of non governmental organizations in air pollution legislation
6)* What
are the prospects for renewable energy?
You could focus on solar energy, wind energy, tidal energy, fuel-cell
vehicles, or biofuels, ...
Getting
Started
Your textbook has a lot
of
relevant information scattered throughout the various chapters.
You can also refer to the class web site links,
and do your own searches in the literature or on the web. Let us
know if you have any trouble finding relevant references.
Last
Updated:
09/26/2006