Earth Journal Assignment



Environmental Science in the News Assignment

 

Purpose: One of the important goals of science is to learn to be resourceful, evaluate new sources and stories, and stay current with the important issues of the day. Scientific information is delivered to the public though a variety of media, including newspapers, magazines, broadcasting, internet, etc. For this project you will collect, read, and evaluate newspaper and news magazine articles pertaining to Environmental Science issues.

 

A. The Collection: You must collect fifteen (15) articles, a little less than one per week. Each selected article must be about or related to some aspect of environmental science. If you are unsure about whether an article is worthy for consideration, please bring it in to me. Articles must be at least 500 words and selected from reliable news sources, including the list below. Some online sources are acceptable, but 10 of the articles must be in the hard copy form. The collection must span the entire semester, not just a couple of weeks. For each article, you must do the following:

1. Each article must be mounted to a page (or pages) to be kept in a loose-leaf notebook, composition book, or other bound source. Use tape or glue (no staples)—NEATNESS COUNTS.

2. Each page must have the date of publication, source of the article, and author (neatly typed or written in pen).

3. Each article must be summarized on a 3x5 card that is also affixed to the page, but does not permanently cover any part of the article.

B. List of Acceptable Periodicals:

1. Atlanta Journal-Constitution

2. New York Times

3. Wall Street Journal

4. Time Magazine

5. Newsweek Magazine

6. US News and World Report magazine

7. Economist Magazine

8. National Geographic Magazine

Other periodicals may be acceptable. Mr. Drusky needs to approve articles from any other periodical prior to submission by the student.

C. The Analysis: Once all of your articles have been collected, you must do the following:

1. Title Page: Give your “Environmental Science in the News” journal a title that reflects something about the project.

2. Organizational Scheme: The Earth Journal must be organized in some topical manner (not chronological or by source). This scheme need not be explained but ought to be obvious. You must include a typed table of contents that demonstrates your organizational plan and that makes navigation of the project easier.

D. Interest Paper

1. The interest paper is based on five (5) related articles from your collection. You need to explain why you picked them as your special interest topic and why they are important enough to you to single them out. You should briefly describe each article in your own words. You must then give your opinion or reasons why the article is important to you. Finally, you must explain the science, politics, and/or economics behind your articles.

2. The paper should be 2-3 pages in length, typed with 1” margins and double spacing. It should follow the standard introduction, body, conclusion format.

3. You will present this paper to the class during the last week of school this semester.

Grading: Here is the rubric and grading scheme for the project:

Each article may earn up to three points. The first point will be awarded to each article if the instructor considers it pertinent to Environmental Science. The second point will be awarded if the summary was clear and valuable to the project. A third point will be awarded if the article and summary are presented in an aesthetically pleasing format. Points will be deducted if the overall project does not have a title page, table of contents or clear and appropriate organizational scheme. The inclusion of 25 articles will account for up to 75 points out of a 100 possible on this project.

The last 25 points will be awarded for the quality of the Interest Paper. Consideration will be given to the pertinence of the topic to Environmental Science, including but not limited to the relevance to major current issues (5 pts). The paper should clearly show passion about the topic by the student (5 pts). The included articles should be well summarized (5 pts). The paper should review the science content in the articles, as well as politics and economics (10 pts). Finally, up to ten (10) points may be deducted for spelling and/or grammatical mistakes.

Due Date: This project will count as a two major test grades and is due three full calendar weeks before the end of the semester (April 30, 2012).

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