Carbon Dioxide Paper Evals

 1. Carbon Dixoide Paper
 2.Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the criteria established. Where these good criteria, or should there have been different criteria established? 
I think that the criteria had one good strength and good weakness. The strength would be that because of the broadness of the criteria it allowed us to challenge ourselves and make this project worth it. By being broad the criteria forced us to think about what exactly they meant and what should be allowed to fall into that category. A weakness though would be that same thing, the criteria being broad. I know it is the same thing but that same thing that is a strength is also a weakness, but for a different reason. I think it is a weakness because the criteria were just broad enough to leave doubt. If you can believe what you are suppose to being supportive of the doubt leaves, but the criteria left some doubt amongst some.

3. Reflect on the strengths and weaknesses of the presentations as a whole.

The presentations I think were stronger than previous ones. Now that we have a clearer idea of what exactly presentation should be in professional settings and in this class; we also we more confident that we knew what we needed to do and how we should do it. . I think something that didn’t go so well was the fact to the groups weren’t talking to others like them; the no groups weren’t talking to the other no groups and vice versa for the yes groups.

4.Reflect on the group management of your group. What went well, what did not?

The management of the groups seemed to work well; everyone listened to each other’s ideas and tried to make them work for their projects. There was just enough management that it wasn’t overpowering but that said I think someone should have taken control and said okay this person do that and this one do that. I think that this way would have made it easier to find information and make sure everything got addressed. This would also have to be regulated though to make sure the authority wasn’t going to someone’s head and to make sure people were still having some fun to the project.

5.  Reflect on the personal “ethic” you felt in your group. Did you believe in your position? Where you arguing against your beliefs?

My group’s ethic was something that needed to be worked on. We all read it and thought no, this paper is one that is not, but we knew what we needed to do. We tried to be objective but our thoughts of doubt kept creeping in. I tried to have an open mind to the project but the more in depth we went the more I started to feel that this paper was not legitimate, after awhile though I did come around and say yes based on our criteria the paper was legitimate. So in the beginning I was arguing against my beliefs but after seeing some of the evidence my group member had and comparing them to the criteria I changed my belief and compromised.

6.  Did the class make the correct decision when considering the broader impacts of the global warming/climate change debate? Why?

I think that when it came to the vote, people really were not actually thinking about their opinion, just their grade. Some were, don’t get me wrong, but overall I think it came down to getting the points. Some questions people had for groups were ignored, others were shifted to make the presenters look good even though it was a good question that potentially could have shut them down and made them not look good. But most people probably voted the way they did for the grade rather than from data presented.

7. Explain the statement, “What we do in the US, soon will not matter” Provide evidence to justify this statement.

So this statement does have justification to it since as of 2007 China passed the United States in the biggest country to create pollution. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jun/19/china.usnews) Plus just from past classes I have learned that the majority of the Earth’s pollution comes from the developing nations that are trying to make a name for themselves. All of the industry that they need is making more pollution that the US. So just based off of this one link the statement is true that what we do in the US will not matter.

8. Explain this statement “What we do as individuals matters.” Provide evidence to justify this statement.

Some evidence of what we do as individuals matters is what has happened to the Great Barrier Reef. Once a vast reef is no withering away into nothing because of the pesticides and industry waste humans have created and wasted. Here is a link to give more information: http://sitemaker.umich.edu/gc2sec7labgroup3/pollution. And it is always been said though that what you do will always have a result; so essentially cause and effect. We have as societies have always just jumped right into things without thinking. This can be good, but no one person really thinks about what effect they would have on something if they did that activity. So yes what we do as individuals matters.

Powerpoint Reflections

Our powerpoints were good if we were in a different class than a science one. I think for this class we should have had a bit more science content instead of brief slides like we all had. They were still nice presentations just should have been more audience friendly. My own presentation was good for the time allowed to prepare. I think we answered the questions that we were presented with and tried having fun with it. I think that a strength we as a group had was that we knew what we were to talk about without having to many "um's" "ah's" and awkward silences. We also like I said before answered the questions given to us. Unfortunately we did not  have a lot of statistical evidence or experiments in our presentation; which would be a weakness that we had, but still was appropriate to a degree. Now that we know what our audience expects from us , our next presentations should be a better fit and more fluid than this one.

Criteria

Some criteria I think that would be the best for this class to utilize would be something like: are the sources/references credible? Are the author's methods valid and somewhat widely accepted, does it have a non-bias approach to the issue, is it repeatable, etc.?  These may not be the only things but are the major ones I think we should really adhere to when asking is the paper legitimate.

A PDP

This is the "plan" or idea that will help one align their life with their mission, values and goals that they have. This plan should show you and others what you think your career goals are at certain time intervals. This could be any time frame but essentially you want to state where you think you will be in 5 years, 10 years, for example. What should also go in it is what skills you think will be necessary for you to achieve these goals and how you will gain these skills. A PDP for this class  I think would consist of the same things only maybe thinking about what we want for ourselves. Since we are still in school and potentially unaware of exactly what we know. I know that is is a tool that will help us realize this but hopefully it will make that path clearer so that we will achieve these goals and succeed at life.