Objectives:

• To become better acquainted with aspects of climate change through critical reading of scientific literature, supported by group discussions.
• To acquire a broader and deeper understanding of one aspect of climate change by reading additional articles from the literature and writing a paper about it.

I. Reading, Discussing, and Summarizing Articles from the Literature.

We will provide you with (mostly) recent articles on five topics about climate and climate change (see below). For each topic, this assignment consists of three parts:

• Close reading of the articles. For each set of articles, we will provide you with a set of "Reading Questions" written to focus your attention on the most important aspects of the articles. You will respond briefly in writing to these questions and turn in your responses on the day of the group discussion. This should help you prepare to participate actively in the group discussion. (Your written responses to Reading Questions for all five sets of articles collectively will constitute 10% of your course grade.)
  
  
• Participation in a round-table discussion of the articles. In class we will provide you with several questions for discussion about the articles. In small groups, you will develop responses to each of these questions in writing, then we will discuss the questions as a larger group. Some of the articles are relatively challenging; raising questions about them for others to respond to is one way to contribute to the discussion. (Your participation in discussions about the five topics collectively will constitute 5% of your course grade.)
  
  
• Summarizing the articles and the discussion. You will write a one-page summary of the articles and the discussion, due at the next class meeting following the discussion. Your summary should convey the key ideas addressed by the articles to an audience comprising someone like yourself who has not read the articles. (The summaries collectively will constitute 5% of your course grade.)

We will cover the following topic areas (not necessarily in this order):

• Greenhouse gases and global warming: What recent trends have been observed and what are some projections?
  
  
• El Niño, La Niña, and climate: What connections are there between El Niños and La Niñas, past, present, and future, to climate and climate change?
  
  
• Hurricanes and global warming: Will hurricanes become stronger and perhaps more frequent, and have they already?
  
  
• Earth's orbit and the ice ages: Can variations in Earth's orbit around the sun account for Pleistocene glacial/interglacial cycles?
  
  
• Glacial eras, plate tectonics, mountain building and erosion, and the long-term carbon cycle: "Snowball" earth, Himalayan uplift, feedbacks between erosion and mountain building, and climate change on a grand scale.
  
  

II. Writing about Articles from the Literature: Final Paper

To help broaden and deepen your understanding of one aspect of climate and climate change, you will write further on one of the five topics above, addressing one or more questions about the topic from the list below. Before any in-class group discussions of these topics begin, we will ask you to rank your top three topic choices and will try to assign you one as high on your list as we can (though we can't guarantee any particular choice).

This writing assignment has three parts:

• Paragraph of ideas for a final paper. Following the in-class discussion about your assigned topic, you should identify one or more questions about the topic that you would like to address from the list below, based on the articles you've read so far: 
  
  
  • What were the first or early observations or evidence recorded about the topic?
  • What initial hypotheses (possibly including external forcings and feedbacks) did scientists pose to account for initial observations/evidence?
  • What subsequent observations/evidence have been gathered that have confirmed or disproved earlier hypotheses?
  • What technology made making observations/gathering evidence possible during the history of investigation of the topic and led to breakthroughs in understanding of it?
  • What scientific controversies have arisen around the topic, and how did they play out historically or how are they currently playing out?
  • What is the current state of our understanding of the topic and what are some of the remaining uncertainties about it?
    
    
  Write a paragraph outlining which question(s) you would like to address in your final paper. The paragraph is due, along with your one-page summary of the articles and discussion, at the first class meeting after the discussion.  At this point you will meet with one of the instructors, who will give you feedback and suggestions and help you start thinking about additional references. (Your paragraph constitutes 2% of your course grade.)
  
  
• Additional references and an outline of the final paper. After your meeting with one of the instructors, you will need to locate two or more additional, significant articles that are closely related to the articles discussed in class and that help you address the question(s) that you select.  Develop a thesis statement and write an outline of how you will organize your paper to address the question(s). Your outline and additional references are due one week after your meeting with an instructor. (Your outline will constitute 3% of your course grade.)
  
  
• Final Paper. Write a paper, based on your selected articles plus any relevant assigned reading from our text and material covered in class, that addresses your selected question(s) about your topic. A paper 8-12 pages long, typed and double spaced, should suffice. It will be due on Thursday, May 21. (The paper will constitute 15% of your course grade.)
  
  

Evaluation Criteria for the Final Paper

We are looking for clear, concise, logical, smoothly written, accessible narratives. Of the total value of this assignment, 30% will depend on the quality of your prose. Clear use of words (defining unfamiliar ones); choice of simpler words over complex words of equivalent meaning; well constructed, grammatical sentences; and spelling, are all important. The more active voice that you use (as opposed to passive voice—that is, the use of forms of the verb "to be": "is", "are", "was", "were", etc. to hide the subject of the sentence), the happier we will probably be.

You should document your narrative thoroughly by citing your sources of information within your narrative, based on the author and year of publication.  See the handout given in class for details (also available at: enter url here). List your sources in a section entitled "References" at the end of your paper.

Your prose should be your own except when you quote a source directly, in which case you of course must cite the source in your narrative or via footnotes. Extended paraphrasing will not suffice.

The remaining 70% of the value of this assignment will depend on the organization of your narrative, how well it integrates its sources, and (within the limited sources you're asked to use) how well the narrative addresses your selected question(s).

If you would like to see samples of past student papers in GEOL/METR/OCN 405 on topics different from the ones that we will cover, we'll be happy to show you some. (This assignment differs somewhat from past ones, but they are still relevant.)