Hello ESE, Environmental Science English. This week as you know the only homework was to practice designs...I hope everyone had a chance to at least sketch your ideas on paper. In tomorrow's class we will begin the design process. I will show you some examples of some designs of "future transportation systems" which was done in another class at a different university. These designs were completed by 3rd year Engineering students, so you and they are similar ages. They were very good designs, and the students put a lot of effort into them. I would like to have you do this as well, if possible. However, your designs do not have to be completed on power point, they can also be designed on paper. I will leave it up to you.
The designs must be original, include explanations and parts labeled in English. They must include at least 4 stages or parts of the system. They must be located sensibly, useful, and above all, environmentally friendly. Other important factors are that they must be cost effective and produce energy to make them feasible enough to operate. They must also be sustainable enough to be used for years to come. Please think about it!
Renewable energy is perhaps one of the most important topics in the world today. Only through thought and support can we solve the problem and come up with new solutions for renewable energy. That is one purpose of this lesson - to help you bring forth your ideas to share with other people. Your ideas can be shared with masses of people if they are in English! Yes, everyone in this class has the ability to write ideas, put them on paper, print them, send them, and share them with the world.
That's all for today's blog. It is quite a short one this time. However, I hope this blog is useful for you. I think some of you do read it all the time. I'm sorry it doesn't occur more often. If you do read it, please click below on the "comment" button. Please write any comment you wish - a comment on the environment, the class, the book, the blog, anything! Until next time...signing off.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
Thursday, June 18, 2015
New Energy Sources!
Hello Environmental English students! Thank you all for your mails along with your answers and your choices for the upcoming project. I'm not sure that everyone understood fully what you were supposed to do. On part E, page 42, number 1, you were to choose ONE of the renewable energy sources on page 43: Solar or Hydro. Then you were to study the information and answer number 2 from part E. Most of you did this well, although a few of you didn't write enough, or wrote answers for both. Thank you for this, but you didn't need to do it. Part E, 3 says to conduct a seminar on your decisions. We will change this slightly and you have an opportunity to choose a topic from which to complete a bigger, more challenging project. This leads us into...
...the second part of the homework, which was to choose your renewable energy source for the Topic Design/Presentation similar to design your own recycling center. This project will be similar to that one, except I will give vocabulary and sentences for each topic in class. Then you should write the Japanese meanings of the words, answer the questions, and finally design your topic. A few of you did not give me your topics yet. We will finalize the topic selection, as well as the vocabulary and questions, in class tomorrow. After that, you and your partner will need to design your own topics in class and for homework.
Again, for your reference, the topics to choose from are: 1) solar power, 2) wind power, 3) hydro power, 4) geothermal power, or 5) wave power. The words under these are the vocabulary for that topic, not other choices. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about this, but we will give the topic more attention in tomorrow's class. In addition, we will begin to design the topics in class as well. Everyone's topic and theme may be different; however, this is a very interesting chance to see many students' ideas for such an important topic. This project will be more open-ended than the first one, but it will give you more flexibility to be creative with your designing process. Your ideas are very important, and it is a good chance to let others share your thinking.
Thank you for reading. If anyone has not sent me your homework, please do so. We will continue to focus more on the topic of renewable energy for the next two weeks. Any question, please mail!
See you tomorrow.
...the second part of the homework, which was to choose your renewable energy source for the Topic Design/Presentation similar to design your own recycling center. This project will be similar to that one, except I will give vocabulary and sentences for each topic in class. Then you should write the Japanese meanings of the words, answer the questions, and finally design your topic. A few of you did not give me your topics yet. We will finalize the topic selection, as well as the vocabulary and questions, in class tomorrow. After that, you and your partner will need to design your own topics in class and for homework.
Again, for your reference, the topics to choose from are: 1) solar power, 2) wind power, 3) hydro power, 4) geothermal power, or 5) wave power. The words under these are the vocabulary for that topic, not other choices. I'm sorry if I wasn't clear about this, but we will give the topic more attention in tomorrow's class. In addition, we will begin to design the topics in class as well. Everyone's topic and theme may be different; however, this is a very interesting chance to see many students' ideas for such an important topic. This project will be more open-ended than the first one, but it will give you more flexibility to be creative with your designing process. Your ideas are very important, and it is a good chance to let others share your thinking.
Thank you for reading. If anyone has not sent me your homework, please do so. We will continue to focus more on the topic of renewable energy for the next two weeks. Any question, please mail!
See you tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Rainy Day
This is Environmental Science English blog for June 11th, 2015. Tomorrow will be week 10 of the class. It's unbelievable how fast time flies. Today is a rainy day, and many trains were stopped. As a result, many of you couldn't turn in your homework. For this reason, I will collect it in class on Friday this week. For those of you who did it and made it to E-Learning Lab to drop it off, thank you very much. Your efforts will be remembered. By the way, rain is something that is necessary to a normal environment. Sometimes it is troublesome, but we need rain. In fact, having no rain is more problematic that getting enough rain. Too much, however, can be equally troubling because it is dangerous and can cause power outages and landslides.
The homework I have checked so far is quite good, and I will hold off checking and giving answers in class until I am sure everyone was able to turn it in. This Friday we will do a bit of Extending Skills on page 41, and then move to pager 42 where we will look at a renewable energy supply graph and discuss two kinds of power: solar and hydro. As you know, we will soon begin another Topic Design Project, and in this project, you will be asked to design your own renewable energy source. At first I was going to ask you to design your own solar energy plant, but I think it's better if you choose your own topic to design. I will give you some ideas in class tomorrow, and then you and your partner can take some time to choose the topic from the list of choices that you will complete. As last time, I would like you to practice some vocabulary, write some sentences, answer some questions, and finally, design your project which I would like you to present to the class. I will explain this more later.
The homework for the following week will be completing the topic design projects parts 1-3: vocabulary, sentences, and answers to questions. Then, we will begin designing your topics the following week in class. We will probably begin the presentations at the end of June or the beginning of July. I will let you practice for this exercise, and will give you some hints and points. This is a very good opportunity for you to practice spoken English in front of people. It may make you nervous, but after it is over, you can relax. Then you will feel as if you've accomplished something.
That is all for this blog for this rainy day. It seems to have stopped raining now (it's 14:08 now), but it may start again. Don't get stuck in the downpour! See you all tomorrow.
The homework I have checked so far is quite good, and I will hold off checking and giving answers in class until I am sure everyone was able to turn it in. This Friday we will do a bit of Extending Skills on page 41, and then move to pager 42 where we will look at a renewable energy supply graph and discuss two kinds of power: solar and hydro. As you know, we will soon begin another Topic Design Project, and in this project, you will be asked to design your own renewable energy source. At first I was going to ask you to design your own solar energy plant, but I think it's better if you choose your own topic to design. I will give you some ideas in class tomorrow, and then you and your partner can take some time to choose the topic from the list of choices that you will complete. As last time, I would like you to practice some vocabulary, write some sentences, answer some questions, and finally, design your project which I would like you to present to the class. I will explain this more later.
The homework for the following week will be completing the topic design projects parts 1-3: vocabulary, sentences, and answers to questions. Then, we will begin designing your topics the following week in class. We will probably begin the presentations at the end of June or the beginning of July. I will let you practice for this exercise, and will give you some hints and points. This is a very good opportunity for you to practice spoken English in front of people. It may make you nervous, but after it is over, you can relax. Then you will feel as if you've accomplished something.
That is all for this blog for this rainy day. It seems to have stopped raining now (it's 14:08 now), but it may start again. Don't get stuck in the downpour! See you all tomorrow.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
Energy Resources
Hello! Thank you all for your homework this week. They all look very good. Just so you know, your homework was 4.2 Reading, A: 1,2; B: 1,2,3; C: 1,2; and F: 1,2,3, in addition to 4.3 A: 1,2; B; C: 1,2,3; and 4.4 A: 1,2; B: 1,2; and C all! I am checking them now and found most of you did very well. I told you several weeks ago about plagiarism. Of course, copying something and saying that it is yours is not right, and that is plagiarism. It is best to be avoided. Paraphrasing, or writing something in your own words, is best. If you do use someone's idea, you must acknowledge that in your work. For example, "this was taken from the book, page 3."
This week we will start unit 5 in the book, Energy Resources. For me, this is probably one of the most important units in this book. The book contains some useful information, such as worldwide energy use between 2008 and 2030, as well as information on the formation of coal, a widely used energy source in almost every corner of the globe. Energy resources are depleting, and we must find solutions for clean and sustainable energy.
This week we will begin another Topic Design Project called, "Design Your Own Solar Energy Plant." Here you will have the opportunity to think about the uses of solar energy and the impact it will have on the future of our environment when you design your own plants. There are some problems associated with solar energy however! We will talk about them in class, but please think about them. What are they?
The homework for next week will probably be Extending Skills 5.3 and 5.4 in addition to some work on the Topic Design prints and your designs. We will learn new vocabulary such as renewable, velocity, replenish, solar, fossil, pollution, and more. Please try to understand the book as we go, and try to understand the listening and my speaking. Remember, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to try! See you in class tomorrow!
This week we will start unit 5 in the book, Energy Resources. For me, this is probably one of the most important units in this book. The book contains some useful information, such as worldwide energy use between 2008 and 2030, as well as information on the formation of coal, a widely used energy source in almost every corner of the globe. Energy resources are depleting, and we must find solutions for clean and sustainable energy.
This week we will begin another Topic Design Project called, "Design Your Own Solar Energy Plant." Here you will have the opportunity to think about the uses of solar energy and the impact it will have on the future of our environment when you design your own plants. There are some problems associated with solar energy however! We will talk about them in class, but please think about them. What are they?
The homework for next week will probably be Extending Skills 5.3 and 5.4 in addition to some work on the Topic Design prints and your designs. We will learn new vocabulary such as renewable, velocity, replenish, solar, fossil, pollution, and more. Please try to understand the book as we go, and try to understand the listening and my speaking. Remember, you don't have to be perfect, you just have to try! See you in class tomorrow!
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