My grandfather used to say that education is what remains after you forget everything you learned in school.
Later in life I discovered that the quote was attributed to Albert Einstein.
. . . and later still I found out that the quote was misattributed to Einstein. A quick search on Google and you'll see that the misattribution of this quote (and variations of it) continue to this day.
And why is that?
One explanation is that it's easy to spread misinformation in our highly connected lives. Plus, not very many people probably care who actually said it and it likely makes more people pay attention to the quote if they think Einstein said it.
If you sell t-shirts and posters with pithy quotes, a quote by Einstein is likely to be a better seller than a quote by C. F. Thwing (who also might be the originator of a variation of this quote).
[If you want to know more, check out the research about this quote (and variations of this quote), by the QuoteInvestigator.]
Either way, let's put this quote to the test.
We covered a lot of material throughout the school year. Clearly there are things you have forgotten. It would be impossible to perfectly remember everything. But what DID you retain?
. . . and did you retain the correct information?
When looking back, did you have more epiphanies (correct connections/understandings of our class material) or apophenies (incorrect connections/understandings of our class material)?
Let's find out.
We do NOT do any sort of final exam "test" at the end of the school year for the Earth and Space Science class. The COURSE WRAP UP is your FINAL EXAM.
There are THREE parts to your COURSE WRAP UP - all three parts will be variations of the Notes to Future Self assessments. They will all be due no later than the end of the period on our FINAL EXAM DAY during FINALS WEEK.
We usually start the COURSE WRAP UP during the final (regular) week of the semester and you will have multiple class days (including the final exam day) to complete all three parts. During those last couple of weeks of the semester, the Daily Class Announcements will have the full details.
Read the OVERVIEWS below for more information regarding the content for each of the THREE activities for the COURSE WRAP UP. When you are confident that you know what to do, follow the detailed directions in the PROCEDURE section below.
If you have stayed up with your all your NtFS this school year, you should be able lean on those assignments to help you create this FINAL COURSE WRAP UP.
The first activity of the COURSE WRAP UP will be to write one final "Note to Future Self".
Here is your topic:
What were the SEVEN most important things you learned this year? Write this in a letter to your future self explaining WHAT was important, WHY it was important, and HOW you imagine your new knowledge could connect to life beyond school.
The second activity of our COURSE WRAP UP will be to do a final revisit of our CCC's and SEP's.
The seven CCC's and the eight SEP's were the cornerstone of our course (as they should be in any science course). Here's your chance to showcase how well you understand the concepts in the CCC's and how to do the practices in the SEP's.
Here is your prompt:
Identify at least FIVE concepts and practices that stood out to you this school year. At least two concepts must come from our 7 CCCs and at least two practices must come from our 8 SEPs. Write a letter to your future self identifying what makes each IMPORTANT, why each should stood out to you, and how you imagine each will CONNECT to your life once the course ends.
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The final activity of our COURSE WRAP UP will be for you to explain how human choices will influence our future and, more specifically, what the world will look like when YOU are 30 if those choices are followed.
Much of the focus of the second semester was spent on investigating the science around current issues - especially climate change. In science it's easy to look at the past and evaluated what happened and offer likely explanations for WHY something happened. It's easy because what happed has already happened and it's not changing anymore.
And while we can learn from those patterns, it's still not easy to always make accurate predictions about the future.
Much of what we learned in the End of the Anthropocene unit painted a very dark picture of the future. Those predictions are usually built around current patterns and predicting a future based on those current patterns. While that is useful as a start, we also know that it is highly unlikely that our current patterns of human behavior and our current use of natural resources will continue to be the same over the rest of the this century. But determining what will change, and how things might change are very difficult to incorporate into prediction models.
What happens in the future (good or bad) is very much in our individual and collective hands. We get to decide our future by both our actions and our inactions.
So . . . what do YOU think our future could look like?
Answer the prompt below:
Most prediction models for the future paint a dark picture of what to expect. So what choices can we make NOW to influence what the future will look like when you are 30 years old? Can we prove the negative predictions wrong OR is a bleak future ultimately inevitable?
To be clear, there is no correct answer to this prompt. What I'm looking for is whether or not you can make an argument and back it up with evidence (SEP #7).
You basically have two choices here: you can argue that we CAN make a positive difference in our future or you can make an argument that we CAN'T.
Whichever direction you take, you need to also narrow your argument down even further by either focusing on the individual or the collective (we will discuss this in more detail in class). Whatever you do, don't focus on both. Pick one to be your focus and stick to that focus.
You will complete this as a digital assignment. You will complete all three activities on the same document. The prompts are listed on the document.
Use the link below to make a copy of the digital document. Use the submission form link to properly submit your work.
ESS: Course Wrap Up: Submission Form (the submission form will be active when the assignment is due)
Check the submission form spreadsheet to make sure you work has been submitted correctly.
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