GEP 373 Assessment Instructions
Assessment Requirements
Your screencast narration should be 30-60 seconds in length and address the following elements
- Your thought process for the problem
- The changes in your thinking and mental models as you learned this material.
- If this is a repeated attempt, discuss how your thinking has changed since the last attempt.
For full credit, the work on the page must be correct and your narration must show evidence of your understanding.
Assessment Assignment Tips
Here is a suggested workflow to create your video assignments for these. Let me know if you find apps or ideas that could help others.
- Take a photo or scan of your assignment, ensure it is legible.
- Use Zoom (or other screencasting software) to create a video focused on the window with the scan.
1 Energy Transition
Write a short (150-word) essay about an energy transition and future that responds to the points below. This is a written assessment with no video upload.
- Describe a piece of an ideal energy socio-technical system in the future
- Describe the transitions that should be occurring now to achieve that ideal
- Would there be undesired effects and how could we avoid them?
To receive full credit the essay must
- meet the word length
- demonstrate understanding of important concepts and issues
- demonstrate engagement with the questions
2 Single Step Unit Conversion
A barrel of oil is equivalent to about 5.8 \cdot 10^6 BTU of chemical energy. There are 1055 joules in a BTU. What is this amount of energy when expressed in units of joules? Express your number using either metric prefixes or scientific notation and use a reasonable number of significant figures.
3 Compound Unit Conversion
There are 3.6 megajoules in a kilowatt hour and 1055 joules in a BTU. Use these two facts to show how you would convert 55 kWh to BTU. Express your number using either metric prefixes or scientific notation and use a reasonable number of significant figures.
4 Power and Energy
According to wikipedia, recent global consumption of primary energy is 13,972 million tons of oil equivalent per year. What is this power expressed in units of terawatts? The energy density of oil is 42 GJ per metric ton. This is equal to 11.6 MWh per metric ton. Express your number using either metric prefixes or scientific notation and use a reasonable number of significant figures.
Hints:
- Your answer should be between 10 TW and 30 TW.
- Think carefully about dimensions, a ton of oil represents energy, a terawatt is power.
5 Energy conversion path
Choose a device or energy service that you use regularly and describe the energy conversion processes. This is a written response and does not require a video recording.
- What is the type of input energy?
- What is the type of output energy?
- Describe the intermediate energy conversions (choose and example with at least 2).
- Draw a diagram showing the energy conversions.
6 Energy Efficiency Computation
You have a modern natural gas plant with an energy efficiency of 60%. For full credit your work and explanation must show how the units cancel out in your efficiency calculation. (You must provide a reason why you are multiplying or dividing.)
- If you want to produce 3 GWh of electrical energy, how many GWh of natural gas chemical energy must you provide?
7 Coal plant mass and cost
You must purchase coal for a power plant for an entire year. You forecast that you will need to produce 250 GWh of electrical energy over that year. Your power plant is 37% efficient at converting coal chemical energy into electrical energy. Assume coal costs 55 USD per metric ton. Assume coal produces 30 MJ of heat energy per kilogram burned.
- How many kilograms of coal should you purchase?
- How much will that coal cost?
8 Coal plant carbon intensity
Imagine a poor quality coal plant that burns 90 thousand metric tons of coal per year to produce 250 GWh of electrical energy. Assume that the coal burned is 100% carbon.
- How many kilograms of carbon dioxide will be released?
- What is the carbon intensity of this plant in units of kg CO2/kWh?
9 High-carbon energy environmental implications
Choose a high-carbon energy source and write a short (300-word) essay addressing the following points.
- Why do you consider this a high-carbon source?
- What are the energy advantages and disadvantages of this energy source?
- What are the environmental and ecological advantages and disadvantages?
- Based on these tradeoffs, what do you think the future of this source should be?
To receive full credit
- meet the word length
- demonstrate understanding of important concepts and issues
- demonstrate engagement with the questions
10 Low-carbon energy source environmental implications
Choose a low-carbon energy source and write a short (300-word) essay addressing the following points.
- Why do you consider this a low-carbon source?
- What are the energy advantages and disadvantages of this energy source?
- What are the environmental and ecological advantages and disadvantages?
- Based on these tradeoffs, what do you think the future of this source should be?
To receive full credit
- meet the word length
- demonstrate understanding of important concepts and issues
- demonstrate engagement with the questions
11 Collective Actions
Describe an example of any of the following concepts (externality, free rider, tragedy of the commons, common pool resource management, CC-PP game) in our energy system in a short essay (150 words).
- Why exactly does your example fit the concept?
- Please cite any example you use from the internet.
To receive full credit
- meet the word length
- demonstrate understanding of the concepts
- demonstrate a depth of engagement
12 Energy Transition Social Implications
Describe the social and economic implications of an important or interesting change to an energy source or service in a 200-word essay. Examples of services include but are not limited to electrification of transport, heating, or appliances; telecommuting; transit-oriented planning; ride-sharing; solar water heating; etc. Examples of sources include but are not limited to solar photovoltaic, solar thermal, wind energy, hydro, tidal, nuclear, or other novel approaches.
- Describe the new source or service, contrasting it with the previous one
- Who are the likely economic winners and losers?
- What social factors will cause people to support and oppose this shift?
- What identities are supported or threatened by this shift?
- Does this shift require changes in social norms?
To receive full credit
- meet the word length
- demonstrate understanding of the concepts
- demonstrate a depth of engagement
13 Energy Policy Description
Describe a policy that directly or indirectly affects energy use in a short essay (150 words).
- Include a link to the policy description
- Summarize the goal of the policy
- Describe how the policy works to meet the goal (its logic model)
- What categories fit the policy (investment, production, tax, subsidy, regulation, etc.)?
- Does this policy address the supply or demand for energr?
To receive full credit
- meet the word length
- demonstrate understanding of the concepts
- demonstrate a depth of engagement
14 Transportation Carbon Inventory
Compute a bottom-up estimate of your automobile carbon emissions.
- Show your assumptions clearly
- How are you estimating total miles traveled
- Miles per gallon for your vehicle
- Carbon per gallon
- Show your result in units of metric tons of carbon dioxide per year
- You are encouraged to perform this in a spreadsheet, but may use a paper and calculator.
15 Final Review and Self-Assessment
This essay assignment gives you an opportunity to look over the class and reflect on what you’ve learned and how you’ve spent your time. (You may want to keep a copy of this essay for when you write job search materials in GEP 310 and beyond.) Before answering the questions below, please review your notes and assignments for this class and reflect the work you have done.
Based on this review, please write a 200-word essay that addresses the questions below.
- What skills and knowledge have you mastered?
- How do you know that you’ve mastered that material?
- How has your confidence or belief in your mastery changed?
- What skills and knowledge do you want to continue to work on?
- Why do you think you need further study?
- How will the things you’ve gained in class be valuable for your future goals?
- Which of your attendance and time-management practices were most and least effective?
- What achievement are you most proud of?
For full credit the essay must
- Meet word count
- Address all questions
- Demonstrate a depth of engagement