ACTIVITY #1: CREATING YOUR OWN PLANET (10 POINTS)
How would you like to make a planet? Here's your chance...
When you look at pictures of the planets, notice how unlike all the others the Earth appears. Saturn's and Jupiter's opaque gassy atmospheres are organized into parallel bands of ferocious wind. Mercury bakes in an eternal vacuum. Mars' thin, bone-dry atmosphere swirls with storms of dust. Even the Earth's near-twin, Venus, hides beneath an impenetrable shell of acid clouds. Only the Earth has weather compatible with life as we know it.
But what if the Earth's warm spots were a little colder or its cold spots a little warmer? What if it were to spin at a different speed or its axis of rotation was pointed in a different direction? What if the planet itself was bigger or smaller? How would our weather change? Would life still be possible?
No one yet knows the answers to these questions, but we can make some educated guesses. With the wise (and sometimes contradictory!) advice of experts, Nova has created a virtual planetary lab, where you can change a little of this, a little of that and see how your plan for global weather turns out. See if you can figure out the magic combination that might create conditions similar to our own planet's, and therefore possibly suitable for life.
The extremely simplified scheme used in this activity ignores many inevitable issues, such as changing the chemistry of the atmosphere, increased or decreased total heat absorption due to unforeseen effects on cloud formation, and a host of other things we can't even imagine. That's okay, the whole idea is to encourage you to think, rather than supply the "right" answers. At this point in the young science of planetary weather, there are no right answers, only educated guesses -- a hint to any future scientists looking for a field to conquer.
A. To start your activity, go to
Make the Earth's Weather (Shockwave plug in required). Begin by reading
Global Weather Machine. It will be very useful as you play the game. [If you prefer, you can download a stand-alone (no browser/internet connection required) version at Windows 95/NT version (0.9MB) or Macintosh version (1.7MB)]
B. Pick the ingredients for your planet. You can change size, spin, the presence of oceans and the relationship of the equator to the sun. As you make changes, use the See Effect button to gauge your progress.
C. When everything is as you want it, send me a summary of what you did that (1) contains a detailed description of what changes you made, why you made those changes and the final results and (2) makes specific and detailed connections to course content . (Sometimes students do a good job of summarizing what is in the course material, but do not connect that summary to an activity they have completed. Other times, students tell a great story, but fail to connect the story to course materials.)
Please be careful to use correct spelling and grammar.
D. By the deadline shown in the Course Schedule on the main page of the syllabus:
Send your summary containing the two items requested in the body of a new email to dramyglenn@earthlink.net.
Put only your name and Activity #1 at the beginning of your email.
Be careful to use the correct subject line. If you are not positive you know the correct subject line, go back and read your syllabus carefully. Emails with incorrect subject lines will not reach me. At best, you'll correct your mistake later and your assignment will be late. At worst, your assignment will never reach me and you'll receive no points for it.
Late summaries will lose one point per day late, including weekends and holidays.
READ THE FOLLOWING SECTION FROM THE MARGIN NOTES.
