GE4101 E-learning activity and worksheet

Dear Year 4 Geography students,

For this E-learning lesson lasting 2 periods, we are going to cover earthquakes and tsunamis. You are to use the timetabled lesson slot only.

Please also note that a reading pack will be distributed to you in your classes on Wednesday morning. The reading pack is for weathering, soils and slopes processes. Please read weathering and soils by next lesson, 2 April. The usual reading check for evidences of reading will apply.

You are to submit the following via the Google Form HERE.

*NEW* Here are your responses. Please view and look for your own, as well as view some others' to have a better idea.

For ideas on earthquake management: Visit the following:

How Southern California copes with earthquakes: http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/1995/fs225-95/ 
How US citizens prepare for earthquakes: http://www.ready.gov/earthquakes
Japan case study: Look at pages 41 and 42 for table summary of mitigation and agencies involved: http://www.oecd.org/japan/37377837.pdf 

Task 1: a description of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami (200 words).
Task 2: a description of the 2004 Boxing Day Indian Ocean Tsunami (200 words).
Task 3: Watch the earthquake and tsunami video in this entry, be ready to give comments when I see you on 2 April.

Task 4: After visiting the websites allocated in this entry, prepare a discussion which we will have as part of module recap -To what extent can national governments prepare for natural hazards like earthquakes and tsunamis? [10m].

This is not graded but you need to show proof of preparation closer to exam revision. 
Prepare a 1 page list of what governments can do and associated challenges with the measures. Best to do it now, rather than later.

A note of caution FIRST:
A word about searching youtube for earthquakes and tsunamis. 1. You WILL SEE PEOPLE DIE, and they are NOT fictional movies. As such, please be emotionally prepared that these natural hazards do cost human lives, and living in today's information-age means we now get to see footage of actual destruction. Personally, I was quite traumatised watching a multi-parts documentary on the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami. As such, I decided to only let you watch the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami video below, which does not depict people dying, but do know that there was slightly more than 15,800 confirmed deaths from this tsunami.

Video: Earthquake and Tsunami in Japan, 2011 (some parts had weirdly placed music, just bear with it)


Please only make use of the resources provided here to do your 200-word descriptions. To search up more information will only take up more of your time, which you do not want to do so in your allocated 2 periods.

Useful links on the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami. Do note you are encouraged to visit the other links presented in these websites.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/#summary
http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/2011_Earthquake/Information_on_2011_Earthquake.html
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fast-facts-japan

Please do check out the following websites, which when taken together, gives a good overview of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Do visit the related links cited in these websites.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1227_041226_tsunami.html 
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2004/us2004slav/#summary
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/tsunami/indianocean.html

Compare and contrast class practice (This is NOT homework)

Source 1: “What Doha did” from the Economist magazine

Since 2007 the annual negotiations by the parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change have run on two “tracks”. One has been devoted to the Kyoto protocol, which limits the emissions of the rich countries that have ratified it, but nobody else’s. The other tries to set up long-term mechanisms to combat climate change. Doha’s achievement was to sort out this mess. The rich countries still signed up to Kyoto (Japan, Canada, Russia and some others have, in effect, left it) accepted ultra-modest new emissions targets for the period to 2020, which is when the new deal to be agreed in 2015 is meant to take effect. This leaves nothing more to negotiate under the Kyoto protocol. The catch-all second track was closed down. Just one lot of talks will now lead up to the 2015 conference in France.

Source 2: “Why the Doha Climate Conference was a success” by The Guardian (UK) newspaper

The EU wanted Doha to mark the transition away from the old climate regime, where only developed countries have the legal obligation to reduce emissions, to the new system where all countries, developed and developing alike, will for the first time make legal commitments under the new global agreement. Check. This is not a small achievement. Today, the average emission per capita in China is already 7.2 tonnes and increasing. Europe's is 7.5 tonnes and decreasing. The world cannot fight climate change without emerging economies committing. That is why crossing the bridge from the old system to the new system was so important. And we did it.

From sources 1 and 2, to what extent is the Doha Climate Change Conference seen as a successful conference? (7m)

Sustainable development timeline in-class exercise

Dear students,

Here's the link for our in-class activity:

A comparison of sustainable development international and singapore's timeline.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkNH1U79c6yJdGpTU3hkak5xQ29icXhuNV8tZGR3VHc&usp=sharing

In class, we will be reading http://www.iisd.org/pdf/2012/sd_timeline_2012.pdf

Videos on Volcanoes

USGS's video on Mount Saint Helen, which they did not allow to embed... http://youtu.be/xP2dreOI8gI

This is definitely worth watching.


And for our class activity, we are going to answer (A) and (B) in groups

Crossing the lava video clip



The "pyroclastic flow"



(A) Explain the extent these video clips are representative of the destructive nature of acidic lava type volcanoes.

Traffic jams... a town in big trouble!


(B) Explain how volcanic hazard management has failed in this movie clip and explain how you will go about setting in place a volcanic hazard management program for a town like the one portrayed in the movie.

COP18/CMP8 Climate Change Conference Doha 2012

Learning how to use excel to analyse data better

Dear Students,
 For this class exercise, we are looking into how we can use simple graphs and charts to represent data and understand relationships between different data better.

 We usually use a simple co-relation efficient to talk about relationship between data.

It is a simple qualitative approach that gives people an idea of the strength of the relationship between 2 different sets of data.

 The degree of the relationship (positive or negative) can be quantified by calculating the R ( correlation coefficient).

Excel provides a very quick way of calculating the "line of best fit" to allow us to see the R value very fast.

A "R value" that is close to 1 means there is a strong positive relationship between the sets of data. As X increase, Y also increase.

A "R value" that is close to -1 means there is a strong negative relationship between the sets of data. As X increase, Y decreases.

Pay attention in class as Mrs Lim demonstrates the use of excel for item 1 and 3 in TASK B.

TASK A: THINK TIME:
What happens when you get a value that is close to 0? Discuss!

TASK B: EXCEL TIME (Work in pairs or trios, according to sharing of computers in class)
Download the data file from Espace IH2013 module workbin.

Open the file in Excel.

As a class, we will discuss the best way to represent data to aid the following investigations:

1. Co-relation of population size and energy consumption per capita
2. Co-relation of GDP per capita and energy consumption per capita
3. Comparison of types of countries and their energy consumption per capita
4. Comparsion of GDP per capita and energy consumption per capita according to types of countries 

Preparation for first lesson in Week 8:

1. Discuss the data representations and the implications of what you observe.
2. What do the analyse suggest about the distribution of resources? 
3. How do the implications affect the way these countries tackle global issues on the environment?

Gdrive link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0NH1U79c6yJSDZaNU5kWUNRelE/edit?usp=sharing

Class Activity for Yr 4 students in GE4101

Dear Year 4 students, Please prepare individual answers to the following questions as a follow up to the presentations on "Help Indonesia" module project. This will be covered after the magma lecture.

 Q1. With the aid of well annotated figures,
(a) Explain how composite volcanic cones are formed, (6m)
(b) how different types of lava give rise to different shaped volcanoes (9m)
(c) how lakes and volcanic plugs maybe formed from previously existing volcanic cones (6m)

*NEW*
Suggested answer for 1(c). Link: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0NH1U79c6yJa3NIdHdkb25ZWm8/edit?usp=sharing 


 Q2. Refer to the video embedded below.


(a)  What information do you think has been covered in this video? Has it been done adequately?
(b) What other information would you think should have been included to help online viewers understand earthquakes better?
(c) To what extent do you think this is a good video on earthquakes?

(Come to class prepared with your own critique, using 2(a-c) as a basis for preparation.)