Project: Altering Natural Systems

Abilities for a Technological World: Impacts of Products and Systems

Submission Guidelines:

What to hand in: Save the documents below to your computer. Complete the folio and rubric, and submit to drop box.
Rubric and Directions (Word doc)
[ Alternate version (.rtf) ]
Project folio (.ppt)
[ Alternate version (.rtf) ]

Where to hand it in: Altering Natural Systems drop box.

When to hand it in: See course calendar for due date.

Problem Statement: In this project you will measure the impact of shading on evaporation. You will research current data on global warming and shading, and use this information to plot possible changes in Earth's climate over the next 100 years.

Background: Natural systems, while powerful can also be extremely delicate. The slightest change to an ecosystem, environment or species can have huge impacts that effect the entire system. The technologies me develop to control and correct problems with our own natural environment and systems, will be used to terraform Mars and Venus, perhaps within your lifetimes.

Directions (Overview)

Briefly, each student will:

Cover a series of water filled containers with different levels of a shading material.
Measure the rate of evaporation in each container.
Research global warming and global shading (also referred to as global dimming) trends and data.
Predict changes in the Earth's climate over the next 100 years, based upon your own experimental data and data from research.
Use spreadsheet and graphing software to visually represent your data and trends.