Instructions and hints for quiz #1

The first quiz will be available ONLY from Wed February, 8 at 12:01 AM to Thur, Feb 9 at 11:59 PM. It will only take 30 minutes or less to take but you will be cut off after an hour. Save your work as you go!

This course has three quizzes. These differ from the on-line assessments in three notable ways:

1. The quizzes are designed to test your working knowledge of the subject.
2. They will be taken on-line during a specified period and will allow less time. The time to take the test will be enforced.
3. There will be only three 5-point questions that will be graded more stringently than the assessments.
4. You are expected to submit only work that represents what you personally know. There is no option to work in groups.

The material for the quiz will be from the learning objectives for lectures 1 through 4 inclusive. There will be some similarities to the on-line assessments. A good way to study for this quiz is to review the learning objectives and the on-line and in-class assessments.

Hint: the "themes" from the lectures highlight what I think are the most important ideas.

The questions will be multi-part. You will need to answer each component and then make a synthesis of those facts or concepts to complete the question.

Example questions with a guide to expected answers:

1. Describe how population size changes over the period of a demographic transition. What are the driving forces for this transition? What happens if a country gets in the "demographic trap"? What are the challenges for getting out of this trap?

answer each sub-question

population change from low to high and stable

birth and death rates are immediate cause but there are many changes in the country's infrastructure and economy that contribute the transition -- list some

the trap is when the population is growing faster than the economy can support and leads to increasing poverty rather than economic growth

challenges include ....

This question could be modified to include something about the idea that "everything is connected" or ask for your evaluation of the best way out of the trap.

2. Describe fossil fuels in terms of the uncertainty of the reserves. Give an example of a reserve that is becoming economically feasible because of the changes in technology and market forces.

This question is a little to open ended.

describe known reserves by bracketing all reserves by known and economically feasible to extract

uncertainty of reserves - how information is gathered as more exploration takes place

both oil shale and natural gas fraking are examples of opening up new sources of fossil fuels from technology and price

 

 

3. In the life cycle analysis of the energy to build a house, name four different ways you might account for energy. Why would you want to account for these costs separately? What do you think is the most promising method for reducing overall domestic energy use and why?

Hint: the key to this question is for you to define "promising" and build a good answer around that.

four different ways to account for energy might be materials, construction costs, maintenance, use, end-of-life recycling costs

why use an accounting approach - discussed in the chapter -- to be able to make decisions based on the data, for example the tradeoff between embedded and operating costs

a promising method might be something like using a lot of insulation, off-site construction, etc.

your answer about why it is promising should be that it reduces the overall energy use over the complete life-cycle of the house