The point of a crux question is to bring together the vocabulary and concepts and use them with one or more of the cognitive tools or problem solving approaches.

These are short answer questions and require you to identify the important vocabulary and concepts and then put these together coherently and concisely.

Because these are "open-ended, they may seem confusing. If I ask a question that is too specific then I will only get exactly what I asked for. Instead I ask questions that require you to think about what you know and put that together in your own unique and creative answer.

Here are three hints to reduce the confusion of a question that you think is too open-ended:

1) put the question in the context of the themes of the course and the particular module

2) think of a particular example of the key concepts that may illustrate your answer

3) I'm not looking for one particular answer - you have to create an answer. You will not be able to simply look up or remember the answer.

Example question: Describe the I=PAT relationship and explain why this is a mneumonic for a relationship and not an equation.

Parsing: define I=PAT, why it's not an equation, i.e. why it's not P*A*T

Components of a good answer: a good answer would refer to the idea from the Kuznets curve in which more technology decreases impact per GDP

Example question: How does global development need to address the poverty trap?

Parsing:

Define global development in the context of this unit, i.e. the Millenium Development Goals. Don't just make up your own definintion.

Define what a trap is and refer to the example of a poverty trap that was presented.

Components of a good answer: would problably have a specific example of how poverty, environment and health are all related and that it will take extra effort to extricate some populations from this trap

Example question: What type of problem is the issue of your individual excess use of water (assuming that you are an average American consumer)?

Parsing: problem types, what are the issues with your use of water - could you reduce your water use with regulations, information, contention with other users or is it a wicked problem?

Components of a good answer: You could find some components of your own water use that are probably examples of any of these four problem types. A really good answer would be able to state that concisely. A weak answer would assume that regulations would fix everything. Note: although this is a good question for discussion, it would be hard for me to grade if students just pick one type of problem and then give that as the answer. The single answer could be correct but I wouldn't know if they understood how their own uses could be seen over the range of problem types.