Please read these two sample proposals before class on Wednesday:  proposalexample1 and proposalexample2.  Also, stay tuned for the MP3 assignment prompt.  I’ll post it sometime on Tuesday, and we’ll go over it in class on Wednesday.

Happy Halloween!  What better way to celebrate the holiday than by catching scary typos and other errors in our MP2 papers?  We’ll spend most of Monday’s class peer editing our near-finished drafts, so please bring your laptop or two printed copies.  Also, please download this handout Wr20_Fall11_revising_editing and use it as a checklist while you continue to revise and edit.  As a reminder, the final draft of MP2 is due Monday Oct. 31 before 11:59 pm.

Also, I am still working out the MP3 timeline, so consider what’s currently posted on the schedule as tentative.  I’ll have the MP3 assignment prompt and schedule ready soon!

You can receive 2 extra credit points for attending the Deliberations symposium on Friday and an additional 2 extra credit points for completing the following assignment:  Wr20_Fall11_Deliberations_EC.  These points will be added to the SW portion of your grade.

I will be speaking at the symposium and will be sitting in the front row, so I may not be able to survey the crowd and find you.  It may be best to catch me right before or after the symposium so I’ll know you were there!

Please download the assignment prompt for SW7:  Wr20_Fall11_SW7_sustainability

and two handouts for Wednesday’s class:

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There are two important events this week that I strongly encourage you to attend:

DELIBERATIONS SYMPOSIUM:  Deliberations is the Thompson Writing Program’s journal of first-year writing.  This Friday Oct. 28 4-5 pm in the Von Canon Room (lower level of the Bryan Center) there will be a symposium and reception in honor of the authors whose work is published in the 2011 issue of Deliberations.  Yes, it’s parents weekend, so bring your parents along!  I haven’t decided on the details yet, but there will be extra credit associated with attending and/ or writing about this event.  I’ll e-mail out more information soon!

POPULATION BIOLOGY SEMINAR:  This week’s population biology seminar (in the Biology Department) is entitled Consequences of ocean acidification for sea urchin development.  The talk will be given by Dan Runcie, a graduate student in Dr. Greg Wray’s lab.  The talk will be this Thursday, Oct. 27 at 5 pm in FFSC 3232.  I probably will not issue extra credit for attending this event, but I encourage you to attend and tell us what you thought!

…can be downloaded here:  MP2_info

Please download the prompt for SW6:  Wr20_Fall11_SW6_anon_peereview.  I’ll go over it in class today (Wed. Oct. 19).

Nature, 437, 681-686 (29 September 2005)

In a study done by Orr et al., the decreasing rate of free carbonate ion available for calcification for sea organisms will become undersaturated by 2050. Calcium ions in the ocean react with carbonate ions to form calcium carbonate which makes up exoskeletons of various sea organisms. The excess of dissolved carbon dioxide in the ocean has caused increasing amounts of carbonate to become tied up in bicarbonate ions which are unable to be used to form calcium carbonate. Pteropods have shown significant decreased calcification in water the same pH predicted with the “business-as-usual” projections. They are near the bottom on the food chain, and a change in their population could have a ripple effect throughout the entire ocean ecosystem. In higher altitude ocean ecosystems, this study has shown that acidification is increasing at a slower rate. This only means that these ecosystems will lag the lower altitude ones by 50-100 years. The only benefit to this is that these organisms have more time to possibly adapt to the new ocean chemistry.

Building and Environment, 46, 1081-1086 (2010)

When researching cost premiums for LEED certified buildings, Tatari and Kucukvar looked at buildings in terms of the various ratings and categories. The LEED rating system consists of four different ratings, Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum. The cost premiums range from 1-8% depending on the rating. In general there is a premium of 0.66% for Certified buildings, 2.11% for Silver, 4.41% for Gold, and 6.5% for Platinum. The cost increases with a higher rating because higher performance sustainable building projects tend to require larger investments.

The LEED system is also broken up into eight different categories: sustainable sites (SS), water efficiency (WE), energy and atmosphere (EA), materials and resources (MR), indoor environmental quality (IEQ), innovation and design (ID), regional priority (RP), and building grade (BG). SS, EA, and BG demonstrated the most sensitivity and significance within these categories; therefore they have a higher influence on the cost of a LEED building.

Welladsen, H. M., Southgate, P. C. & Heimann, K., 2010. The effects of exposure to near-future levels of ocean acidification on shell characteristics of Pinctada fucata (Bivalvia: Pteriidae). Molluscan Research 30(3): 125-130.

Pearl Oysters of species Pinctada fucata produce pearls through building up nacre deposits between the shell and mantle of the oyster. Normally, these deposits are isolated from their surroundings, but it has been suggested that ocean acidification breaks down the protective shells and removes the isolation of the system.
The study serves to show that this breakdown of the oyster shell occurs, and has negative effects upon the nacre formations. The Pinctada fucata were exposed to water of pH 7.8 and 7.6 for 28 days, which resulted in shells 25.9% and 26.8% weaker, respectively, than the controls. As a result, the nacre formations showed signs of malformation and dissolution in comparison to the controls, as shown through scanning electron microscopy.
This degradation of shell strength and nacre formation could have serious effects on the cultured pearl industry, which relies heavily on the natural production of pearls within Pinctada fucata.

http://www.mapress.com/mr/content/v30/2010f/n3p130.pdf