Climate change - week three (3.1)

Week 3... and things are really picking up again.  I got a great score in the final test this week* - after a real struggle with week 2 - and was very encouraged by the way things went.  Maybe because it was about a topic I found I already knew quite a bit about - the carbon cycle and human-influenced global warming - after the mind-boggling 'snowball earth' of week 2.

I especially liked the graphing resource on the World Bank website, enabling me to compare (say) CO2 emissions per capita in different countries - my graph is here- as well as many other comparisons.  A really useful resource and not only for this course!  The sites from the Met Office and NASA are also extremely useful.

The best thing about this week's course, though, was Professor Tim Lang's own blog and video feedback, when he not only discussed what had been covered in the topics of the week, but which issues had generated the most questions or resulted in the most feedback.  He then talked to his three research student team-members, who are monitoring all the forum discussions, about questions and issues raised which they had found interesting, and problems we students had had.  He then went over these issues in more detail, complete with diagrams (and even equations - scary things for us non-scientists, but he kept them simple and explained as he went.)

I really like the way that the way the course is developing, the tools and the feedback, is responding to what is coming from us, the students.  Prof Tim and his team are clearly taking the whole thing seriously, and thinking about how best to explain what are quite difficult concepts to people without a science background, and how to really use modern technology, the internet and social networking to ensure the most effective ways of learning.

On to week four and really looking forward to it.

Oh yes, and very encouraged to see today's newspaper coverage of Prince Charles speaking out in support of climate change science and against the so-called 'sceptics' - although coming from someone who believes in homoeopathic medicine I'm not sure his views are that reliable.  Still, if it helps!

Resolution - get back to Concept Board and really get to grips with it!


*15/15... yes!