Next Meeting
Monday 10/15 meeting in Barker Library.
UTF Email Archive
All UTF class-related emails will be posted here for easy reference. They are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent first.
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Thursday
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October 11; "Update Your Memberships" in the wikis
Hi all,
The next time you log into any of the Mission wikis, click Renew My
Membership on the top right corner. We re-did the permissions to
clean up a little. If you find you can't log in and clicking that
button doesn't help, let me know.
Mariela
Wednesday, October 10; Showing up to class, Friday's Meeting Times
Hi all,
I heard from a few UTFs that lots of you did not show up to class on Wednesday. We would like to think that this is because you couldn't find your room, so I am sending you Friday's class locations again at the end of this email.
It is extremely important that you show up for class. This is not like TEAL, where you will lose a certain number of points if you are not there, but we do consider participation to be extremely important. Also, this is not a class where you can read the textbook on your own and do just as well as someone who is there every day. Discussing your research with your team and coming up with new ideas and theories is EXTREMELY important. For that, you have to be IN class.
If you think your team would do better using the class time for something different, talk to your UTF. You might be able to work something out. This is YOUR class. You decide what to do with your time. What you do, however, determines how much you get out of it and how good your proposed solution is.
You should now be moving on to thinking globally about your problem and coming up with preliminary proposals. You have deadlines coming up (check the website, under Web Design). Your final presentation is two months away. That's about 8 weeks. Not that much time.
These are the classrooms for Friday:
Friday, October 12
56-162 - Team 1
56-167 - Team 2
56-180 - Team 3
56-191 - Team 4
66-154 - Team 5
66-156 - Team 6
66-160 - Team 7
66-168 - Team 89
16-168 - Team 10
Wednesday, October 10; Fwd: Presentation Questions
----- Forwarded message from lisa_s@MIT.EDU -----
Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 15:51:58 -0400
From: Lisa Song <lisa_s@MIT.EDU>
Reply-To: Lisa Song <lisa_s@MIT.EDU>
Subject: presentation Q's
To: Kathryn Pesce <kpesce@mit.edu>, Levon Thomas <levont@mit.edu>, Kristin
Uhmeyer <uhmeyer@mit.edu>
Hi everyone,
I wrote down these questions/comments during team A's presentation last
week. Just thought I'd share them...I'll be asking my team these tomorrow.
1. Learn more about the economic impacts of your plan. Compare your plan to
existing plans. Can your plan enhance preservation and still have the same
economic impact on fishermen as current quotas/government regulations do?
Can your plan improve preservation and improve the fishermen's current
economic status at the same time?
2. Do you think fishermen will want to act as regulation-control for their
fellow fishermen? (A question you could ask the Gloucester fishermen next
weekend on the field trip)
3. What is your system to monitor the effectiveness of your closed areas?
Will there be a mechanism in place to adapt your plans as you monitor the
fish stocks?
Enjoy the rest of your super-long weekend!
--Lisa
----- End forwarded message -----
Wednesday, October 10 (From Professor Bowring)
Greetings,
I hope you enjoyed your long weekend and that your group meetings today were
fruitful. Some of you managed to hear Daniel Pauly's talk on Tuesday and it
was quite good and very relevant. I have attached two papers by him, one
describes "The Sea around us Project" and the other is a paper on the dangers
of overfishing deep water species. I strongly encourage you to read both of
these, if you have not already done so.
As we move into October each group should now start thinking more about the
problem of fishery collapse on a more global scale. As dire as the situation
is in the Northeast, the situation for much of the rest of the planet is even
worse. Pauly's paper is sobering to say the least. Our planet needs you to
come up with some solutions and very quickly. I have every confidence that the
solutions you propose will be better than current policies. If we are to lose
vast marine ecosystems due to lack of action the consequences for us as a
species could indeed be very serious.
Your presentations on the Mini project were every good and showed your abilities
to synthesize and integrate. However I am sure you have come to appreciate how
much more difficult it will be to scale up to the whole planet.
On Wednesday and Friday the 17th and 19th I would like each group to address
the class with a brief description of their progress to date--their ideas for
interactions with other groups and a beginning sense of where each group is
headed. On Wednesday groups 1-4, and on Friday 5-10 will present to the
class. On Monday the 22nd we will have a whole class discussion about the
problem, the status of the project, and where you would like to go from here.
So you have this Friday the 12th and Monday the 15th to organize your work.
Sam
Wednesday October 10, Mission today 36-144
Hi Team 5,
Welcome back from your long weekend. Great job last week, guys. Please be on
time for our group-only meeting today in 36-144, which is the same building as
your middle-size team meeting last week.
If you have an unavoidable conflict with Mission on a particular day, please
send me an email or let me know some other way and tell me that you're not
expecting to be in class for the day. We're not keeping attendance like they
might in TEAL or a HASS class or something, but it's just courteous and helps
me be aware of what will be going on, and your participation level in general
does have weight on your grade. Also, if there's a problem that's preventing
you from getting to class, I can help try to work it out with you. However,
your team will function best with full participation, especially as we meet
solely as a team for the next stretch to develop your team plans and wiki.
Topics of discussion for today: last week's presentation, use of the wiki/email
and group work strategy, and where to move forward as a team.
Friday we will be in 66-154. No more big group meetings at least for the rest of
the week.
-Kristin
Monday, October 8; Gloucester Trip (Professor Bowring)
Greetings,
I hope you are all enjoying your long weekend. This is just a
reminder to those of you who have not yet responded about the field
trip on October 20th and for the symposium tomorrow. The talk by
Pauly is very relevant and I urge as many of you to attend as possible.
Sam
> Announcing the 2007 MIT ESI/CGCS Symposium:
>
> "Earth System Revolutions: Key Turning Points in the History of our
> Planet"
>
> Tuesday, October 9, 2007
> Massachusetts Institute of Technology
> Building 10, Room 250
>
> Co-sponsored by the MIT Earth System Initiative <http://esi.mit.edu/
> > and
> the MIT Center for Global Change Science <http://mit.edu/cgcs/>
>
> The MIT ESI/CGCS Symposium "Earth System Revolutions" is organized
> in three
> sections, starting at 8:30 am on Tuesday, October 9 in MIT Building
> 10-250,
> running until 6:15 pm. MIT students are particularly encouraged to
> attend as
> it is being held on a class-vacation day.
>
> In the first session of the symposium, key examples of revolutions
> early in
> the history of the Earth System such as the advent of oxygenic
> photosynthesis, the origin of Life and the Cambrian Explosion, will be
> presented to bring to light the ever-evolving nature of the
> biosphere. In
> the second session, speakers will discuss the "Anthropocene", that
> is, the
> ways in which humans have fundamentally altered the chemical,
> physical and
> biological systems on this planet. Topics include the impact of our
> energy
> portfolio, our changing climate, biodiversity, and other ways that
> society
> and industry have intentionally or unintentionally shaped the
> Earth. The
> final session will focus on the possible futures of the Earth
> System. To
> highlight two simple extremes, should we as a society attempt to
> mitigate
> the effects of our changing planet through geo-engineering? Or
> should we
> accept the inevitable and adapt to a new planet? What middle ground
> is the
> best balance? What options are most likely to succeed in protecting
> Earth's
> resources for future generations? Discussion time is scheduled
> following
> each session to allow for audience participation.
>
> Agenda
> 8:30 - Welcome - Prof. Penny Chisholm
> <http://web.mit.edu/chisholm/www/people/chisholm.html> (ESI
> Director) and
> Prof. Ronald Prinn <http://mit.edu/rprinn/> (CGCS Director)
> 8:45 - Prof. Paul Falkowski
> <http://marine.rutgers.edu/faculty_pfalkowski.html> (Rutgers
> Univ.) "The
> Rise of Oxygen on Earth"
> 9:30 - Prof. Dianne Newman
> <http://web.mit.edu/biology/www/facultyareas/facresearch/
> newman.html> (MIT)
> "From Rocks to Genes and Back: Stories about the Evolution of
> Photosynthesis"
> 10:15 - Discussion
> 10:45 - Prof. Daniel Pauly <http://www.fisheries.ubc.ca/members/
> dpauly/>
> (Univ. British Columbia) "Fisheries and Global Warming: Impacts on
> Marine
> Ecosystems and Food Security"
> 11:30 - Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig
> <http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/crosenzweig.html> (NASA-GISS)
> "Climate
> Variability and Change and their Impacts on the Global Harvest"
> 12:15 - Lunch break
> 1:30 - Prof. Ronald Prinn <http://mit.edu/rprinn/> (MIT)
> "Anthropogenic
> Climate Change"
> 2:15 - Prof. Daniel Nocera
> <http://web.mit.edu/chemistry/www/faculty/nocera.html> (MIT)
> "Whales to
> Wood: Wood to Coal/Oil: What's Next?"
> 3:00 - Discussion
> 3:30 - Prof. Roger Angel
> <http://www.optics.arizona.edu/Faculty/Resumes/Angel.htm> (Univ.
> Arizona)
> "Solar Energy as a Major Replacement for Fossil Fuel"
> 4:15 - Dr. Margaret Leinen <http://www.climos.com/bios/
> mleinenbio.html>
> (Climos Inc.) "Geosciences and Carbon Sequestration to Address Climate
> Change"
> 5:00 - Prof. Braden Allenby <http://www.cspo.org/about/people/
> allenby.htm>
> (Arizona State Univ.) "Earth Systems Engineering and Management"
> 5:45 - Discussion
> 6:15 - Close
>
> The public is welcome to attend this symposium and no registration is
> necessary. Further information can be found at http://mit.edu/cgcs/
> and
> http://esi.mit.edu/content/view/139/1/.
Friday, October 5; Subject: 34-101 today
Meet today in 34-101 at 3 for the final group presentation.
-Kristin
Wednesday, October 3, Class in Stata Today 32-123 (From Katie Pesce)
quick reminder to meet in state in 30 minutes for class. it's in that big lecture hall where we had class that first day.
see you, katie
Hi Team 5,
It's been a whole week since my last email!
Upcoming Schedule:
Friday Sept 28- All teams at 26-100 - BE ON TIME!
Talk by Paul Rago from NOAA, on "Technical challenges and tradeoffs of managing
multispecies fisheries in the Northeast US".
Friday Sept 28- Alumni Mentor Dinner, 4-6 PM - Terrascope Room
There will be food. You know you want food.
There will be alumni mentors from previous years around. They are awesome.
Seriously. Paul Rago will also be available to talk about his presentation.
Saturday-Sunday, Sept 29-30
Library and GIS assignments due on Saturday.
Small meetings to prepare for Wednesday's presentation.
Monday October 1 - Teams 1, 2, 5 in 36-155
Building 36 is next to building 32. It will be much easier to hear one another,
etc.
Wednesday October 3 - Everyone at 32-123
Groups 1 and 2 presenting
Friday October 5 - Everyone at 32-123
Group 3 presenting
Wikis: (Wikis.mit.edu)
Try to get used to putting things up and using and commenting the wiki. I have
used wikis in several different contexts and they make sharing and editing
documents much easier, and I can try to help you out if you have questions.
From now on, I will be posting all of my team emails to the Wiki for easy
reference.
The wikis are easier to use if you set up a structure to them; either each
person with their own page(s) that they update, or different sections that each
person posts similar materials to (one page for current solution, one page for
recommended references, etc.). Anyone motivated should set this up for the
team; I won't be doing it for you. It is highly likely that the UTFs/staff
will be looking at the wikis to judge your individual participation, so get in
the habit of posting things. More details on this as they are decided.
If you have pages or test pages you want deleted, either shoot me an email with
the page title and location or change the page title to "Delete this" or
something.
Good luck and see you all tomorrow,
Kristin
Wednesday, September 19; Subject: Friday - Wikis
Hi Team 5 and Team 6,
Friday's meeting will be in the Terrascope Room (16-168) at 3 PM. Please be on
time and bring a laptop if you have one so you can follow along. The
combination is 5-4-3 if it's not open.
If you have not attended a GIS help session, your last chance to do so is Friday
from 7-9, in 37-312 (Windows cluster). The GIS homework is due Friday, September
28th, emailed to dsheehan@mit.edu in PDF or Word Format. I believe the Library
HW is due Saturday, the 29th (someone please correct me if I'm mistaken). If
you don't have a copy of either assignment, ask one of your teammates.
If you purchased "Cod" as an e-book online, take your printed receipt to the
Terrascope office, across the Terrascope Room, to be reimbursed. The staff
tends to come in early and leave early, and may not be present during lunch, so
try to get there before 4 PM on a given day.
Cool article I came across on Yahoo! - It's a plan to help protect Hawaii's
coral reefs.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070918/ap_on_sc/debris_monitoring
Below is the description of the mini projects, also listed on the syllabus page
of the website (http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2011/syllabus-class.html). Note
that the use of Powerpoint is encouraged, and you should focus on solutions.
The topics are purposely open-ended to encourage creative solutions.
-Kristin, Leif, and Aubrey
------------------------------------
At the end of this week you will have all been exposed to working as a team,
discussing the cod fishery and its history, learning to acquire and interpret
GIS data, and how to use MIT?s library system.
So, to demonstrate to your fellow students, the UTF?s, and Sam, just how much
you have learned we would like to have you form three composite teams and work
together next week to evaluate the following statements (irregardless of
whether you agree). Obviously you will all be using the same or at least
similar data but your interpretations will be different.
For this assignment, ignore your regular team topics and instead focus on
working towards a solution inside your new group.
GROUP A (teams 3, 4, 5): Closed areas for Maritime Canada and New England are an
important tool for creating a sustainable cod fishery.
GROUP B (teams 1, 2, 6): Closed areas for Maritime Canada and New England often
have severe economic consequences related to not only the species they intend
to protect, but also to humans.
GROUP C (teams 7, 8+9, 10): Given what you know about the fishery and how it
changed over time, are there alternative solutions you can propose?
On Wednesday September 26, Friday September 28, and Monday October 1, you?ll
meet with your new groups. On Wednesday October 3 and Friday October 5, the
three groups will give 10-15 minute presentations to the class about your
solution, followed by a class discussion. The presentation must be concise and
well-organized. Use of Powerpoint encouraged.
------------------------------------------------------
Monday, September 17; Subject: Library Session, 3PM
Team 5,
We will have the library session today, Monday, at 3 PM, in 14-0637, one
flight of stairs underneath the DIRC from Wednesday, on the river-side
of the corridor. Please be on time.
Additionally, even though our discussion on "Cod" has taken place
already, it raises a number of important questions that our team is
looking at in particular. If you didn't get a chance to finish or read
the entire book, it would probably be useful to you to read/skim the
last few chapters (not including the recipe chapter at the end),
starting with the Cod Wars of Iceland and Britain, to help you get ideas
rolling before our team meeting on Wednesday.
I will try to speak with the GIS specialist before class and let you
know when the evening session will take place in building 37.
Thanks,
Kristin
Thursday, September 13: Subject: "Cod" tomorrow, 26-322
Hi Team 5,
We are meeting with team 6 and will be discussing "Cod" tomorrow at 3, in room
26-322. Please read it by class tomorrow (it's not a hard read) as it will be
very difficult to have a discussion without having read it. Please be on-time
so that we can get the discussion started.
The two ways to obtain it (I don't think we got the libraries to get it on
E-reserve) are below. If you haven't found it yet, it's probably easiest for
you to buy the ebook online and get reimbursed, as the Central Square library
is probably closed by now.
1) If you are not already a member, join the Minuteman Library Network. the
closest place is the Central Square Branch Library
45 Pearl St., Cambridge, Ma. 02139
(617) 349-4010
cambridge@minlib.net
Once you join, you can download a copy of the book for free.
Enter through <http://www.mln.lib.ma.us/>http://www.mln.lib.ma.us/ and click
on "Home Access"
Then "net library" then enter card #
Then search subject "cod"
Go to this library - you can also check out movies and CDs, and you'll have
access to a huge network of libraries around Massachusetts. Also, Central
Square is a good place to know when you live at MIT.
2) Go to Powells.com-a book seller-search for Cod and you have a choice of
downloading e-copies for $8.50 each--print a receipt, take it to the
Terrascope office and you will be reimbursed.
http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780140275018-0
-Kristin
Tuesday, September 11th; Subject: Your Friendly Neighborhood UTF
Hi Team 5,
For the next week and a half, we will be meeting in a number of rooms.
The powerpoint from class yesterday with the dates is a little
confusing, so I've listed it again below. Directions to each location
are at the bottom of the email.
Wednesday: GIS in the DIRC, 14N-132
Friday: Cod book discussion in Walker, 50-340
Monday: Libraries in 14-0637
Wednesday: Team meeting in Walker, 50-340
Friday: Wikis in the Terrascope Room, 16-168
These are the people who should be on this team list:
Xi Chen
Justin Chin
Danielle Whited
Somani Patnaik
Sunshine Zhou
Alex Jordan
Alex Piotrowski
Connie Lu
Your UTF: Kristin Uhmeyer
Each team has an email address of mission2010-teamX@mit.edu, where X is
the teams 1-10 (not 01-10). To contact all the students in the class,
the address is mission2010-students@mit.edu (this address also includes
Professor Bowring, the course administrator Maria Shkolnik, the UTFs and
the Grad TA Mariela).
Team 5 decided yesterday that we would discuss who might be looking at
which more in-depth topics tomorrow, Wednesday. We won't have a lot of
time for much beyond the GIS session, so be prepared to get that sorted
out quickly and efficiently. Our team meeting is not until Wednesday of
next week, and then the group presentations of about 5 minutes will
start the following week, so start thinking about how you as a group
want to make that presentation. Alex, feel free to email the list with
your notes from yesterday to get everyone started.
For our book discussion on cod, please try to read or skim most of the
book before our class on Friday. We will NOT be getting hard copies, so
refer to Mariela's email on 9/8 on how to obtain it. I believe it is
also on e-reserve with the libraries. If you need help, let me know and
I'll try to help you figure out how to get it, as I will be reading it
as well.
While doing your preliminary research, check out some of the sources
already listed on the Mission 2011 website
(http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2011/links-class.html) - it's a great
starting point. Howard Silver, one of our librarians, has also sent an
email today (9/11) about our ref-works account for the team. We'll
probably be learning more about it with the librarians, but try to keep
track of what sources you look at in whatever way works best for you
right now. Get used to the idea of going beyond Google or Google Scholar
and looking through the libraries at the incredible wealth of
information the population of MIT has at its fingertips beyond just a
www/ address. The libraries of MIT, in all of their myriad incarnations,
are one of the great things about being an MIT student that you couldn't
get just sitting around at home, and should not be dismissed lightly.
One last note - Mission and Terrascope are somewhat notorious for having
relatively light work loads in the beginning of the semester, and quite
heavy work loads in the weeks before the final presentation. You can
spread the work out by doing a lot of research even starting now, and
keeping good notes or annotations on what you find. This will make your
lives much easier a few weeks down the line. Additionally, do not expect
to accomplish everything in the class time you have been given, even
though there are no P-sets due. The wiki format should help you keep on
top of your work, and how much each person is doing. Know that the rest
of your team and the Mission2011 staff will eventually be looking at
your wiki page to assess what work you have been doing. Finally, I'm
here as a resource and not as your taskmaker, and you should ALL feel
free to take ownership and lead, and set yourself and your team members
tasks. It's part of your tasks in the class to figure out how to work as
a team in this way. Additionally, outside of class I can be a source of
information or advice about something or if you want an upperclassman's
perspective on something.
My email is uhmeyer@mit.edu, and my cell # is 978-500-8486; one of these
should usually get hold of me fairly quickly. Try to put something
Mission-y in the subject line so I know to read it right away.
See you all tomorrow in the DIRC!
----------------------
Directions:
***Tomorrow we will be meeting for the GIS session in DIRC 14N-132.
Building 14 is the building with both the Hayden Sciences and Humanities
Library, and the Lewis Music Library. Building 14 really a cluster of
four different buildings with a courtyard, each labeled one of North,
South, East, or West. The DIRC room can be easily reached in two ways:
---By heading east from building 2 into the corridor between buildings 2
and 14. Pass the music rooms (Killian Hall) and the entrance to Hayden
on your right, and the DIRC will be on your left opposite the courtyard.
You've gone too far if you get to the Lewis Music Library on your right.
---Enter building 14 on the east side, to the west of Walker, where we
have held the last 2 classes. The door I'm talking about has both a ramp
and set of stairs, and straight in is the Lewis Music Library. Make a
right, the DIRC will be on your right across from the courtyard.
***Both the Friday meeting of this week and next Wednesday's meeting
will be in Walker, where we have had the last two classes.
***Next Monday will be in the basement of building 14. Walk down the
stairs on either side of the 14N building; the classroom will be on the
"river side" (south) of the hallway in the middle between the sets of
stairs.
***Finally, next Friday we will meet in the Terrascope room. Hopefully,
you all know where this is by now, but building 16 is just south of the
Stata Center and to the northeast off the infinite corridor. Building 16
is home to most of the learning communities and the earth systems
initiative. There is a combination for the door, but for this particular
class it should be open. If you don't know where it is, tell me after
class one day and we can walk over.