EM SC 240N
Energy and Sustainability in Contemporary Culture

Summary and Final Tasks

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All right, that does it for the content for this week. Before you relax, make sure you complete the assignments listed at the beginning of this lesson.

This week, we went over some of the core considerations for energy and sustainability.

You should be able to do the following. The Lesson 1 quiz will help you solidify these skills:

  • define energy, energy efficiency, and the First Law of Thermodynamics;
  • identify and describe types of energy and energy conversions:
  • identify and define fossil fuels, non-renewable energy sources, and renewable energy sources, and their origins and characteristics;
  • analyze the energy data provided in charts and graphs;
  • identify reliable sources of energy data;
  • evaluate the implications of sustainability definitions; and
  • define the "3 E's" of sustainability and use the 3E framework to evaluate the sustainability of given actions.

The Language of Energy and Sustainability

At the end of each lesson, I will provide a list of all of the key terms from the lesson. These terms are easy to find because most of them are in bold throughout the lesson, or appear in headings. This is designed to help you review the content, both before you take the quiz, and later. Many of these terms will be used in other parts of the course, in future courses in the Energy and Sustainability Policy curriculum, and in the sustainability and energy literature. They are mostly listed in the order they appear in the text.

  • Energy, work
  • Kinetic energy, potential energy, electromagnetic energy, sound energy, radiant energy, mechanical energy, electrical energy, chemical energy, gravitational energy, nuclear energy, thermal energy, First Law of Thermodynamics
  • Coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear, fossil fuels, hydrocarbons
  • British Thermal Unit, Btu, Joule, kilowatt hour (kWh), 100 cubic feet (ccf), quads, national labs, energy sources, end-use sectors, Sankey diagram
  • Energy efficiency, Second Law of Thermodynamics, the "fifth fuel"
  • Renewable energy, non-renewable energy, solar photovoltaics, wind turbines, hydropower, biomass, biofuels, primary energy, carbon free, carbon neutral
  • Energy Information Administration (EIA), International Energy Agency (IEA)
  • Sustainability, sustainable development, Brundtland Commission, ecocentric, anthropocentric, 3 E's, environment, intergenerational equity, equity, economy, triple bottom line, sustainability indicators/metrics

Time for the Lesson 1 Quiz!

This quiz is based on the material this week. Unless otherwise indicated, all of the answers to the quiz questions are in the required readings, videos, and website text from this week. You have unlimited time to take this quiz, but it must be completed by the due date to receive credit. You get one try. Refer to one of the course calendars for due date. Note that you can start the quiz and save your progress, and pick up where you left off later. The quiz answers automatically save as you complete the quiz, and if you stop taking it you will pick up right where you left off if you start again. If the quiz is partially completed, it will automatically submit at the due date/time if you do not submit it yourself. Please note that students in the past have had some issues saving and resuming with Internet Explorer. I suggest using Firefox or Google Chrome. To take the quiz:

  1. Go to the Modules tab.
  2. Locate the Lesson 1 Module.
  3. Click on Lesson 1 Content Quiz.
  4. Begin!
  5. When you are done, click "Submit." You cannot undo a submission once it is submitted.

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