How can physicists teach climate science?

Event Date:
2019-10-24T16:00:00
2019-10-24T17:00:00
Event Location:
Hennings 201
Speaker:
James Charbonneau
Related Upcoming Events:
Department Colloquia
Intended Audience:
Undergraduate
Event Information:

Climate and energy are prominent topics in the news and in our daily lives. We hear things like doubling the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will raise the temperature of the Earth by 3 degrees. UBC's sustainability reports tell us that simply heating our classrooms, offices, and labs produces the equivalent of 42,000 tonnes of CO2 a year. 

PHYS 333 - Climate and Energy is a third year course aimed at providing a physicist's view of this type of issue. What are the simple models that lead to these results? What things matter and what things don't? It is a course on thermodynamics and "Fermi problems" in disguise.

In this talk I will present a sampling of concepts I teach in PHYS 333 and demonstrate how to use them to unpack some of the terms and numbers you encounter in your day-to-day lives. I'll also briefly talk about some teaching strategies I use in PHYS 333 to facilitate discussions. Specifically, I'll introduce ComPAIR, learning software that I helped develop, which has been used in over 50 courses here at UBC and across Canada by over 5000 students. 

Add to Calendar 2019-10-24T16:00:00 2019-10-24T17:00:00 How can physicists teach climate science? Event Information: Climate and energy are prominent topics in the news and in our daily lives. We hear things like doubling the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere will raise the temperature of the Earth by 3 degrees. UBC's sustainability reports tell us that simply heating our classrooms, offices, and labs produces the equivalent of 42,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.  PHYS 333 - Climate and Energy is a third year course aimed at providing a physicist's view of this type of issue. What are the simple models that lead to these results? What things matter and what things don't? It is a course on thermodynamics and "Fermi problems" in disguise. In this talk I will present a sampling of concepts I teach in PHYS 333 and demonstrate how to use them to unpack some of the terms and numbers you encounter in your day-to-day lives. I'll also briefly talk about some teaching strategies I use in PHYS 333 to facilitate discussions. Specifically, I'll introduce ComPAIR, learning software that I helped develop, which has been used in over 50 courses here at UBC and across Canada by over 5000 students.  Event Location: Hennings 201