EARS 5: Natural Disasters and CatastrophesPaper assignment

Summer 2003

The Assignment. Write a 5-page critique of any one of the movies listed below. Youshould (at a minimum) consider the following questions:

• Is the science accurate? How likely is it for the natural disaster(s) to occur in the wayit is (they are) portrayed in the movie? Are there incorrect portrayals of the naturaldisasters? If possible, consider these questions quantitatively as well as qualitatively.You need not confine your analysis just to phenomena discussed in class; you maydiscuss other significant criticisms, as long as they concern scientific or technologicalaspects portrayed in the film.

• How does the movie depict scientists and their professional activities? Do you thinkthe film accurately represents how science is actually done? Why or why not?

• How are issues of prediction, warning, public emergency preparedness, andmitigation portrayed? How do scientists and public officials interact in the movie? Isthis an accurate portrayal? Why or why not?

Your paper should be a well-argued, objective analysis, not a literary critique or a piece ofcreative writing. Concentrate on evaluating the portrayal of science and scientists, ratherthan, for example, artistic aspects of the film, quality of the acting, intentions ofscreenwriters, psychological motivations of characters, or the effectiveness of the movie asentertainment. Although the latter may be valid intellectual topics, they are not relevant tothis particular assignment.

You should use external sources to support your arguments. Appropriately cited books,articles, and Web pages are all acceptable. You MUST use at least two non-Web sources.

What to turn in and how. You must turn in BOTH a hard copy and an electronicversion. You will not get credit for the paper unless we have both versions.

Hard copy can be turned in before or after class or placed in one of the TAs’ mailboxes in216 Fairchild.

The electronic file you submit should be named LastFirstMI.doc, where Last is your lastname, First is your first name and MI is the initial(s) of your middle name(s). The reason forthis is that you do not want your file to be wiped out by someone else turning in a paper withthe same name. This is exactly what is likely to happen if you call your file EARS5paper.doc,for example. Files should be placed in the EARS 5 drop box on PUBLIC. There are severalways to connect to the drop box. With Windows you can either directly reach the drop boxusing the link from the EARS 5 web site or you can use FTP Explorer to connect toftp://public.dartmouth.edu. With Macintosh, you can either log onto PUBLIC using theChooser (OS 9 or less) or “Connect to Server” under the “Go” menu item (OS X) or youcan use Fetch to connect to ftp://public.dartmouth.edu. In the latter three cases, the folder youwant is Courses & Support/Academic Departments & Courses/Earth Science/EARS 5, inwhich you will see the drop box (“Drop term papers in me” folder). Once you see the dropfolder, you should be able to drag and drop your file onto it. Note that the drop box haswrite-only permission. This means that if you open it, you will not see your paper eventhough it is there.

For more help with accessing PUBLIC see http://www.dartmouth.edu/help/pdf/connectpublic.pdf.For downloads of FTP Explorer or Fetch, see http://www.dartmouth.edu/software.

Due dates , grading, and late penalties. Due dates for the movies vary, based on whenrelevant material is covered in class.

Film Due date

Earthquake (1992 TV film with Ed Begley, Jr.)

July 18

Volcano August 1Dante’s Peak August 1Volcano, Fire on the Mountain (1997,with Dan Cortese)

August 1

Twister August 15Hurricane (1974, with Larry Hagman) August 15Meteor (1979, with Sean Connery) August 20

Papers will be graded 50% on content and 50% on writing. Late papers will be accepted,but 10% will be deducted for each day or fraction of a day late. Keep in mind that thisequates to roughly a letter grade a day.

Where to get the movies. DVD and video copies are on reserve at the Jones Media Centerat Baker library; you can also rent most of them from local video stores. Keep in mind thatif you wait too long before watching them, you may have trouble obtaining them becauseother people in the class may have already rented them or obtained them from the library.

Other comments. The quality of your writing is very important. Papers will be graded onboth content and clarity and style of writing. Good scientific writing, like good writing inthe humanities, is clear, concise, and precise. Be aware that scientific terms generally havevery specific meanings, so choose your words carefully. Be sure to defend your assertionswith evidence and well-constructed arguments.

Be sure to correctly cite the sources you use. You are expected to know and observe standardpractice for use and citation of sources. If you have questions about when or how to includecitations, consult the Sources pamphlet you should have received during your first year(Committee on Sources, 1998), the Sources web site (http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources), ateaching assistant, or the professor. Graders, if they choose, may use any available method tocheck the originality of your paper.

If you include figures in your paper you should refer to them in the text and give each one acaption (exception: decorative figures, such as on a cover page). Figures withoutexplanation or connection to the text are useless. Sources of figures should be appropriatelycited.

Reference cited

Committee on Sources (Johnson, G. D., Kremer, R., Burke, K., Culbert, S., DeFelice, B.,Horton, S., McKee, P.), Sources: Their Use and Acknowledgment, Dartmouth College,Hanover, NH, 38 pp., 1998.