4 thoughts on “Renewable Energy, Claire Swanson

  1. Claire,

    Overall, really nice work. You definitely have improved the audio quality from the last video and speak with a solid cadence that allows the listener to proactively dissect and understand the material in an easy to follow way. I particularly liked how you spoke about the historical context of many of society’s renewable energy sources such as the water wheel dating back to 4000 B.C., fire (or the burning of biomass), and windmills used by the Persians. Furthermore, your description of the two major transitions in energy sources throughout human history was a great addition that certainly added context and depth to your presentation. Great class connections incorporating the steam engine, presentism, and the age of consumption into your narrative. Your presentation was chronological and thus made it relatively easy to follow. Finally, it was a nice touch to end with pragmatic and realistic solutions related to issues of shortages of non-renewable energy sources. Definite improvement from the last presentation and a nice presentation as a whole.

  2. Great job with starting off by defining clearly what renewable energy is and how it works as compared to non-renewable that is not unlimited or replenishable. Really great transition from talking about this to dating it back to ancient times where the concept of using the sun, wind, and water to date back to ancient times. Interestingly laid out how you discuss the transitions of renewable energy then give the historical context for each one like using the steam engine. This and using the concepts like presentism is also a great example how you fully utilized class ideas and incorporating social, political, and technological values. Ideas in your presentation was neatly laid out and spoken clearly, and your use of illustrations was also exemtremely helpful to follow your story and made the slideshow very engaging. Great job!

  3. Claire,
    Overall, I thought your slidecast was great! Right off the bat I was pulled in because of your intro. I liked how you outlined what you were going to present. I also loved how your use of the green background, the different positions of the slides, and the fact that you sometimes had more than one slide on the screen. The visual aspect of the slidecast was fantastic. I liked how told the story starting with how we became dependent on non-renewable energy through the first industrial revolution and the development of the steam engine. I thought bringing up your presentist point of view and then showing how you were wrong was a great idea. It was also good how you showed the social context and explained why we are now looking to renewable energy. I really can’t find anything negative to say about your slidecast… Great job!

  4. I did my final project on a similar idea, solar energy, so we probably did a lot of the same research but I think you may have presented yours better. I liked the background you showed of all the different types of energy and how they are older than anyone ever things, I got a laugh out of saying we’ve been using biomass fuels since the discovery of fire. After the background you started to explain why we (society) started to use fossil fuels and looking back at it it may seem like a bad idea but when you put yourself in their shoes it makes perfect sense. It was abundant, cheap and produces a lot of power. Unlike renewable energy, which is taking decades of work to get right, fossil fuels were too good to be true. Then after our initial love affair with fossil fuels you got into the environmental crisis in the 60s and the energy crisis of the 70s, which shows the perfect example of the relations between social and political values and energy. Mentioning the relationship between countries was a good idea along and I liked how you had a background to the photos, made it different. I also like the idea of society getting “in sync with nature” seems like a good idea.

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