Thesis Statements for Sci10 Finals (Orals)

1. Sci 10 Pottier / NDE Marquez
FINAL THESIS STATEMENTS
Instructions:
- Prepare to discuss any of the statements below.
- On your scheduled time slot, draw from the lot a number corresponding
to a statement.
- You will be allowed to bring a 3in x 5in note card per thesis.
- You will be given time to organize your thoughts.
- You have 5 minutes, at most, to present the chosen thesis statement.
- There will be another 5 minutes for discussion.
- The lowest score would be a “5” and the highest possible is a “10.”
- Evaluation will be based on:
Thoroughness/appropriateness of information 60%
Clarity and coherence of presentation/response 40%
- This oral exam serves as the final exam and constitutes 15% of your
final grade.
- Please come at least 10 min before your time slot.
1. “ The whole of science is nothing but a refinement of everyday thinking. ”
- Albert Einstein
2. “ One thing is clear to me now ...our values must be compatible with the
exigencies of the natural world we live in and depend upon.
They must implicitly recognize the laws of thermodynamics, energy’s role in
our survival, the dangers of certain kinds of connectivity, and the nonlinear
behaviour of natural systems like the climate. The endless material growth
of our economies is fundamentally inconsistent with these physical facts of
life. - Thomas Homer-Dixon
3. “ The idea of sustainability can imply there is one perfect, unchanging
future, if only we could work out how to get there. Resilience might be more
useful, in that it assumes a dynamic environment and that perfection is
impossible. You need to design systems to accommodate failure rather
than eliminate it. By trying to be perfect, many visions of sustainability are
quite brittle. ” - Jamais Cascio
4. “ The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the
more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we
were coming.” - Freeman Dyson
/sio