CRITICAL THINKING

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Critical Thinking

Critical Summary Instructions

The purpose of this assignment is to write a critical summary of the graphing activity and/or resource(s) found in the assignment. A critical summary shows full comprehension of the activity by including a thoughtful and thorough summary with evidence of critical thinking.

Summary

The summary aspect of this assignment draws out “big picture” ideas from the graphing activity and briefly summarizes the main points of the data. The focus should be on the main points, and details should be used sparingly to illustrate points. For example, if the activity is called Introduction to Graphing, then the analysis should mostly focus on the graphs in the activity and include information such as the components of a graph, what the data shows, etc.

Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is demonstrated in the activity when it is clear that the author thought through and understood the questions and prompts, especially graphs which are not explained in the activity. This would include making predictions about data trends. It is also important to look for any assumptions or potential bias that might be found in the data and mention how they will affect any conclusions drawn. Assumptions or bias would include such things as correlation versus causation, how graph scaling can influence viewed results, how models are based on predictions and not 100% accurate, etc. A critical analysis can also draw in outside resources or include the author’s own insight and what the author found most interesting or what was learned.

Guide Questions

Below is a list of questions to help as you are writing your critical summary. You do not need to answer every question, but they can act as a guide as you write.

What is the main point of the graph(s) or activity?

What are the main components of the graph(s)?

What does the data in the graph(s) show? For example, is the data increasing or decreasing, and what does this indicate?

What conclusions can be drawn from the data?

What are the limitations or assumptions made in this data?

What would you predict would happen if the data continued into the future? What would be the environmental results?

How does this data/graph or activity relate to environmental science or impact the environment?

Example Critical Summary

Here is an example to better illustrate what a critical summary looks like. Your summary should contain many of the same components.

The graph above shows concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO₂) over time, including present day levels. In general, the data shoes increasing and decreasing fluctuations of atmospheric CO₂ concentrations over several hundred thousand years. Prior to 1950, the highest level of CO₂ concentration inferred was approximately 300 parts per million. The current CO₂ level appears to be close to 400 parts per million. High levels of CO₂ are cause for concern because it is believed that these levels have caused the global surface temperature to rise. Increasing global surface temperatures can impact precipitation levels, lead to more extreme weather events, and increase sea levels (Wright and Boorse, 2014). If the current levels of CO₂ continue to increase, a rise in global surface temperatures is expected.

However, the data presented here does rely on several assumptions. First, our textbook mentions that atmospheric CO₂ concentrations have only been directly measured since the 1960s (Wright and Boorse, 2014). Therefore, any data prior to the 1960s was more than likely inferred by the use of a proxy, which uses things such as tree rings and ice cores to make measurements (Wright and Boorse, 2014). Since it was not measured directly, this data could be inaccurate. The second important assumption to remember is that future concentrations of CO₂ can be predicted, but are not certain. It is possible that future CO₂ concentrations will continue to climb in their current trajectory. Alternatively, the CO₂ concentrations could decrease and be similar to the fluctuations shown in previous time periods in the graph. Finally, while there is a strong correlation between CO₂ and global warming, there is a possibility that increasing CO₂ concentrations do not cause global warming.

References:

The Relentless Rise of Carbon Dioxide. (2016). [Graph illustration of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations]. NASA Global Climate Change. Retrieved from http://climate.nasa.gov/climate_resources/24/.

Wright, R.T., and Boorse, D.F. (2014) Global Climate Change. In B. Wilbur (Ed.), Environmental Science: Toward a Sustainable Future ( pp. 446-447). USA: Pearson.