GESC1160A: Environmental Problems in Hong Kong (2019/20)

FIRST Term Course

Venue: LSK LT2
Time: F8-10 (3:30 – 6:15 pm)

Teachers: Prof. K.M. Chan (Course Coordinators) Prof. L.M. Tsang

School of Life Sciences School of Life Sciences
Tel. 3943 4420 Tel: 3943 8026
Email: kingchan@cuhk.edu.hk Email: lmtsang@cuhk.edu.hk

Course Schedule:

Weeks 2018 Topics Teachers

1 Sept 6 Lecture ONE: Sustainable Development Prof. KM Chan

2 Sept 13 Lecture TWO: Urban Living Space Prof. KM Chan

3 Sept 20 Lecture THREE: Zero Waste Policy Prof. KM Chan
6 Sept 27 Lecture FOUR: Climate Change and Energy Policy Prof. KM Chan

4 Oct 4 Lecture FIVE: Air Pollution and its Health Impacts Prof. KM Chan

5 Oct 11 Site Visit 1: Museum of Climate Change (3:30- 5:30 pm) Prof. KM Chan

7 Oct 18 Site Visit 2: Green Shatin Recycling Station Prof. KM Chan

(2:30 – 4:30 pm)
8 Oct 25 Site Visit 3: EMSD Energy Saving Path and Exhibition Prof. KM Chan
(3:00 – 4:30 pm)
9 Nov 1 Lecture SIX: HK’s Role in Protecting Endangered Species Prof. LM Tsang

10 Nov 8 Lecture SEVEN: Conservation Policy Prof. LM Tsang

11 Nov 15 Lecture EIGHT: HK’s Marine Environment Prof. LM Tsang

12 Nov 22 Site Visit 4: Sha Tin Sewage Treatment Works Prof. LM Tsang
(1:30- 5:30 pm)
13 Nov 29 Open Forum on Environmental Governance and Land Prof. KM Chan
Supply Policy (Green Group Representatives)

Evaluations Marks
____________________________________________________________________________
Site Visit Report (Select one trip for this report) 10 (deadline: Dec 1, 2019)
Group Essay (Word Count ~ 8,000) 30 (deadline: Dec 31, 2019)
Final Examination (MCQs and short questions) 60 (covering ALL topics and site visits)

Site Visits (attendance and report, both are required)(10%)

ALL students must participate in a site visit to the Museum of Climate Change (CUHK) on Oct 11
as a guided tour, and select AT LEAST TWO from the other THREE site visits. Students are also
required to write up one site visit report for marking, page limit is 5. This is an individual report
with the following content: [1] Main feature of the site you visited, [2] Do you think the site you
visited has been doing its job right? [3] What deficiency or comments you have for the site you
visited; [4] Self-reflections of your site visit; [5] Conclusions; [6] References, or list of citations.

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Group Essay (30%) WORD COUNTS ~ 8,000

Students have to work together in groups of 2-3 students on an essay with a topic related to their site
visit. To encourage students from different faculties to work with each other and exchange ideas, each
group should include students from different Faculties or major programmes. The essay can be
written in either English or Chinese. The essay must be related to Key Environmental Issues of
Hong Kong: Elaborate the Roots of the Problem and Suggest Solutions. For example, Plastic
Pollution in Hong Kong waters or Microplastic Pollution in Local Waters, are relevant topics.

Make sure the following instructions are followed:

1. Start early because your work must be based on detailed and extensive research of current information
with relevant academic publications but not just web site information.

2. Important notes:
i. Main theme of the essay:
• Very important. Brainstorm your topic. What have you learnt from this course or the site visits? What is
most interesting to you? What issues are most controversial?
• The topic must be relevant to HK’s environmental problems. For examples, students might want to explore
why nuclear or even renewable energy face so much objections from Hong Kong people and review recent
HKSAR government’s energy policy proposal. Waste Disposal Charging Scheme? How to tackle land
shortage in Hong Kong?

ii. Format for the essay:

a) Cover page – List the title of the essay, names and student IDs, with an ABSTRACT. Elaborate the work
distribution and contributions of your project among your group members.
b) Introduction – Outline the objective(s) of the essay. State the background and significance of the topic.
State the question and identify the problems. Explain why the topic you have chosen is important. What are
the major issues? Explain how you plan to address the major issues.
c) Main Body – Organize the main body of the essay into sections. Use data to support your arguments.
Present the data clearly in either tables or figures. You may have your own survey or other means to collect
data for your report.
d) Discussion - State your conclusion(s). List your recommendations with numerical analyses. Provide
suggestions on what can be done or further explore. Explain what’s going on now or existing practises and
why it fails. Explain foreign experiences and how that could be used in Hong Kong with data.
e) Conclusion – 200 word of your major findings/conclusions
References – Obtain high quality information from authoritative sources such as books and journal articles as
far as possible. Some websites provide trustworthy information, but many do not. WIKI pages CANNOT be
used as references. Your essay should not be based entirely on information from websites and newspapers, but
if you use, please include the date you downloaded the information. Provide the source(s) of all the data and
information you use. Cite the references you used in a proper manner, and do not cut and paste copyright
materials. Remember to cite the sources/references even if you are using a figure/picture/table from a
publication/website.

1. Group work: Unequal contribution is a common problem in group-projects. Nevertheless, the ability to work in
groups is important because committees and teams do most of the work in the ‘real world’. We cannot expect all
group members to contribute equally, but members who do not contribute will be identified and penalized. Talk
to one of the instructors early if your partner is not doing his/her fair share of the work or has ‘disappeared’
completely.

2. Self-evaluation: List the time and attendance of all meetings. Each group member should outline in 2-3 sentences
his/her contributions to the essay. The self-evaluation should be signed by all group members and attached to the
end of the essay.

3. Since the essay represents 30% of the course and the work of 2-3 students, it must be based on a substantial amount
of scholarly work and research. The text of the essay should cover ~ 30 pages of printing in pdf file, with additional
figures, tables, appendixes, and references. PLEASE AVOID CUT AND PASTE FIGURES OR TABLES
FROM WEBSITES.

4. Academic Honesty: According to University regulations, students must submit an electronic version of their
assignment to VeriGuide system for the purpose of checking for possible plagiarism. Read the University’s
policies on plagiarism carefully and do not plagiarize! CUHK has adopted a policy of zero tolerance for plagiarism.
Instructors will send all suspected cases of plagiarism directly to the disciplinary committee for investigation. In
the case of group report, plagiarism will affect all partners!
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5. Submission: A soft copy of the assignment in pdf format, together with a signed copy of the Academic Honesty
Declaration Statement, should be submitted to Blackboard on or before 11:59 pm, Dec 28, 2019. Submission by
emails will NOT be accepted. Marks will be deducted from late submissions (1 mark per day, including Saturdays
and Sundays).

6. Checklist: Title page with names & IDs of all group members, Text, References, Contribution from group
members, Self-evaluation, and Academic Honesty Declaration Statement.

7. The file name should be the title of your paper, e.g. Land Supply in Hong Kong by Chan, Wong and Lee.

FINAL EXAMINATION (60%): 40% MCQ; 60% short question assays.

Grade Descriptors for GESC 1160A/B Environmental Problems in Hong Kong

The marks are for reference only, averaged mark is set as B, and no more than 30% students graded A- or A.

Grade Marks Contents and Examinations
A >80 Able to address and discuss the topics in
environmental problems in Hong Kong, up
to a high standard. Could provide correct
answers to 80% of the questions in final
exam.
A- 75- 80 Able to address and discuss the topics in
environmental problems in Hong Kong, up
to a high standard. Could provide correct
answers to 70% of the questions in final
exam.
B+ 70-74 Able to address the topics in environmental
problems in Hong Kong to a good standard
with all terms and their relationships
identified; and manage to answer more
than half of the questions correctly in the
final examinations.
B 65-70 Able to address the topics in environmental
problems in Hong Kong to a good standard
with all terms and their relationships
identified; and manage to answer more
than half of the questions correctly in the
final examinations.
B- 60-64 Able to address the topics in environmental
problems in Hong Kong to a good standard
with all terms and their relationships
identified; and manage to answer more
than half of the questions correctly in the
final examinations.
C+ 55-60 Fair ability to address the topics in
environmental problems in Hong Kong,
with less than half of the final examination
questions done correctly.
C 50-54 Fair ability to address the topics in
environmental problems in Hong Kong,
Data Presentation and Term Paper
Writing
Able to write a nice term paper on
selected topic in a high standard with
clarity, innovative ideas, critical thinking
and enough citations of recent papers.
All assignments, including the site visit
report done elegantly.
Able to write a nice term paper on
selected topic in a high standard with
clarity, innovative ideas, critical thinking
and enough citations of recent papers.
All assignments, including the site visit
report done elegantly.
Able to write a nice term paper on
selected topic in a good standard with
clarity and enough citations of recent
papers. Data presented are in good
order and well organized. All
assignments, including the site visit
report done elegantly.
Able to write a nice term paper on
selected topic in a good standard with
clarity and enough citations of recent
papers. Data presented are in good
order and well organized. All
assignments, including the site visit
report done elegantly.
Able to write a nice term paper on
selected topic in a good standard with
clarity and enough citations of recent
papers. Data presented are in good
order and well organized. Data analysis
may not be good enough. All
assignments, including the site visit
report done elegantly.
Invalid and very limited data presented
in term paper.
Invalid and very limited data presented
in term paper.
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 with less than half of the final examination
questions done correctly.
C-/D 45-49 Fair ability to address the topics in Invalid and very limited data presented
environmental problems in Hong Kong, in term paper.
with less than half of the final examination
questions done correctly.
F < 44 Unable to address the topics in Failed to submit any term assay or Field
environmental sciences at the basic level, Venture. Assignments found with
with less than 30% of the final examination plagiarized materials.
questions done correctly.