Energy: Its Use and the Environment

ENERGY: ITS USE AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Third Edition is an introductory textbook that emphasizes the physical principles behind energy and its effects on our environment. It can be used in physics, technology, physical science, and environmental science courses for non-science majors. Many of the standard topics found in introductory physics textbooks are included. As a result, this book can be used as the text in a conceptual physics course with energy as the central theme. Much of the pedagogy used comes from a one-semester general education course the authors have taught at State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oswego, over the past 20 years. No math or other science prerequisite is necessary.

Roger Hinrichs has been Professor of Physics and department chair at SUNY-Oswego, where he taught energy related courses for over 25 years. His training is in experimental nuclear physics, and his research involves studies of trace materials in environmental and biological samples using PIXE with Oswego's Van de Graaff particle accelerator. He has an interest in energy use in developing countries, and spent time in Kenya and India as well as a year as a Fulbright Scholar in the sultanate of Oman. He co-directs the Institute in Energy Education, a program for secondary school science and technology teachers. In its 20 years, this program has impacted over 500,000 students and has won numerous awards. Dr. Hinrichs also supports active inquiry-based learning in the classroom; some of the activities in this text come from, or are part of, his course "Physics for Elementary Education Majors." He has worked as a consultant at local, state, and national levels on matters of energy policy and energy technologies. Presently, he is a visiting professor at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

Merlin H. Kleinbach received his Bachelor's degree from Westmar College, IA; his Masters degree from Colorado State College, 1955; and a doctorate in education from the University of Missouri in 1959. He has taught high school science and industrial arts in Colorado, and college courses in woodworking technology, metals technology, and basic electronics as well as Professional Education graduate courses for seven years at Wayne State College in Nebraska. Given an opportunity to teach and travel overseas, he took a position at Haile Selassie I University in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for four years (1966-1970), assisting in developing a teacher education program to prepare technology teachers for the newly developed comprehensive school program there. The University employed faculty from several dozen different countries from around the world, providing real insights into other cultures, their concerns, and potential. During this period, he and his family traveled extensively to countries in Europe, Africa, and Asia.