代写SCIE1000、代做Python程序设计

日期：2024-10-11 11:01

SCIE1000 Semester 2, 2024

Python and Communication Assignment

1 The scenario

A new public science museum in St Lucia is developing an exhibit. A feature of the museum is that

each exhibit item is accompanied by two explanations, each written for a different audience. One

explanation is pitched to the “science rookie” and the other to the “science enthusiast”. Patrons

read the explanation tailored to the level at which they feel most comfortable. Some characteristics

of typical patrons in each category are described in Table 1.

Table 1: Characteristics of different patrons

Patron Type Typical characteristics

Science Rookie Not familiar with scientiffc terminology or notation;

will need terminology explained using a simple vocabulary;

is unfamiliar with graphs;

may be a younger person, possibly 10+ years of age;

likes to press buttons.

Science Enthusiast Familiar with common scientiffc terminology and notation (not overly technical);

can handle terminology explained using somewhat sophisticated vocabulary;

is prepared to read longer passages of moderate complexity;

likes to know about modelling assumptions and limitations;

is familiar with graphs;

likes to press buttons.

The museum is planning an exhibition called “Plastics in our Oceans: A Cautionary Tale” which

examines how humankind’s voracious appetite for the production and consumption of plastic products

can have calamitous consequences for the natural environment around us. The aim of the exhibition

is summarised in the following passage from the exhibition prospectus:

Plastics have revolutionised the cost-effectiveness and versatility of manufacturing in the

post-war era. Plastics have become so commonplace in modern times that it is hard to

imagine life without them. However, as plastic consumption has increased, so too has

our knowledge and understanding of the potentially devastating impacts of mismanaged

plastic waste. As we plan for a more sustainable future, we must examine our dependency

on plastics and the consequences of inaction on the future health and prosperity of the

planet.

In this particular exhibit, patrons will gain a sense of scale for the rate at which the plastic products

humans produce are entering marine environments, both now, and in the future.

The museum director has asked the SCIE1000 teaching team for help in ffnding skilled volunteers

to develop exhibit items. Once developed, the items will be maintained and potentially modiffed by

museum staff, each of whom has a strong background in high-school mathematics combined with

a beginners level of Python experience. The director has been informed that SCIE1000 students

1are skilled at: making mathematical models using a mathematical toolkit familiar to any student

who has completed intermediate level high school maths (aka Mathematical Methods, or equivalent);

writing Python programs, including those which use arrays, loops, plots and user-defined functions;

and communicating scientific information to a variety of audiences.

2 An overview of the task

You will write an interactive Python program that will run on a machine in the exhibition hall at

the new science museum as part of this exhibition. Your program will guide users to a better understanding

of the scale of plastic production and the impact this may have on marine environments.

The information you need to create the relevant model is provided in Section 5 of this document,

and a high-level overview of how to complete the task is provided in Section 6.

This assignment requires you to produce two deliverables, (D1) and (D2), as outlined below:

(D1) A Python code file that satisfies the specifications in Section 7. This includes following the

logical flow laid out in the flowchart provided in Figure 3 (see Page 10).

(D2) An audio-video screencapture file (3-5 minutes long) in which you show your code and give an

overview of your approaches to modelling, programming and communication, aimed at museum

staff who will need to maintain your code. One way to create such a file is by recording with

Zoom (open a Zoom meeting, share your screen, and select Record → Record to this computer).

Please note that 5 minutes is a hard upper limit for the recording, and museum staff will stop

watching your video at the 5 minute mark.

3 Submission and grading

Both deliverables (D1) and (D2) are to be uploaded via the Blackboard submission link by 1pm on

October 15, 2024. If your video file is large, or if there are many other Blackboard users, it can take

time for your video file to load and you need to wait for your browser to complete the submission.

The UQ guidelines on Blackboard assignment submissions recommend submitting at least 3 hours before

the deadline, in case of any internet/computer/technical issues. If you do have technical issues,

you should contact the student IT service “AskUs” at the library. Late submissions without

an approved extension will be penalised according to the policy in the Course Profile;

consult the Course Profile for more information.

Your submitted code will be run and tested as part of this grading process. A rubric (grading criteria)

for this assignment is on Page 11. The file that you submit will be checked using software which is

specially designed to detect plagiarism in code. Consult the Course Profile for more information and

procedures concerning plagiarism.

This assignment has an advanced section which must be attempted by students aiming for grades of

6 or 7 (see the grading criteria for more explanation). The shaded section of the flowchart indicates

the requirements of this advanced section. If you have any questions, please contact the course

lecturers via the course discussion board (see Section 4 below).

24 About getting help

This assignment is a piece of summative assessment, designed to let you demonstrate your level of

mastery of several learning objectives in this course. As such, it is very important that the work you

submit is all your own. This does not mean that you cannot receive help in regards to this assignment,

but that help must be limited to general advice about modelling, Python and communication. This

task sheet has been carefully constructed, and part of your job is to interpret the information it

contains. Some choices have been left to your judgement, and this is intentional.

Remember that you must not look at anyone else’s code and you must not show your code to anyone.

Both of these actions are examples of behaviour that may be considered academic misconduct. No

code from your assignment attempt should be posted on the course discussion board, or any other

site, at any time. However, if you have problems with your code, you may develop some generic

sample code that demonstrates the issue that you are having (but does not relate to the assignment).

This can be discussed with others and/or posted to the course discussion board for assistance. All

such discussion board posts must be made visible to all students, so that everyone can see the question

and the answer from lecturers.

5 Modelling plastic entering the ocean

5.1 Plastic production

The term plastic refers to a broad group of synthetic polymers that have become ubiquitous in

modern manufacturing due to their low production cost and broad utility across a huge range of different

industries including packaging, consumer products, textiles, transportation, construction and

electronics. The origin of large scale plastic production dates back to the 1950s and global plastic

production has increased year-on-year in all but three years since then [1].

Figure 1: Examples of different modern plastic.

The museum exhibit aims to convey to patrons the scale of plastic production both now and into

the future, and what implications this may have for our oceans.

Selected data for the global rate of plastic production between 1975 and 2017 is provided in Table 2

[2].

3Table 2: Data for the annual global rate of plastic production from 1975–2017, sourced from [2] via

[3].

Year Rate of global plastic production (million tonnes·year−1

)

1975 46

1978 64

1981 72

1984 86

1987 104

1990 120

1993 137

1996 168

1999 202

2002 231

2005 263

2008 281

2011 325

2014 367

2017 420

Museum staff have provided a model for the rate of global plastic production, given by

P(t) = 50.4 + 2.606t + 0.143t

2

, (1)

Where P is the rate of global plastic production (in million tonnes·year−1

) and t is the time (in

years) since 1975. For modelling purposes, you may assume that any relationship for the global rate

of plastic production over the interval 1975–2017 can be extrapolated to future years. However, you

should clearly communicate to patrons when your model is being used to make predictions beyond

the time frame of the data provided.

5.2 Plastics entering the marine environment

The lifespan of a plastic product is the time that elapses between its creation until it becomes waste.

The lifespan of plastics varies significantly depending upon the type of plastic and how it is used. For

example, plastics used in building and construction typically have longer lifespans on the order of

decades, whereas plastics used in packaging may have an average lifespan on the order of months [4].

There are many different pathways for dealing with plastic wastes including reuse, recycling, thermal

destruction and disposal. However, reused and recycled plastics eventually need to be disposed of,

since these processes cannot be repeated indefinitely [1]. Mismanagement of plastic waste can lead

to plastics entering the marine environment.

Estimating how much plastic enters the world’s oceans is a complex problem. Jambeck et al. (2015)

developed a framework for estimating the amount of mismanaged plastic waste from coastal populations

that could potentially become marine debris. Based on data from 2010, they estimated that

approximately 2.96% of the plastic produced in that year ended up as ocean plastic [5], as depicted

4in Figure 2. Using this information, and the model for plastic production provided in equation (1),

you should develop a new model which estimates the global rate at which plastics enter the world’s

oceans. You may assume that this relationship between plastic produced and plastic entering the

oceans holds true in other years.

Figure 2: Infographic produced by [3] depicting the proportion of plastic produced that ended up in

the world’s oceans in 2010 based on [5].

5.3 A compounding problem

Once plastics have entered the marine environment they can remain there for a long time. In the

ocean, plastics do not generally biodegrade on a timescale that would contribute to the removal of

plastics from the environment. Instead, plastics at the sea surface are likely to undergo solar UVinduced

photodegradation reactions. This “weathering” of plastic materials in the ocean can cause

larger macroplastics to break down into microplastic debris [6]. The small size of such debris creates

additional problems for effective detection and can hamper efforts to remove plastics from the ocean.

Consequently, without targeted intervention, we can assume that all plastics that have entered the

ocean remain in the ocean.

5.4 Impact of plastic on marine environments

Ingestion or interaction with marine plastics (such as through entanglement, ghost fishing, dispersal

by rafting and habitat alteration) has been shown to affect more than 800 marine species, many of

5which are listed as being at risk according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature

[7, 8]. These effects can include ill health and death. Microplastics have been shown to collect in the

gut, digestive tract and gills of various marine species when ingested, and some species have been

shown to accumulate microplastics in other tissues through translocation [8].

As microplastics contaminate the environment, their presence has been demonstrated

in the food chain. At lower trophic levels in the marine environment, the presence of

microplastics has been reported in zooplankton, chaetognatha, ichtyoplankton, copepods,

and salps. Microplastic contamination also occurs at higher trophic levels, in invertebrates

(polychaetes, crustaceans, echinoderms, bivalves) and vertebrates (fish, seabirds,

and mammals). Plastic particles reach them either through direct consumption or through

trophic transfer.[10]

5.5 Looking to the future

Geyer (2020) suggests that, based on current trends in plastic production, waste generation, and

waste management, recycling and incineration will not be sufficient to sustainably manage plastic

in the long term. Hence it will be important to consider mechanisms for reducing the amount of

plastic produced and consumed [1]. Furthermore, sustainable consumption and production have been

identified by the United Nations as a key sustainable development goal as part of a larger collective

of 17 goals aimed at providing a global vision for achieving a sustainable, just, and safe planet [9].

6 A detailed overview of the task

Your assignment submission must follow the specifications listed in Section 7. Below, we first give a

high-level overview of how to approach the main section and the advanced section of this assessment

task.

To complete the main section, you will need to:

ˆ Determine an appropriate mathematical function to model the global rate at which plastics

enter the marine environment using the information provided in Sections 5.1 and 5.2, and

clearly communicate the potential scale of this issue to patrons. Your model will be based on

the one provided by museum staff in equation (1). You will write a function in your code which

implements the ocean plastics model. Your function should take one input, time in years since

1975, and return an estimate of the global rate at which plastics enter the marine environment

(in million tonnes· year−1

) at that time.

ˆ Produce a graph of the model of the rate of plastic entering the ocean.

ˆ To give patrons a sense of the scale of plastic entering the ocean, you should include a comparison

for patrons which depends on the output of your model for the global rate of plastic

entering the ocean. Your comparison should provide patrons with a clear understanding of the

scale of the mass of plastic entering the ocean in their chosen year, by comparing it the mass

of an object or objects that would be familiar to the patrons.

6ˆ Communicate appropriately with museum patrons as informed by the main section of the

flowchart in Figure 3.

ˆ Include a description of how you approached this section of your code in your screen capture

video (D2), including (briefly) how you developed your models and the overall code structure.

To complete the advanced section, you will need to:

ˆ Explore other models for the rate of plastics entering the ocean, using methods covered in

SCIE1000. You will write a function in your code which implements your chosen alternative

model. Create a graph that compares your alternative model to the quadratic model and

present this to the science enthusiast.

ˆ Calculate the predicted doubling time from the present year using your alternative model.

ˆ Communicate appropriately with museum patrons as informed by the the advanced section of

the flowchart in Figure 3.

ˆ Include a description of how you approached this section of your code in your screencapture

video (D2), including how you developed your models.

7 Specifications for your submitted file

7.1 Specifications about the Python

ˆ Museum staff have supplied a flowchart describing how the program should run (Figure 3 on

Page 10). Your code must be an implementation of the flowchart provided.

ˆ Your code must be well-structured and follow the guidelines for programming practice, as

introduced in SCIE1000.

ˆ Whenever you prompt the user for information, you may assume they enter a suitable number,

and you can store their answer as an integer or as a floating point number as appropriate. You

do not need to check for incorrect inputs.

ˆ You may only use Python commands introduced in SCIE1000. Recall that museum staff

must be able to maintain and modify the code, so you may only use commands that they

understand. Museum staff have a beginner’s level of experience using Python, which you may

regard as the equivalent of a student who has taken SCIE1000. The Python commands you

have covered in this course should be more than sufficient to complete the assignment.

ˆ Museum staff have identified functions that they think will be useful in possible modifications

and extensions of the code. You must define these functions in your code. You should

use these functions in your code as appropriate. You may define other new functions as needed.

77.2 Specifications about the communication

ˆ All messages to the user, including prompts to enter data, should communicate in a manner

appropriate for the level of patron and should serve the purpose of the program.

ˆ You should write no more than a couple of sentences for each piece of information you explain

to the user. Follow the principles for communication in science as described in Appendix B of

the workbook. Be precise, clear and concise!

ˆ You should use units appropriately in your communication with the user. Make sure you are

aware of the units of values being passed into functions and the units of values being returned

from functions.

ˆ You should include useful and appropriate comments in your code to help the museum

staff who may need to maintain and modify the code. Any variable names and function names

you define should be chosen with communication in mind.

ˆ Whenever you produce a graph you should provide appropriate labels and accompanying

explanatory text.

ˆ Your screen capture video should provide a clear overview of how your code works

and why you made the choices you did. This does not replace excellent commenting in

the code.

ˆ To reference sources other than those cited in this task sheet, you should include a bibliography

as comments at the end of your code, to show the museum staff maintaining the code where

you obtained any relevant information you used. You may use any referencing style.

7.3 File type and file name

ˆ Your assignment (D1) should be saved as a .py file called PlasticOceans********.py with

the string ******** replaced by your student number.

ˆ Your screencapture audio/video file (D2) should be saved as Explanation********.mp4

with the string ******** replaced by your student number.

ˆ It is your responsibility to ensure that the file types are correct.

8References

[1] Geyer, R. (2020). A brief history of plastics. In: M. Streit-Bianchi et al. (eds.), Mare Plasticum – The Plastic

Sea.

[2] Geyer, R., Jambeck, J.R. and Law, K.L. (2017). Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made. Science

Advances: 3:e1700782 DOI:10.1126/sciadv.1700782

[3] Ritchie, H., Samborska, V. and Roser, M. (2023). Plastic Pollution. Our World in Data: https://

ourworldindata.org/plastic-pollution

[4] Wang, C., Liu, Y., Chen, W.-Q., Zhu, B., Qu, S., Xu, M. (2021). Critical review of global plastics stock and flow

data. Journal of Industrial Ecology. 25: p. 1300– 1317. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13125

[5] Jambeck, J.R., Geyer, R., Wilcox, C., Siegler, T.R., Perryman, M., Andrady, A., Narayan R. and Law, K.L.

(2015). Plastic waste inputs from land into the ocean. Science: 347(6223), pp. 768-771. DOI:10.1126/science.

1260352

[6] Andrady, A. L. (2015). Persistence of plastic litter in the oceans. In Marine anthropogenic litter (pp. 57-72).

Springer, Cham.

[7] Marine Debris: Understanding, Preventing and Mitigating the Significant Adverse Impacts on Marine and Coastal

Biodiversity. Technical Series No.83. Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Montreal, 78 pages.

[8] Steer, M., and Thompson, R. C. (2020). Plastics and Microplastics: Impacts in the Marine Environment. In Mare

Plasticum-The Plastic Sea (pp. 49-72). Springer, Cham.

[9] United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs Sustainable Development. (n.d.) Ensure sustainable

consumption and production patterns. https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal12. Date accessed: 26th April, 2022.

[10] Hollman, Peter CH and Bouwmeester, Hans and Peters, Rudolphus Johannes Bernhardus (2013). Microplastics

in aquatic food chain: sources, measurement, occurrence and potential health risks. In RIKILT.

9Print a welcome message appropriate for all patrons.

Print a statement explaining the patron types and prompt the user to enter their patron

type.

Print an introduction about plastics and this exhibit appropriate for the chosen patron

type.

Print a statement about the scale of plastic production and plastics entering the ocean and

how this has changed over time as appropriate for the chosen patron type.

Enthusiast?

Display a graph of the model of the rate of plastic entering

the ocean vs. years since 1975 over the period 1975—2050.

Your graph should display estimated data points by year

given in Section 5.1. Your model should use a solid line

when interpolating and a dashed line when extrapolating.

Prompt the user to enter a year between 1975 and 2050.

Yes

No

Calculate the estimated rate of plastic entering the ocean in that year using your

model and report a message with a useful comparison, as appropriate for the

chosen patron type.

Ask the user if they wish to choose another year.

Print a statement appropriate for the patron type explaining why plastics accumulating in

the ocean over time is an issue.

Explain at least two limitations of the quadratic model that has been used.

No

Yes

Enthusiast? Graph your new model with the quadratic model and

compare the two.

Print an appropriate farewell message.

Advanced

No

Yes

Ask the patron to estimate how long it will take for the rate

of plastic entering the ocean to double from the current level,

using your new model.

Inform the patron of the predicted doubling time.

Figure 3: Flowchart for the interactive program (shaded section indicates the advanced section).

10Python and Communication Assignment Grading Criteria

Your marks for the Python and Communication sections of the assignment (each on a 1–7 scale)

are calculated by combining the mark that best matches your answers for the main section with the

marks for the advanced section. Your overall mark will thus be up to a maximum of 14. The table

below shows the criteria for each grade.

Mark Python (1–7) Communication (1–7)

1 The code is limited and displays little understanding

of the modelling involved.

Communication is very poor and would be

difficult to understand for any audience.

2 The code fails to run for any input, does

not meet the specifications, and/or has serious

conceptual errors in the modelling.

The communication of the relevant scientific

information (in the code and to patrons)

is generally poor.

3 The code runs for some expected inputs,

meets at least some of the specifications,

and/or may have some significant conceptual

errors in the modelling.

The communication of the relevant scientific

information (in the code and to patrons)

lacks clarity or is not at the appropriate

level for each target audience.

4 The code runs without error for most

inputs, mostly meets the specifications,

and mostly represents the mathematical

modelling with perhaps some conceptual

and/or mathematical errors.

The communication of the relevant scientific

information (in the code, the screencapture

video, and to patrons) is adequate

for each target audience. There may

be some limitations in the communication

within the code and/or to patrons.

5 The code runs without error for all expected

inputs, largely meets all the specifications,

and accurately represents the

modelling with perhaps only one or two

minor errors.

The communication of the relevant scientific

information (within the code, the

screencapture video, and to patrons) is

mostly clear, fluent, appropriately concise,

and uses a level and style appropriate for

each target audience.

Advanced Section

0 Not attempted, or the advanced code has

significant conceptual errors.

Not attempted, or the communication in

the advanced section is poor.

+1 The code for the advanced section runs

with only minor errors and mostly represents

the task with some conceptual or calculation

errors.

The level of communication is adequate

throughout the advanced section but

would require some editing before use in

an exhibit. The advanced section is communicated

in the screencapture video.

+2 The code for the advanced section runs

without error and accurately represents

the task with at most one minor error.

The level of communication is clear

throughout the advanced section and

would be suitable for use in an exhibit

with perhaps only one or two small

changes. The advanced section is clearly

communicated in the screencapture video.

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