Demonstration Evaluation

Here is a link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fri52p1eRM

For this activity, I chose a video on solar energy.  In this video, there are a few scientists at Argonne National Laboratory describing what solar energy is, and how we can accomplish a transformation to achieve it.  I have always been curious about energy; what exactly it is and how it is created,  so I chose to watch this video.

In the video, the creators did a good job using graphics along with the scientists speaking about the topic.  This allows the viewer to get a good picture of exactly what the scientists are talking about.  The scientists did a good job doing their job: teaching us what solar energy is, how it works and how we can benefit from it.  Obviously they have some bias towards solar energy production because they are working at a lab in which the main goal is to produce solar energy, but it is for the viewer to decide whether or not they agree.  

The video was pretty convincing to me, and I didn't hear many drawbacks in the speakers' presentation.  However, with such a complex issue like solar energy, it will not be easy to achieve.  These men are obviously experts on the subject, but there are many people who believe that solar energy is a stretch.  I found one account of the disadvantages of solar energy at http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/solar.htm .  This writing by Donald E. Simanek looks at many hazards of solar energy.  

In the end, I think the video was very effective and very well put together.  From the viewpoint of a scientist working on solar energy, I think it was about as good as it could be.