1 year of my life in two words

This past week, I've been talking about different types of power plants with my seniors. Conventional plants, nuclear plants, and hydroelectric plants were the first three I talked about. I've been telling my students that there are advantages and disadvantages to each one. For example: conventional plants are nonrenewable and cause global warming but they are easy to use and provide a lot of power. Nuclear plants are difficult to build and run, but do not cause global warming.

Then I got to hydroelectric power plants. For those of you who do not know, I spent from summer 2008 until the end of spring 2009 doing research on the effect dams have on streams in Vermont and New Hampshire. My senior thesis attempted to quantify the distance downstream from a dam that they have an effect on the stream sediment, which in turn, gives us an idea of the distance that the dam affects the flora and fauna in and around the stream below it. I also took a class on fluvial geomorphology senior spring, which went into depth about the ways dams affect stream flow regimes and flooding. I have spent weeks wading around in streams and months analyzing the data I collected. It is the one area of science in which I could consider myself to be somewhat of an expert.

Now consider that the Marshall Islands do not have any streams. Most of my students have only seen them in movies. I knew I would have to simplify the disadvantages of hydro power so I decided on this:

Hurts fish.

That was the one and only disadvantage of hydroelectricity that I told my students, since it was fairly easy to get them to imagine what it would be like for a fish to pass through the huge spinning blades of a turbine.

So I did it. I successfully summarized a year's worth of research into two words. It was a fraction of one lesson on a random Friday in February. I just hope they remember it.