Unit 4 calendar: when each block runs
Meeting dates for each block in Unit 4, by rotation
Block A rotation B rotation
Block 1 Thu Jan 14 Tue Jan 19
Block 2 Wed Jan 20 Thu Jan 21
Block 3 Mon Jan 25 Wed Jan 27
Block 4 Thu Jan 28 Fri Jan 29
Block 5 Mon Feb 1 Tue Feb 2
Block 6 Wed Feb 3 Thu Feb 4
Block 7 Fri Feb 5 Mon Feb 8
Block 8 Tue Feb 9 Wed Feb 10
Block 9 Thu Feb 11 Fri Feb 12
Block 10 Tue Feb 16 Wed Feb 17
Block 11 Thu Feb 18 Fri Feb 19
Block 12 Mon Feb 22 Tue Feb 23

Your section follows one rotation, A or B. Check which one you are in and read that column.

Anchor question
What does Chennai do about climate change, and what does the science say is worth doing?

Unit 4 explicitly launches Thread 4: Climate Action as the unit's central thread. The audience is the same one you wrote for in Unit 2: a hypothetical Greater Chennai Corporation planning meeting. The format is harder (≤4-page policy brief, not landscape reading) and the defense is longer (4-minute pitch + 3-minute panel Q&A, vs. U2's 3 + 2). The science is also more abstract: you'll work with IPCC AR6 projections, SSP scenarios, climate-model outputs, and tipping-point feedbacks before the unit lets you write recommendations.

How we frame this content matters. Climate is heavy. The unit's posture is "this is a challenge we engage with": agency mode, not doom narrative. Students personally affected by Chennai's 2015 floods, ongoing air quality, dengue, or relatives in flood-vulnerable wards may opt out of specific adaptation challenges and into others without penalty or explanation needed. The 8 challenge cards are designed so every student can find one they can engage with from a position of agency rather than helplessness.

The summative (the Chennai Climate Brief) is the third major Brief-shaped deliverable of the year (after the U0 Source Dossier and the U2 Landscape Reading). The Policy Panel defense in Block 12 is the third defense in the year-long defense arc. The audience-awareness muscle you built in U2 carries over here, and stretches further.

The twelve blocks

Block 1: The Greenhouse Effect
Energy-balance diagrams. Distinguish water-vapor feedbacks from CO₂ forcing. Why Earth without an atmosphere would be ~-18°C.
A: Thu Jan 14 · B: Tue Jan 19
Block 2: Energy Balance: The Math
Calculate planetary temperature under different greenhouse-gas concentrations using quantitative energy-balance equations.
A: Wed Jan 20 · B: Thu Jan 21
Block 3: The Carbon Cycle
Major reservoirs and fluxes. Distinguish fast (photosynthesis-respiration) vs. slow (weathering-sedimentation) pathways.
A: Mon Jan 25 · B: Wed Jan 27
Block 4: Human Acceleration + Warming Signal
Anthropogenic perturbations. Read the Keeling curve + 1850-present temperature record. Attribution to greenhouse forcing.
A: Thu Jan 28 · B: Fri Jan 29
Block 5: IPCC AR6 + Brief Assigned
OPVL on AR6 Summary for Policymakers figures. SSP scenarios + confidence levels. Climate Brief assigned today; 8 adaptation challenges released.
A: Mon Feb 1 · B: Tue Feb 2
Block 6: Climate Models
How they work, how they're wrong, how to read them. Decode IPCC projection figures. What models include vs. don't. Projection vs. prediction.
A: Wed Feb 3 · B: Thu Feb 4
Block 7: Regional Climate + Lock Challenge
From global average to Chennai's monsoon. IPCC regional chapters + GCC Climate Action Plan. Adaptation challenge locked today.
A: Fri Feb 5 · B: Mon Feb 8
Block 8: Tipping Points + Feedbacks
Ice-albedo, water-vapor, permafrost-methane, AMOC slowdown. Connects to Unit 1 feedback-loop muscle.
A: Tue Feb 9 · B: Wed Feb 10
Block 9: Adaptation vs. Mitigation
Mitigation = reduce the cause. Adaptation = reduce the impact. Draft Recommendations focused on actionable GCC interventions.
A: Thu Feb 11 · B: Fri Feb 12
Block 10: Brief Work Day + Peer Feedback
Worked-example Brief modeled. Structured peer feedback on policy language + audience awareness + recommendation concreteness.
A: Tue Feb 16 · B: Wed Feb 17
Block 11: Final Drafting + Panel Rehearsal
Finalize the Brief. Rehearse the 4-min pitch + panel-question responses in pairs or trios. Format choice locked.
A: Thu Feb 18 · B: Fri Feb 19
Block 12: Policy Panel Q&A
Briefs submitted. 4-min pitch + 3-min panel Q&A, peers as Greater Chennai Corporation officials. Unit-close reflection.
A: Mon Feb 22 · B: Tue Feb 23

Assessment

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