Water has served and sustained societies throughout history. Understanding the complex and diverse water systems of the past is key to devising sustainable development for the future with regard to socioeconomic structures, policies, and cultures. Today, past systems form the framework for preservation and reuse as well as for new proposals.

In this course, you will learn how to identify the spatial, social and cultural aspects of water heritage in your environment. You will investigate real situations, assess specific issues and evaluate the impact of potential measures, following existing expertise on water heritage and water management traditions as a model for your own practice.

By examining examples of water heritage from around the world, and by interacting with fellow learners, you will learn to implement globally sustainable approaches and tools such as the UNESCO Historic Urban Landscape (HUL) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Completing this course would be of great benefit to:

- professionals working in water management (such as water boards, water districts or port authorities etc.), heritage, or planning processes that include water related issues;
- master students of urban planning, architecture, heritage, or landscape;
- anyone living in a city or rural area where water management issues occur and with an interest in improving their living environment.

Students learn about the importance of dams by watching a video that presents historical and current information on dams, as well as descriptions of global water resources and the hydrologic cycle. Students also learn about different types of dams, all designed to resist the forces on dams. (If the free, 15-minute "Water and Dams in Today's World" video cannot be obtained in time, the lesson can still be taught. See the Additional Multimedia Support section for how to obtain the DVD or VHS videotape, or a PowerPoint presentation with similar content [also attached].)

Students will explore the engineering challenges of providing access to clean water, identify the issues surrounding clean water, listen to experts, and learn about future work

Make waves with a dripping faucet, audio speaker, or laser! Add a second source or a pair of slits to create an interference pattern.

This course discusses theoretical concepts and analysis of wave problems in science and engineering. Examples are chosen from elasticity, acoustics, geophysics, hydrodynamics, blood flow, nondestructive evaluation, and other applications.

This video, adapted from material provided by the ECHO partners, describes three different ways that people have navigated the oceans.

This article describes how to guide elementary students through writing a research report. The first article in this series described how to organize information.

This article links to resources to help teachers create their own weather stations, participate in real data projects, and assess their students' knowledge of weather tools.

This issue of the free online magazine, Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears, explores how elementary teachers can move from a study of the weather at home to the weather of the polar regions through hands-on activity, reading, and discussion.

This article highlights children's literature about weather and climate, the polar regions, and climate change for use in the elementary classroom.

This article explains the difference between weather and climate, the role of the polar regions in the global climate system, and how climate change is affecting these areas. Links to content knowledge resources and the National Science Education Standards are provided.

This article assembles free resources from the Weather and Climate issue of the Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears cyberzine into a unit outline based on the 5E learning cycle framework. Outlines are provided for Grades K-2 and 3-5.

Students will observe and record the changes caused by weathering and erosion from moving water have on limestone.

Students discuss several human reproductive technologies available today pregnancy ultrasound, amniocentesis, in-vitro fertilization and labor anesthetics. They learn how each technology works, and that these are ways engineers have worked to improve the health of expecting mothers and babies.

This nonfiction article, written for students in grades 4-5, explores blue whales, their food chain, and their home in the Southern Ocean. Modified versions are available for students in younger grades.

This is an activity about visual analysis. Learners will compare and contrast images of Earth and Mars and then experiment with lenses to understand more about the instruments used to make the pictures. This is activity 1 of 9 in Mars and Earth: Science Learning Activities for After School.

This activity is a field investigation where the students observe shadows and reflections to learn about the sun.

Students use modeling clay, a material that is denser than water and thus ordinarily sinks in water, to discover the principle of buoyancy. They begin by designing and building boats out of clay that will float in water, and then refine their designs so that their boats will carry as great a load (metal washers) as possible. Building a clay boat to hold as much weight as possible is an engineering design problem. Next, they compare amount of water displaced by a lump of clay that sinks to the amount of water displaced by the same lump of clay when it is shaped so as to float. Determining the masses of the displaced water allows them to arrive at Archimedes' principle, whereby the mass of the displaced water equals the mass of the floating clay boat.

Three short, hands-on, in-class demos expand students' understand of energy. First, using peanuts and heat, students see how the human body burns food to make energy. Then, students create paper snake mobiles to explore how heat energy can cause motion. Finally, students determine the effect that heat energy from the sun (or a lamp) has on temperature by placing pans of water in different locations.

Students are presented with an overview of engineering and design. Various engineering disciplines are discussed in some detail using slides and an online video and website. The concept of design is introduced by presenting the basic steps of the engineering design process. Students learn that design is not necessarily restricted to engineering, but a general concept applicable to all walks of life. To strengthen their understanding, students are challenged to design a picnic for their friends by considering its various components as they go through the design process steps. This prepares them for subsequent design challenges such as those in the associated activities of this unit. A PowerPoint® presentation, pre/post quizzes and worksheet are provided.