This seminar examines the global history of the last millennium, including technological change, commodity exchange, systems of production, and economic growth. Students engage with economic history, medieval and early modern origins of modern systems of production, consumption and global exchange. Topics include the long pre-history of modern economic development; medieval world systems; the age of discovery; the global crisis of the 17th century; demographic systems; global population movements; the industrial revolution; the rise of the modern consumer; colonialism and empire building; patterns of inequality, within and across states; the curse of natural resources fate of Africa; and the threat of climate change to modern economic systems. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.

Climate Change in Narrative Film

Short Description:
Explores the history and impact of the “Cli-Fi Film,” or Climate Fiction Film, a sub-genre of narrative cinema that depicts, on some level, the effects of climate change on the Earth and its inhabitants.

Long Description:
Telling Stories to Save the World: Climate Change in Narrative Film explores – through text, images, and video – the history and impact of the “Cli-Fi Film,” or Climate Fiction Film, a subgenre of narrative cinema that depicts, on some level, the effects of climate change on the Earth and its inhabitants. This openly-licensed resource covers the following topics: overview of climate change; rationale for the focus on narrative, or feature, film; definition and context of the “Cli-Fi Film”; history and impact of major narrative films focused on climate change, from Soylent Green (1973) to Don’t Look Up (2021). The resource concludes with a consideration of the future direction of Cli-Fi Films. Along the way, learners read about the author and some effects of climate change on her own life, inspiring her to create this resource and hopefully inciting those who use it to action.

Word Count: 23112

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This interactive map allows students to experiment with decadal average temperature projections. Overall temperatures are expected to rise throughout the century and this tool demonstrates those projected measurements.

This NASA video discusses the impacts of the sun's energy, Earth's reflectance, and greenhouse gases on the Earth System.

This visualization graphically displays temperature and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere as derived from ice core data from 400,000 years ago to 1950. The data originates from UNEP GRID Arendal's graphic library of CO2 levels from Vostok ice core.

This classroom activity is aimed at an understanding of different ecosystems by understanding the influence of temperature and precipitation. Students correlate graphs of vegetation vigor with those of temperature and precipitation data for four diverse ecosystems, ranging from near-equatorial to polar, and spanning both hemispheres to determine which climatic factor is limiting growth.

This is an interactive website that provides descriptive information and data related to ten key climate indicators. These climate indicators and related resources show global patterns and data that are intuitive and compelling teaching tools.

Short Description:
The curriculum shared here utilizes Terra Nostra, a multimedia symphony about climate change. Variations of the curriculum were developed by Kim Davenport for use in several 100-, 200- and 300-level non-major music courses at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

Long Description:
The curriculum shared here utilizes Terra Nostra, a multimedia symphony about climate change. Variations of the curriculum were developed by Kim Davenport for use in several 100-, 200- and 300-level non-major music courses at the University of Washington, Tacoma. More than 50% of UWT undergraduate students are the first in their family to attend college, and nearly 60% are students of color.

Depending on the exact level and subject-matter of each course, Terra Nostra was utilized in support of a variety of learning objectives: Building students’ listening skills, through the combination of music and video, and through the analysis of music without words Drawing interdisciplinary connections between music and other disciplines Providing an example of music created to raise awareness about a timely social issue

Although the assignments shared here were designed for music courses, they could easily be adapted for inclusion in courses in other disciplines, and this is indeed one of the motivations for sharing this curriculum through a Creative Commons license.

Word Count: 2876

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

The curriculum shared here utilizes Terra Nostra, a multimedia symphony about climate change. Variations of the curriculum were developed by Kim Davenport for use in several 100-, 200- and 300-level non-major music courses at the University of Washington, Tacoma. More than 50% of UWT undergraduate students are the first in their family to attend college, and nearly 60% are students of color.Depending on the exact level and subject-matter of each course, Terra Nostra was utilized in support of a variety of learning objectives:Building students’ listening skills, through the combination of music and video, and through the analysis of music without wordsDrawing interdisciplinary connections between music and other disciplinesProviding an example of music created to raise awareness about a timely social issueAlthough the assignments shared here were designed for music courses, they could easily be adapted for inclusion in courses in other disciplines, and this is indeed one of the motivations for sharing this curriculum through a Creative Commons license.

This video, one in a series of Global Weirding videos featuring Texas climate scientist Katherine Hayhoe, attempts to dispel the misconception that Texans don't care about climate change.

This engaging video focuses on national and global wind energy potential by specifically highlighting Texas' role as wind energy leader and energy efficiency efforts in Houston, Texas.

This course analyzes cooperative processes that shape the natural environment, now and in the geologic past. It emphasizes the development of theoretical models that relate the physical and biological worlds, the comparison of theory to observational data, and associated mathematical methods.

In this activity, students calculate the cost of the energy used to operate a common three-bulb light fixture, and compare the costs and amount of CO2 produced for similar incandescent and compact fluorescent light bulbs.

This activity allows students to demonstrate the thermal expansion of water for themselves using water bottles and straws. The discussion allows them to explore the connection between this concept and sea level rise due to climate change.

In this video, members of the Menominee nation discuss their experiences with climate change.

This is an interactive visualization that allows users to explore the scientific research being done on Thwaites glacier, one of the most important glaciers in Antarctica.

This animated visualization represents a time history of atmospheric carbon dioxide in parts per million (ppm) from 1979 to 2016, and then back in time to 800,000 years before the present.

This animation demonstrates the changing declination of the sun with a time-lapse animation. It shows how the shadow of a building changes over the course of a year as the declination of the sun changes.

This video series highlights the travel, science, and life at the South Pole research station. In this 10-part series, topics are explained in 3-4 minute, digestible segments which include photos and videos from the narrator's trip, as well as anecdotes to help viewers get a personal perspective of Antarctica.

This web-based activity tackles the broad reasons for undertaking ocean exploration - studying the interconnected issues of climate change, ocean health, energy and human health. Students examine the types of technology ocean scientists use to collect important data.