Polls show that between one-third and one-half of Americans still believe that there is "no solid" evidence of global warming, or that if warming is happening it can be attributed to natural variability. Others believe that scientists are still debating the point. Join scientist and renowned historian Naomi Oreskes as she describes her investigation into the reasons for such widespread mistrust and misunderstanding of scientific consensus and probes the history of organized campaigns designed to create public doubt and confusion about science. (58 minutes)

Carbon dioxide has been steadily increasing in the Earth's atmosphere since the industrial rEvolution. Join Dr. Tim Lueker as he describes the history of atmospheric carbon dioxide research and the role the ocean plays in global warming. Learn how Dr. Lueker and others gather data that allow them to assess these important changes in the state of our atmosphere and ocean. (54 minutes)

Increases in global carbon dioxide should be mirrored by decreases in atmospheric oxygen. Join Ralph Keeling to learn how his precise measurements have shown that the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere is in fact decreasing slowly from year to year and discover how these data are allowing scientists to place constraints on the global carbon cycle. (57 minutes)

How can we convince others to agree with us on important issues? In this lesson, students explore relevant environmental issues and gather information to write persuasive essays.

The purpose of this resource is to observe the flowering and leaf stages of selected garden plants throughout the year. After a phenological garden is planted, students observe the growth of leaves and blooming of flowers on the plants. These plants were selected because each plant blooms at a different time in the year.

A complete guide to teaching a one-semester course on planetary health at the high school or middle school level. Includes all lectures, activities, and additional resources for educators.

This integrated outdoor-learning, research and reflection exercise gives students a first-hand familiarity with local native plants and their significance in local native societies.

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This activity is a field investigation of plant succession stages, which students will gather evidence of the areas plant history.

This activity utilizes kinestetic learning by having students make models of geologic concepts, landscapes and processes using playdough in the classroom.

Key words: kinestetic learning, playdough

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Students in a Population and Community Ecology class participate in coastal marine research focused on understanding factors determining population sizes and community interactions, particularly in the context of species that appear to be shifting their ranges with climate change. Students participate in all aspects of the research from making observations and collecting data in the field to defining questions, stating hypothesis, designing and completing statistical analysis, and interpreting and presenting results. The outcomes are a research proposal, research paper, and poster presentation. All are intended to be at a level appropriate for use as a writing sample or presentation at undergraduate conferences. Results are incorporated into the ongoing research project led by the course instructor and graduate student teaching assistant.

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This activity is a field exploration where students observe, record and share their findings of plant and animal life on the prairie.

This optional homework asks students to investigate some of the impacts of previous mines, mining, and/or mineral resources processing on the surrounding environment and human health. Many of the sites were operated prior to significant changes in the U.S. regulation of mines that was instituted in the late 1960s. Through the investigation of an Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) National Priority List (NPL) website (aka Superfund), students will explore not only the impacts but also the amount of time, effort, and resources it takes to remediate the sites. This background can be referred to in later parts of the module when discussing mining in other countries where the regulations are not as stringent as those in the United States.

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The students must use crayons or colored pencils to create maps of global precipitation and evaporation rates. One worksheet is provided to each group of students. Then a representative from each group explains their map to the rest of the class, and the instructor shows a similar map from NOAA or NASA.

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In this activity, students retrieve two short papers from Penn State's library e-reserves, read them, and spend a week discussing them with their classmates and me. They reproduce three plots with graphing software of their choice and submit their plots to an electronic dropbox. They take a quiz housed within Penn State's course management system. As part of this quiz, they use an online drawing tool to sketch a diagram.
Teaching Tips
Adaptations that allow this activity to be successful in an online
environment
This activity was created specifically for an online course. As more and more face-to-face courses incorporate technology for reserved reading and turning in assignments, this kind of activity could be useful an any course.

Elements of this activity that are most effective
This activity is extremely instructive for me to have an early gauge regarding the skill level of my students in terms of general online savviness as well as a bit about their quantitative skills and content knowledge.

Recommendations for other faculty adapting this activity to their
own course:
Make sure you tailor an activity like this one to your own specific course management system. I also recommend making it completely low stakes. I grade only on participation. Log in frequently during this activity to offer help, advice, and encouragement because this is very important at the beginning of an online course when there is the most confusion. I usually make this activity last for the first whole week of courses in case some students register at the last minute.

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Students produce a set of eight personal travel 'insights' from field trips within their bioregion. Each insight consists of an image produced by the student and accompanying text; students are producers of meaning rather than consumers.

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Pioneering 5th grade science teacher Connie Prewitt engages her students to learn some challenging life science lessons through a fun and elaborate role-play. Project Earth is a 100% immersive experience where students learn the impact of their decisions on individuals, communities, and the Earth.

This in-class exercise is done during the last half of the class meeting prior to a midterm exam (which is held during a class period), to get the students to initiate their own review processes. To begin, a map of the lecture hall is shown, divided into a large number of seating areas (18, in the example used in the attached material). The exact number is not too important, it just needs to be enough to ensure not too much repetition yet sufficient variety among the teams. Each seating area is assigned a particular type of exam question (diagram, matching, ordering, multiple answer, short essay answer, or whatever other question types you use) and a topic that will be on the immediately upcoming midterm exam. The topics are currently taken from the textbook, divided relatively finely but not so finely that there is insufficient material for them to formulate an exam question from the material. Ten minutes is allotted for the students to form groups of 2-3 (more in a team is less productive for individual students), then for each team to review its assigned topic, and to create a reasonable question and answer set in the assigned format. Following this, another 10 minutes is allotted for the teams to evaluate one other team's set and to work out improvements with the originating team, if needed. (This last activity doesn't always happen.) At the end of this stage I collect a copy of the question, the answer, the names of the originators, and the names of the checkers for each Q&A set. I post all the question/answer sets on Blackboard as fast as I can enter them, so they can serve all the students as a review basis for the exam. Depending on my schedule, that can take from 2-6 hours. I try not to correct incorrect answers or other problems, preferring instead to post a warning (see attached examples) urging students to check the answers given. This is not generally successful, as many students merely memorize the list, right or wrong, without apparently checking it.

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Students in groups of two create a 4-minute educational video, brochure, and poster on an aspect of soil erosion, soil conservation, and/or watershed health for agricultural regions within the midwestern states. This is a half term project and the materials are presented in a forum towards the end of the semester. The project is aimed to help students learn to pitch science to a wide audience and provide practice (indirectly) applying scientific principles to conservation efforts.

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This textbook is intended to support courses that bridge the divide between mathematics typically encountered in U.S. high school curricula and the practical problems that natural resource students might engage with in their disciplinary coursework and professional internships.

A series of reflective activities (quiet noticing:) that engage students personal dimensions of questions of values and ethical commitments, such as in environmental ethics courses. The activities and assignments might also be adaptable for other courses where a sustained reflective component is desired.

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