In this three to four class unit, students will:

Assess the case for a global water crisis and its relevance in America.
Expand their understanding of sustainability as a contestable concept and movement.
Consider water resource-management objectives through the lens of sustainability.
Analyze region-specific examples of unsustainable use of water for agriculture.

This is largely achieved via student discussion and evaluation of texts and statistics provided to them. The text and statistics are derived from a variety of disciplines, mostly not from the geosciences. As such, the unit is very interdisciplinary, requiring students to synthesize disparate information and take a holistic perspective on water issues.

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During Unit 2, students will learn about the causes of two past mass extinctions and discuss the controversies surrounding these causes and the evidence upon which the theories in the debates are based. Before class, students will be assigned to read one of a set of different articles about theories for the causes of the end-Cretaceous and the end-Permian mass extinction. During class, students will get in groups with others who read different articles to pool their knowledge about flood-basalt eruptions and catastrophic asteroid impacts. They will re-group to compare and contrast the two proposed causes of the end-Permian and end-Cretaceous mass extinctions and the mass extinctions themselves.

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In this unit, students work in small groups to examine and analyze spatial data relevant to soils to identify patterns. They use their analyses to add detail to their Earth systems concept maps and describe how these data are relevant to interdisciplinary societal issues.

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This unit applies a flipped classroom model. Students complete a self-study tutorial prior to attending class. Students are then asked work independently or in pairs to generate a time-aware climate change Web map application using ArcGIS Online. Returning to the theme of cocoa production introduced in Unit 1, students identify climatic conditions conducive for cacao production around the world, especially West Africa where the majority of cacao is grown. Students then use a web application in ArcGIS Online to create a time aware map showing biomes in the KÃppen Climate Classification System and determine how projected climate changes will impact the suitable production regions for cacao in West Africa. Using a jigsaw model, students collect into groups of 4, with a representative from each of the IPCC scenarios, and they compare the the impact of the 4 scenarios in specified cocoa production regions. At the end of the class they will be assigned to one of three regional areas for group work in Units 4-6.

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How are recent air temperature trends influencing Greenland's ice mass? Are ice mass changes in Greenland spatially and temporally uniform? In this unit, students use atmospheric and geodetic data (GRACE, InSAR, altimetry) to investigate the location, magnitude, and causes of ice mass changes in Greenland.

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Online-adaptable:Main exercise is a jigsaw activity that can be successfully done in an online course; but it does take a bit of extra effort to arrange the students into two different sets of online groups with online collaboration. This will probably be more success in a synchronous format.
OR the unit could be adapted away from the jigsaw format with Parts 2 and 3 below combined into a single exercise done individually or in static small groups.

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In this two-day activity spanning Units 4 and 5, students analyze spatial variation in climate through a map-based jigsaw exploration of NASA's Earth's Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data. By the end of the activity, students will have created maps and graphs illustrating the global radiation balance and used their knowledge to develop and refine hypotheses regarding impacts of global climate change.

Unit 4 (day 1 of activity) begins with a brief student exploration of the global impacts of climate change and how maps can be used to effectively communicate these patterns. Students are then broken into small groups to analyze a map of one of three ERBE datasets. Students are asked to interpret geographic patterns in these data, infer the underlying causes of patterns they observe using knowledge they have accumulated in the previous units, and create an annotated map that clearly illustrates their observations and inferences. During the following class period (Unit 5), they will share their findings with a new group of classmates and work to synthesize the data to estimate the radiation balance.

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In this unit, students explore water privatization and freshwater access issues within the geophysical and cultural context of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Students identify topographical features that create rain shadows and their relationship to the water cycle. As they discuss several alternative models for supplying water to the residents of Cochabamba, they link concepts of environmental justice to the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000.

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Students will use SoilWeb -- , a smartphone and web application that pulls detailed soil survey data from both the 1:24,0000 Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO) and the 1:250,000 scale State Soil Geographic database (STATSGO). Students will retrieve soil information for the soil beneath them. They will diagram soil horizons and compare them to a profile of soil organic matter and determine the most fertile horizon. Finally, students will complete a jigsaw activity comparing local soil erosion rates, soil horizons, and soil organic matter to other sites. After students share site comparisons, they will reflect on our agricultural future and solutions needed to mitigate lost soil resources. They will discuss how the speed at which we implement soil solutions will impact society and the economy.

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Students explore water quality and freshwater access issues around the globe. The activities require students to investigate region-specific water problems in different parts of the world and analyze how those issues are sometimes remedied. The materials in this unit may be used as a stand-alone day of instruction or as part of the complete Environmental Justice and Freshwater Resources InTeGrate Module.

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In this two-day activity spanning Units 4 and 5, students analyze spatial variation in climate through a map-based jigsaw exploration of NASA's Earth's Radiation Budget Experiment (ERBE) data. By the end of the activity students will have created maps and graphs illustrating the global radiation balance and used their knowledge to develop and refine hypotheses regarding impacts of global climate change.

In Unit 5 (day 2 of activity) students work in new groups that include members who analyzed each of the three ERBE datasets from day 1 of the activity (Unit 4). These synthesis groups work together to summarize their observations and infer regions of radiation excess and deficit in graph and map forms. These new figures are used to facilitate a whole-class discussion of the global radiation balance. The unit ends with a discussion of how atmospheric circulation acts to balance the radiation budget and the impacts of a changing climate on other Earth systems.

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In this two-day activity, students monitor an evolving volcanic crisis at a convergent plate boundary (Cascadia). Using monitoring data and geologic hazard maps, students make a series of forecasts for the impending eruption and associated risks. By the end of the activity, students will have learned the outcome of the eruption and assess the impacts of the eruption of Mount Rainier on specific locations around the volcano.
This unit begins by having students examine past volcanic eruptions at Mount St. Helens, associated with the Cascadia convergent plate boundary, through firsthand accounts by United States Geological Survey (USGS) personnel who describe their work monitoring the geologic activity and some associated impacts. During class on the first day (Unit 5), students will begin working in small groups to interpret one of three data sets used to monitor volcanic activity (seismic, gas and ash emissions, and tilt). During prework and in-class activities for day 2 (Unit 6), students will update their predictions by combining information from all three data sets in mixed groups in which students act as "experts" for a particular data set. The exercise culminates with students assessing the impacts of a simulated volcanic eruption at their assigned locations.

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Students will review current ocean pressures related to overfishing and human impacts on ocean ecosystems. By examining data collected in relation to the presence of marine reserves, students will explore long-term strategies for protecting ocean resources. Students will review scientific data to assess biomass, biodiversity, and reproductive success of fishery stocks in a marine protected area (MPA) and propose a location for the establishment of a marine reserve in the Channel Islands, California.

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Students will investigate how the factors that influence erosion work together to produce an overall erosion rate. In agricultural areas, these factors are rainfall-runoff erosivity, soil erodibility, slope characteristics, and agricultural practices. Students will analyze changes in precipitation predicted by climate change models to consider how a changing climate could influence erosion rates in agricultural areas.

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In this unit, students will review mock proposals that deal with some aspect of the role of carbon in the environment. Each proposal is based on actual actions proposed to mitigate some aspect of carbon consumption and/or climate change, and as such are considered "real world" scenarios (although somewhat generalized for this exercise). Students will review each proposal for the possible societal, economic, and moral implications if the proposal was pursued on a large scale -- for instance, by a single nation or collection of countries. Additionally, students will make recommendations to a fictitious governmental panel on the merits and pitfalls of each proposal and provide well-supported recommendations about whether that government panel should pursue or reject the proposal. Instructors can use this unit as a stand-alone activity, or as a summary activity to comprehensively review, discuss, and assess material presented in this module's earlier units.

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Southwest Utah straddles the transition from the Colorado Plateau to the Basin and Range physiographic province. This transition also coincides with the leading edge of the Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary Sevier orogeny. A 3-D Geologic Map of the St. George 30x60 Quadrangle is used in Google to analyze overprinted compressional and extensional structures within an important geologic transition.

Outcomes:
Increase student ability to
1. describe the occurrence and geometric characteristics of structures.
2. gain experience reading geologic maps.
3. collect, analyze, and display quantitative structural data.
4. gather regional kinematic and dynamic information from structures.
5. Summarize findings in a scientific analysis
6. work with others to organize data, analyses, figures, and conclusions into a scientific report.

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In advance of this assignment, students will hear a lecture discussing the major events throughout the history of life, including but not limited to: the Cambrian Explosion, the Ordovician Radiation, the "Big Five" mass extinctions and they will be shown the Sepkoski Curve. Additionally students will be introduced to major groups of organisms, mostly at the class and order level.

Students will be divided into groups of 4-5 students and each are assigned a major group of marine organisms with an extensive fossil record (e.g., Bivalves, Brachiopods, Arthropods, Cnidarians). Students will compile a list of 30-40 age ranges for genera within that group by conducting searches on the Paleobiology Database.

Using these ranges, students will construct a range-through chart by hand on paper scaled to a geologic time scale, generating a visual representation of the originations, persistence and extinction of these groups.

Upon construction of the range through chart, students will tally up the number of organisms present in each time period (either originating or persisting or going extinct during that time period). Using these counts, students will make a diversity curve in Microsoft Excel that should depict a rough approximation of the paleontological record of the group.

Students will answer a series of questions related to the interpretation of the range through chart and diversity curve, and devise hypotheses that explain the shape of the trajectory of the curve.

After generating the diversity curve in separate groups, the class will reassemble and combine data for the construction of a synoptic diversity curve.

Students will examine this curve and compare it to that of the Sepkoski curve for the purposes of analysis and hypothesis formation.

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Given the extensive literature on the composition and evolution of continental crust there are a number of teaching strategies that can be employed to encourage active learning by students. A critical reading of this collection of articles will provide students with a good opportunity to evaluate the chemical isotopic and physical evidence that has led to the development of these models of continental crustal growth. These instructional approaches build on recommendations from Project 2061, Science for all Americans:
1) Start with questions about nature.
2) Engage students actively.
3) Concentrate onthe collection and use of evidence.
4) Provide historical perspectives.
5) Use a team approach.
6) Do not separate knowing from finding out.
A compilation from the primary literature has been provided (see the reference list at the end of this web page: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlyearth/questions/crust.html), along with guiding questions for deeper exploration and discovery. Recommended instructional methods include: jigsaw method, role playing or debates (have each student play the role of Richard Armstrong, Ross Taylor, William Fyfe...), reading the primary literature, or problem-based learning (which is purposefully ambiguous and addresses questions that require independent discovery).

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