In this unit, students explore the role of ocean circulation in climate modification and bioproductivity. The activities require students to interpret the effect of horizontal and vertical seawater movement on heat distribution, carbon dioxide dissolution, and nutrient availability. Students will use their new knowledge to predict how those parameters may change as a result of major shifts in ocean circulation associated with global climate change.

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This unit will introduce methods and data from Critical Zone observatories as well as methods that scientists use in their research. These activities will provide an introduction to methods used in later units and help students develop a research proposal for the summative assessment activity.
In this unit, students will be introduced to basic scientific methods such as:

How to create an effective annotated bibliography.
How to use software such as MS Excel to graph, analyze, and interpret data.

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In this activity, students model the impact of land-cover changes on stormwater runoff using the EPA's National Stormwater Calculator (Calculator). The students are introduced to the Calculator through a tutorial. Students are provided with a particular site -- a residential neighborhood -- and model two land-use scenarios associated with it: (1) a pre-expansion scenario that includes current forest and developed land cover, and (2) a post-expansion scenario, under which the forest cover will be developed as low-intensity residential.

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Students will learn about geoscience-specific methods used to analyze data in the Critical Zone from data-driven activities and short presentations by their peers. The topics include the use of carbon isotopes, rock and soil profile weathering rates, stream discharge, demographics, and soil carbon. Activities will build data analysis and communication skills while using real data to interpret Critical Zone processes and begin to think about human interactions in the Critical Zone. Students will use geoscience-specific methods when developing their research proposal for the summative assessment activity.

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In this activity, students model the impact of a proposed land-use change for a local site using the EPA's National Stormwater Calculator (Calculator). Given a description of the proposed land-use change, students devise and execute a series of simulations in the Calculator that model its potential impact on stormwater retention. Using additional simulations, students explore changes to the site that utilize low impact development (LID) controls to mitigate stormwater runoff.

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In Unit 2, students apply and evaluate foundational concepts about storm hazards and risk in the context of two cases studies: Superstorm Sandy (2012) and the Storm of the Century (1993). Through different activities and assignments, students develop skills for finding, evaluating, and relating data to case studies and build an understanding of preparedness, response, and resilience. The activities include: an analysis of hazard mitigation plans for their local community, examination of storm-related geophysical processes in the context of societal risks, preparation of a press release for community preparedness, and a peer review and revision opportunity for the press releases. Instructors may also end this unit by having students revise their concept maps from Unit 1, applying lessons learned in Units 1 and 2.

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In this unit, students examine the interaction between the hydrologic cycle and rock cycle through exploring the processes of weathering, erosion, transport and deposition of sediments both in real stream systems and in a physical, table-top model of a stream. This activity focuses group thinking on: 1) identification and interpretation of patterns that define physical characteristics associated with three distinct areas of a river system and 2) the type of energy transfers that occur as sediments are eroded, transported and deposited.

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Electrical measurement of unconsolidated soils in the laboratory.

Provenance: Lee Slater, Rutgers University-Newark
Reuse: This item is in the public domain and maybe reused freely without restriction.
Archie (1950) defined the term petrophysics to describe the study of the physics of rocks, particularly with respect to the fluids they contain. Although originally focused on geophysical exploration, petrophysics concepts are now used to interpret near surface geophysics measurements made to address environmental and engineering problems. This unit investigates relationships between these geophysical measurements and the physical and chemical properties of soils and sediments in the Earth's near subsurface. The specific focus is on the electrical properties of soils and how they are related to the ionic concentration of the pore fluids, the water content, porosity and grain size. Field results from a geophysical survey performed in Kearny Marsh, close to Harrier Meadow, are included to illustrate how electrical conductivity of a soil measured with an electromagnetic sensor is a good proxy for pore fluid ionic concentration, in this case related to contamination from a bordering landfill.

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This unit presents core underlying principles needed to understand refraction seismology concepts including refraction of rays, types of seismic waves, interpreting information about subsurface materials from seismic properties and developing conceptual models of the subsurface environment.

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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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In Unit 2, students learn how the techniques for water budgeting (covered in Unit 1) can be used to monitor both groundwater (High Plains Aquifer) and surface water (western mountain watershed) systems. Students interpret time-series plots that show the impact of drought years and wet years on underground water storage in the High Plains Aquifer and on snowpack and surface runoff in the western mountain watershed. They also consider the societal implications of water deficits through a series of pre-class readings, questions embedded in the assignments, and small and whole-group discussions. This unit can involve substantial computer time during which students use Excel to view and interpret hydrologic data. An alternative version with hard-copy graphs is also provided.

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Online-adaptable: Both parts of this unit are completely digital and thus at a logistical level it can be switched to online fairly easily. However, due to the relative complexity of the data investigations, there will still be quite a bit of instructor support needed and/or extended small group that should be arranged.

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Students will be provided with seawater pH and carbon dioxide concentration (pCO2) data spanning as far back as 1850. They will describe trends in pH, pCO2 and atmospheric CO2 concentration, outline why these parameters are related, and predict how changes in these parameters will affect marine biology. Each group of students will be given a different set of data from different regions and asked to compare with other groups to determine if seawater pH change is a global or regional phenomena. This unit will provide students with an understanding of the pH buffering system and an opportunity to interpret real climate data.

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Students will collect and analyze relevant social data on individual and community knowledge, risk perception and preparedness within their local social networks.

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This unit includes an opportunity for students to move from definitions into reading and creating a diagram of a complex system relevant to their course, and then to exploring the connections between the components in the system. An exercise is provided to help students identify complex systems and their component parts from the world around them. Students will draw and revise a systems diagram, including identifying measurable quantities in the system, and participate in a gallery walk. The unit ends with students constructing a system diagram from photographs they take, and reflecting on their process. Note that to carry out the activities described in this unit, groups of students will need large sheets of paper and markers, or whiteboard/chalkboard space, to create a diagram.

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In this unit, students will keep a log of immediate, personal sensory experiences by pausing once each hour over a period of ten hours and recording the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile experiences they are sensing at that moment. The log (or journaling activity) will occur outside of class and will be shared in a subsequent class meeting.
In class, students will exchange their logs, respond and discuss, and then form larger groups which will discuss disparate ways of paying attention to sensory experiences. Students will develop a deeper understanding of their own perceptions and how those perceptions can be recorded and used to evaluate an environmental setting. This activity is qualitative; it requires students to create an informal, subjective journal of their sensory experiences once each hour for a ten-hour time period prior to class.
When students share their individual qualitative experiences in pairs and small groups, they will begin to see patterns emerge that will enable them to develop quantitative observations for future use. They will also begin to relate their sensory experiences to the social, biological, and geophysical aspects of their personal environment; students will begin to explore how these system components are interrelated and how exposure to them may impact human experience and well-being. After the group discussion, students will reflect on the interstices between qualitative and quantitative analysis by way of their sensory logs and mutual discussion.

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Armed with an overview of the complexity of issues associated with global food security, this unit begins by contextualizing food security as an example of a wicked problem. Wicked problems are problems that are unsolvable in the traditional sense, and have complex multiscalar causal factors that contribute to the creation of new issues as old ones are addressed. Both global food security and climate change are examples of wicked problems. This unit presents systems thinking as a way to identify complex problems and explore solutions. Using a flipped classroom model, students complete a self study tutorial that presents system concepts in the context of Earth system science. The slide stack includes two guided activities related to the carbon cycle and soils. A short reading, "Why Systems Thinking?" and a video clip is included in the tutorial. Authentic assessment of the homework activity is an Earth system diagram connected to one of the issues of global food security from Unit 1 that they will bring to class. After a short class discussion that introduces concepts of sustainability and ecosystem services as related to food production, students are broken into groups and are asked to create their own systems diagram of the global food system, using the organizational systems concepts they examined as homework and the introduction activities of Unit 1. After completing the diagrams, students examine a food system diagram example, and identify the components of the system using standardized systems language. Students can photograph their diagrams or make quick sketches so they have a working copy to include with their notes.

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Students will be introduced to the concept of a natural cycle. They are first asked to identify the different components of the hydrologic cycle. Students will be able to recognize the delicate balance between the individual elements of a large and complex system. Students will also be able to identify the interactions among parts of a natural system.

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The basic concepts of geology will be considered to address the widely ranging textures and compositions of rocks and sediments formed in a wide range of environments. These variations in turn can affect soil formation and many related Critical Zone processes and architectures.
This unit requires substantial reading to cover basic concepts of geology: the rock cycle, plate tectonics, geologic time, erosion, weathering, and deposition, so that students have a firm grasp on how geology relates to and controls CZ processes. This background knowledge is accessed through a review of web sites and a scientific papers. An in-class activity uses the U.S. Geological Survey's National Geologic Map Database to identify resources for understanding and classifying the geology of a region.

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The example of a proposed land-use change that was used in Unit 2.3 is built upon here. The activities in this unit are meant to broaden the discussion beyond calculating quantitative run-off changes. Now we will also bring in consideration of a broader range of ecosystem services, as well as other ways in which a landscape can be valued, some of which may not be easily measured or even conceptualized as "services." Classroom time is devoted to the instructor and students exploring both (a) the stakeholders who have an interest in a particular place and (b) the various interests/uses those stakeholders may have for that place. By the end of the activity, the class should have identified several major stakeholder groups and several distinct ecosystem services. Students, organized into groups representing particular stakeholders, will then be tasked to prepare, for Unit 3.2, a group presentation, to be discussed on class on the last day of the module, that utilizes those ecosystem services as much as possible.

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In this activity, the student groups organized at the end of Unit 3.1 will prepare presentations representing different stakeholder positions. This artifact -- Part I of the Module Summative Assessment (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 25kB Sep4 16) -- can be part of a presentation to the instructor, to a panel of faculty/students, or to a "board" representing some decision-making unit (Community Council, University Board of Trustees, City/County Planning Commission). At the conclusion of this unit, students will be prompted to reflect, individually, on an ecosystem services approach to natural resources management -- Part II of the Module Summative Assessment (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 23kB Sep4 16) .

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