This in-class exercise is an alternative to standard review sessions and models the systems thinking students need to do when working on complex, interdisciplinary issues. Students quiz each other on course material and then find authentic (and often creative) connections between seemingly disparate topics in the course. This approach challenges students to use holistic thinking when reviewing, and can be readily customized for any course.

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Humans are agents of change in the Critical Zone. This unit focuses on the land/water connection and on how human-induced land use change affects local hydrology. Students will apply what they learned in the previous Hydrology Module about how hydrologists use data (land-cover type, soil texture, and slope) to predict the amount and destination of water as it moves through a built environment. Students will use the Generic Model from the Model My WatershedR application to evaluate the impact of human alterations to the landscape and will also investigate how best-management practices can lesson those impacts. While doing so, students will also be asked to consider impacts to society both from the increased runoff and from some mitigation measures.

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Peer review is an important process in determining priorities for scientific research. Students will participate in a panel review of proposals for new CZOs and as a class decide on the proposal most worthy of funding. Students will read proposals, craft a detailed review of the merits and limitations of the proposal, and then discuss the proposals during an in-class panel review. Proposals will be evaluated on how well the proposed CZO would help address global challenges and advance Critical Zone science and require students to use knowledge gained in previous modules to assess and communicate which proposals meet these goals.

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Unit 7 continues the use of the CME Building Case Study to explore water sustainability in the context of a building. The activity is extended to the catchment level, and a new tool for catchment level storm water management is introduced. Students are exposed in the pre-class assignments to low impact development (LID) and green infrastructure and the EPA National Stormwater Calculator. In class, the central activity is applying the EPA National Stormwater Calculator to evaluate an LID control plan for the CME building case study. The unit brings together concepts from previous units through the use of the calculator. The impact of landscapes, buildings, and other features on storm water runoff is illustrated. And the potential benefit of LID controls is analyzed. The homework assignment engages students in the search for a local green infrastructure site to take a picture and summarize the site in the context of a sustainable site.

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Picture of urban flooding

Provenance: Timothy Swinson https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Trapped_woman_on_a_car_roof_during_flash_flooding_in_Toowoomba_2.jpg
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Unit 8 covers the basics of hydroclimatic extreme events with a focus on floods and droughts. Topics include introduction to floods and droughts, impact of urbanization on extremes, how to understand and predict extremes, how to tackle them (management strategies), and elements of urban climate resilience. The teaching strategy is designed with short and divided lectures filled with discussion questions and a group activity. Students will be working with time series flow data for statistical analysis of extreme events.

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Unit 9 is a group activity that requires students to apply the material they have learned in Units 1 -- 8 in an urban water system design project. Students are presented with a scenario and are required to select options to design a feasible and sustainable urban water system that considers the triple bottom line in their design. The design project requires that students consider hydrologic processes (e.g., evapotranspiration, runoff) in designing outdoor landscaping and amount of pervious and impervious area. Students also consider indoor water use efficiency and other methods (e.g., rain barrels) to reduce water consumption. Students are also asked to consider the connection between urban development and atmospheric processes. Students apply systems thinking by connecting hydrologic and atmospheric processes with the human built system. Student groups present their design to the class and assess each other's designs. These activities can be used as a summative assessment for the entire module.

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In this video segment adapted from the International Institute for Sustainable Development, Inuit observers describe how their traditional understanding of weather patterns is being challenged by unpredictable weather behaviors.

This activity describes one-day field trips for introductory Physical Geology or Environmental Geology courses that are designed around a central environmental theme (e.g., air quality, water quality, economic development, environmental justice, etc.) and visit urban locations (e.g., hazardous waste sites, solid and liquid waste disposal sites, brownfield redevelopment sites, industrial complexes, or sites with ongoing environmental restoration efforts). Students are provided with a guidebook containing one-page description of each stop on the trip, along with a list of questions to stimulate discussion among students and faculty. The guidebook gives students food for thought during the bus ride to each site, preparing them to formulate their own questions for our guides at each stop. The guidebook also serves as a tangible reminder of the trip for each student to take away and potentially discuss with other students or family members. Finally, the one-page summaries from the guidebook can also be used by course instructors as handouts or PowerPoint slides to tie field trip experiences into classroom instruction and discussion. Uses online and/or real-time data Addresses student fear of quantitative aspect and/or inadequate quantitative skills Uses geophysics to solve problems in other fields

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In this video segment from Louisville Life, high school students in Louisville, Kentucky describe the benefits of creating rain gardens as a solution to non-point source water pollution.

In this classroom activity, students watch the movie "Dante's Peak" up to the point where Harry Dalton's supervisor arrives and talks to the town council. Students then compare and contrast Harry's assessment and advice to that of his supervisor, discuss the reaction of the town council members, and develop their own recommendations for how the scientists and town should proceed.

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A primary feature of this "Water and Sustainability" course is a series of 10 debates on controversial sustainability topics. Each student in the course participates in one of the debates.

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The purpose of the resource is to develop hypotheses about which environmental factors are most important to plants.

Learning Assistants are used to facilitate student discussion in peer instruction during clicker questions (i.e., classroom response systems), by asking Socratic questions, emphasizing reasoning, and probing student thinking.

Using quadrats along line transects in two different habitats, students will gather data which will provide evidence that shows the interrelationships between vegetation types and small mammal populations

Use metaphor frames throughout a course to help students both learn various concepts and to assess how they are understanding them.

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This activity is a field investigation in which students conduct a plant survey of two study plots, analyze their findings through graphing and mathematic models, investigate the impact of human activity in the general area (optional) and generate questions for further investigation of the study plots.

This activity offers one of the reflection activities we developed in our learning community "Exploring Natural History in Word and Field." In this class, the students learn about natural history by reading natural history essays and participating in field trips. In this activity, we use reflection before and during a field trip to an Old Growth Forest to help our students clarify their own stance for a Position Paper on whether and under what conditions logging should be allowed in Old Growth Forests.

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The assignment will begin with teaching proper water collection and use of equipment for hydrochemical field work. Once the class is familiar with sample collecting technques, the class takes a field trip to several springs within the Madera Limestone, Sandia Mountains New Mexico. Collecting waters and obtaining hydrochemical field parameters for each spring location as well as collecting groundwater from one well in the same aquifer. Returning to the lab and preparing and running samples for ion analysis.

Spring waters will then be compared to well water and average precipitation data available from the USGS. Geochemical modeling will then be completed to understand the proportion of aquifer, precipitation and possible deeply sourced waters found in the spring waters.

The outcomes include 1) teaching proper sampling techniques 2) proper preparation of samples for ion analysis 3) Geochemical modeling to understand mixing

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In this lab activity students use the pH scale and the reaction of carbon dioxide with water to understand ocean acidification and make predictions regarding the effect of ocean acidification on marine organisms by experimentally determining the effect of pH of calcite dissolution.

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Documentário "VIDAS E VOZES QUILOMBOLAS E SUAS RELAÇÕES COM O RIO LIVRAMENTO" é um Produto Educacional do Mestrado Profissional em Ensino de Ciências Ambientais - PROFCIAMB/ Polo Belém- PÁ. Esse documentário é parte integrante da dissertação de mestrado de Antônia Leonildes Lameira de Ataíde sob orientação do Prof . Dr Ronaldo Adriano Ribeiro da Silva.
A História da humanidade revela que os rios foram responsáveis pela construção e desenvolvimento das primeiras grandes civilizações. O objetivo geral da pesquisa foi o de compreender os saberes locais da Comunidade Quilombola Nossa Senhora do Livramento e suas relações com o Rio Livramento. O produto educacional resultante da investigação foi um documentário denominado Vidas e Vozes Quilombolas e suas relações com o Rio Livramento para ser usado no ensino e aprendizagem das Ciências Ambientais. Dessa maneira se propõe que as relações da Comunidade Quilombola com o Rio Livramento . O documentário narra as vozes a partir das particularidades locais e das interpretações dos sujeitos da pesquisa, protagonistas de suas histórias.