To understand sustainability, students must understand rates of change. This activity includes a primer on basic rates concepts and an exercise that motivates critical thinking about rates of change and sustainability with an analysis of historical petroleum production rates data from the United States and the world.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

The primary goal of this course is to provide a toolset for characterizing and strategizing how nonmarket forces can shape current and future renewable energy markets. The course approaches the exploration and explanation of key concepts in renewable energy and sustainability nonmarket strategies through evidence-based examples. Main topics for the course include: a sociological approach to markets, renewable energy markets, nonmarket conditions, complex systems analysis, and renewable energy technology and business environments. Because renewable energy costs are higher than fossil fuel cost per unit of energy, the main arguments in support of renewable energy, thus far, are functionally nonmarket in character, i.e., environmental (e.g., climate change), political (e.g., energy independence), and/ or social (e.g., good stewardship).

This workshop investigates the current state of sustainability in regards to architecture, from the level of the tectonic detail to the urban environment. Current research and case studies will be investigated, and students will propose their own solutions as part of the final project.

This video looks at the meaning of sustainable development and why the current best practices prescribe participatory methods. It also presents a visual model for sustainable development that is closer to the physical reality than the "triple bottom line" model of environmental, equity, and economic goals. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives and Activities.

This video explores the meaning of sustainable development from a biomimicry view. It is largely based on the work of CS Holling and associates. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives and Activities.

This video explores the meaning of sustainable development from a biomimicry view. It is largely based on the work of CS Holling and associates. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives and Activities.

This video considers a model of human impact proposed by Ehrlich and Holdren called the "IPAT" equation. It reveals its underlying assumptions and the additional opportunities for reducing impact. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives and Activities.

Students will use the Design Process to build and test multiple wind turbine designs in order to generate electricity.

Students will use the Design Process to build and test multiple wind turbine designs in order to generate electricity.

The main objective of this video lesson is to bring the students' attention to the importance of basic and natural sciences in our lives. The lesson will introduce a topic (sustainable energy) that is related mainly to chemistry and is not usually covered directly in a high school curriculum. We hope that this lesson will show students how important and useful the natural and basic sciences are not only for our daily lives, but also for sustainable development. The lesson will present creative and challenging ideas on the topic of alternative energies. It is hoped that students will be inspired by the introduction of these ideas, and that they will develop the confidence to come up with creative ideas themselves. Background for this lesson is based on fundamental concepts in chemistry (mainly), biology, physics and environmental science.

A transition to sustainable energy is needed for our climate and welfare. In this engineering course, you will learn how to assess the potential for energy reduction and the potential of renewable energy sources like wind, solar and biomass. You’ll learn how to integrate these sources in an energy system, like an electricity network and take an engineering approach to look for solutions and design a 100% sustainable energy system.

This course aims to give insight in the chain of hydrogen production, storage and use, and the devices involved. Electrical storage in the form of batteries will be discussed. Physical and materials science advances that are required to bring forward hydrogen and batteries as energy carriers will be highlighted.

The course provides a systematic framework to understand the most challenging issues in sustainability in the real estate industry. It examines economic mechanisms, technological advances, business models, building design, and investment and financing strategies available for the different market players to promote sustainability in the building sector.
Prof. Siqi Zheng is the faculty director of the MIT Center for Real Estate and founder and director of the MIT Sustainable Urbanization Lab. She specializes in urban and environmental economics, with a special focus on sustainable cities and real estate.
Zhengzhen Tan is a lecturer and researcher with MIT Center for Real Estate and MIT Asia Real Estate Initiative, specializing in real estate sustainability, healthy buildings, and digital technology innovation.
Prof. Juan Palacios is a visiting professor from Maastricht University whose research focuses on environmental economics, sustainable real estate, and health economics.

Using a household fan, cardboard box and paper towels, student teams design and build their own evaporative cooler prototype devices. They learn about the process that cools water during the evaporation of water. They make calculations to determine a room's cooling load, and thus determine the swamp cooler size. This activity adds to students' understanding of the behind-the-scenes mechanical devices that condition and move air within homes and buildings for human health and comfort.

One of the biggest challenges scientists face when studying the ocean is observing the interplay between physical processes and biology in fine detail. Join Jules Jaffe, a research oceanographer in Scripps' Marine Physical Laboratory, as he describes his latest scheme to uncover these processes with swarms of inexpensive, miniaturized robotic floats that travel with currents, sense the environment and report their findings back to us. (58 minutes)

This activity demonstrates how potential energy (PE) can be converted to kinetic energy (KE) and back again. Given a pendulum height, students calculate and predict how fast the pendulum will swing by understanding conservation of energy and using the equations for PE and KE. The equations are justified as students experimentally measure the speed of the pendulum and compare theory with reality.

This activity shows students the engineering importance of understanding the laws of mechanical energy. More specifically, it demonstrates how potential energy can be converted to kinetic energy and back again. Given a pendulum height, students calculate and predict how fast the pendulum will swing by using the equations for potential and kinetic energy. The equations will be justified as students experimentally measure the speed of the pendulum and compare theory with reality.

Introduction to the concept of a dynamic system. Includes discussion of system and surroundings and system boundaries. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives, Assessment, and Activities.

This video explains thermodynamic systems, open and closed systems, and the four key properties of a system. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives, Assessment, and Activities.

This video looks at the cause of system behavior as being like an iceberg. This idea was proposed by Peter Senge in his book, "The Fifth Discipline" (1990), Doubleday Publishers. This video is part of the Sustainability Learning Suites, made possible in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation. See 'Learn more about this resource' for Learning Objectives, Assessment, and Activities.