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Introduction to Physical Anthropology

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The high cost of textbooks prevents many students from succeeding. Textbook prices have gone up 3 times the rate of inflation in the past 30 years. New textbook editions are a scam. Textbooks have become a way to shift the cost of teacher salaries onto the student. The change in Jurmain's Introduction to Biological Anthropology from 2009 to 2011 was to search and replace the word “hominid” for the word “hominin”, and raise the price 20%. Many students will not buy their textbooks (Kingkade 2013), and struggle through class, reading at the library. Other students will order cheap copies online but get the wrong edition, or discounted shipping where it arrives halfway through the semester. Textbooks have become a barrier to student success. Assigning free online textbooks is one solution. Much of the high cost of textbooks comes from color printing, but black-and-white and text-heavy books are poor options for our predominantly visual learners. Online textbooks allow for unlimited, large, color graphics. For the price of a new textbook, a student can buy a text reader (kindle, ipad, tablet, surface, etc.) or a used laptop. There may still be problems with students' access to high speed internet. The monthly fee for a cable modem service is expensive, but free WiFi is becoming more and more widely available. The new downtown San Diego library is a good example. Unfortunately, in 2011 when I started this, there were no free online textbook available for Introduction to Physical Anthropology. Probably the closest were Dennis O'Neil's Biological Anthropology Tutorials from Palomar College, Wikipedia's Biological Anthropology and Introduction to Paleoanthropology textbooks, and Augustín Fuentes primatology class notes (no longer available), and I borrowed from these, especially O'Neil. I found most of these sources written in the style of an encyclopedia, and tried to make the textbook more approachable by including my own voice whenever possible. Some students may lack the necessary computer skills to use an online textbook. Hopefully, the recent increases in funding for basic skills will help. Gone are the good old days whence we scribed our homework on tablets of wet clay. Students must learn computer skills to survive academically and professionally, and the printed textbook is becoming a relic of a bygone age. Information Communication and Technology Literacy is a component of most institutional goals. The more students practice current electronic research techniques, the better prepared they will be for the rest of their academic and professional life. I previously encouraged students to use their textbook as the main source for my take-home tests, but I found that many students start with the internet as their first source of answers, and then fall-back on the textbook if the info doesn't show up immediately in a search engine. I've come to realize that this is not always bad, as they often discover more current information than the textbook. For rapidly changing issues, such as how many genes are in the human genome, how closely we are related to Neandertals, Homo naledi, or the Cerruti Mastadon eaters, the information available on sites such as Wikipedia is often more accurate than the typical textbook written three to ten years ago.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Arnie Schoenberg

Introduction to Earth Science

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Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses. This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice. Adapted from openly-licensed works in geoscience, the sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts in that it has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Unlike prominent commercial texts for Earth Science, this book dedicates an individual chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our solar system. Book content has been further customized to match the Pathways General Education Curriculum at Virginia Tech with a focus on Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for Pathways Concept 4, Reasoning in the Natural Sciences. Are you a professor reviewing or adopting this book for a course? Instructors adopting or reviewing this text are encouraged to record their use on this form: https://bit.ly/interest_intro_earth_science. This helps the book's sponsors to understand this open textbook's impact. How to Access the Book This text is available in multiple formats including PDF, a low-resolution PDF which is faster to download, and ePub [coming mid 2023]. These are available at: https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. The book is also available in HTML/Pressbooks at https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience. Softcover print versions with color interior are available at the manufacturer’s lowest price at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361. The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. PDF: ISBN 978-1-957213-34-7 HTML/Pressbooks: ISBN 978-1-957213-33-0 https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience Print: ISBN 978-1-957213-36-1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361 ePub: ISBN 978-1-957213-35-4 [expected mid 2023] Table of Contents 1. Understanding Science 2. Plate Tectonics 3. Minerals 4. Igneous Processes and Volcanoes 5. Weathering, Erosion, and Sedimentary Rocks 6. Metamorphic Rocks 7. Geologic Time 8. Earth History 9. Crustal Deformation and Earthquakes 10. Mass Wasting 11. Water 12. Coastlines 13. Deserts 14. Glaciers 15. Global Climate Change 16. Energy and Mineral Resources 17. Origin of the Universe and Our Solar System Find, Adapt, and Share Resources If you wish to share resources you build from this book or find those shared by other adopters of this book, please join the Instructor Resource Portal in OER Commons at https://www.oercommons.org/groups/introduction-to-earth-science-instructor-group/12785 Attribution This work includes content from multiple sources reproduced under the terms of Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, and Fair Use. Specifically: Chapters 1-16 are adapted from An Introduction to Geology https://slcc.pressbooks.pub/introgeology (CC BY NC SA) by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, and Cam Mosher. Chapter 17 is adapted from Section 22.1 of Chapter 22 “The Origin of Earth and the Solar System” by Karla Panchuk in Physical Geology, 2nd edition (CC BY) by Steven Earle https://opentextbc.ca/physicalgeology2ed/part/chapter-22-the-origin-of-earth-and-the-solar-system, with Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 of Chapter 7 “Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System” https://openstax.org/books/astronomy-2e/pages/7-1-overview-of-our-planetary-system from OpenStax Astronomy, 2nd edition https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy-2e (CC BY). And, figures are from a variety of sources; references at the end of each chapter describe the terms of reuse for each figure. Version notes located at the end of the book describe author changes made to these materials by chapter. About the Author Laura Neser, Ph.D. is an Instructor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Neser earned her B.S. in Geosciences at Virginia Tech in the spring of 2008 and completed her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on the structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of formations that were deposited along the flanks of the Beartooth Mountains as they rose during late Paleocene-Eocene time. Dr. Neser has worked as an athletic tutor and online instructor at The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), in temporary positions as an Adjunct Instructor at Chowan University (Murfreesboro, NC) and Full-Time Lecturer at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, IN), and as a Professor at Seminole State College (Sanford, FL) before starting as an Instructor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2021. Although she is currently focused on teaching online sections of Introduction to Earth Science, Earth Resources, Society and the Environment, and Climate History, her teaching background is significantly broader and includes Environmental ‬Science, Astronomy, Environmental ‬Ethics, Earth History, Structural Geology, and Field Geology‬. Suggested Citation Neser, Laura (2023). Introduction to Earth Science. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0. Report Errors: https://bit.ly/report_error_intro_earth_science View Errata: https://bit.ly/errata_intro_earth_science Funding and Project Support This publication was made possible in part through funding and publishing support provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. Accessibility Statement Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability. Disclaimer This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations, or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter before redistributing.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Laura Neser

Fire Brigade

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Students demonstrate their knowledge of Newton’s 1st Law of Motion as they engineer a new method for putting out fires. As they iterate through this design challenge, they gain firsthand experience in the design process.. (Note: No real fire is used in this challenge.)

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan

Physical Geography

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Updated Fall 2023 This textbook was designed especially for Community College students, as a resource to instill the knowledge and adventure that the discipline of geography holds for so many of us. The following units will cover a wide array of topics such as: Earth’s grid system, weather, climate, rivers, oceans, deserts, basic geology, and cartography. This book also integrates virtual field trips and interactive multimedia. The Text Has 19 units; Unit 1: Introduction to Geography as a Discipline Unit 2: Earth’s Place within the Cosmos Unit 3: Introduction to Geology & Geologic Time Unit 4: Mapping Earth’s Surface Unit 5: Earth-Sun Relationships: Reasons for the Seasons Unit 6: Earth’s Atmosphere Unit 7: Elements of Weather & Climate Unit 8: Basic Mineral Development Unit 9: Igneous Rocks Unit 10: Sedimentary Rocks Unit 11: Metamorphism & Metamorphic Rocks Unit 12: Weathering & Soils Unit 13: Earths Dynamic Surface: Plate Tectonics Unit 14: Earths Dynamic Surface: Tectonics Force Unit 15: Earths Dynamic Surface: Volcanoes Unit 16: Shaped by Coastal Processes Unit 17: Shaped by Rivers & Running Water Unit 18: Shaped by Wind as a Geomorphic Agent Unit 19: Shaped by Glaciers

Material Type: Interactive, Textbook

Author: Jeremy Patrich

Unwelcome: How The Trail of Tears and continued Gentrification changed the landscape for economically disadvantaged people in North Georgia.

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This activity was produced in conjunction with The Library of Congress and the TPS at Metropolitan State University of Denver. This activity will allow learners to explore How The Trail of Tears and continued Gentrification changed the landscape for economically disadvantaged people in North Georgia using Primary Sources, Minecraft Education and Microsoft Flip. 

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson

Author: Merry Hofmeister

Entrepreneurship Law: Company Creation

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Long Description: Students survey the legal issues confronted by entrepreneurs and develop the practical skills to effectively and ethically represent them during the start-up phase. Students study how to interview, counsel, plan, draft, and negotiate, by critiquing relevant readings and putting this to use in the context of client interactions and classroom simulations. Students also will draft relevant blog posts, client correspondence and memoranda typical of those that surface in small business and entrepreneur representation. Word Count: 63312 Included H5P activities: 1 (Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

Material Type: Textbook

Introduction to American Government

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The principles, institutions, processes, and functions of the government of the United States, and American political behavior are covered. Chapter 1: American Government and Civic Engagement Chapter 2: The Constitution and Its Origins Chapter 3: American Federalism Chapter 4: Civil Liberties Chapter 5: Civil Rights Chapter 6: The Politics of Public Opinion Chapter 7: Voting and Elections Chapter 8: The Media Chapter 9: Political Parties Chapter 10: Interest Groups and Lobbying Chapter 11: Congress Chapter 12: The Presidency Chapter 13: The Courts Chapter 14: State and Local Government Chapter 15: The Bureaucracy Chapter 16: Domestic Policy Chapter 17: Foreign Policy

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: George Amedee (Editor), Glen Krutz, Hayley Johnson (Editor), James Gilley (Editor), Kenya M. Jackson (Editor), Melanie Smith Johnson (Editor), Sylvie Waskiewicz

Book: A Short Introduction to World Politics

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Why Should Americans Study World Politics? 1. It can kill you. 2. It costs you money. 3. It affects your job. 4. It affects your shopping. 5. It affects your health. 6. The world is becoming more and more globalized, more and more quickly. Whether we like it or not, world politics affects us greatly. So it is a good idea for us to know what is going on out there.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Lawrence Meacham

Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics, 1st ed.

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Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics is the first open educational resource (OER) on the topic of comparative politics, and the second OER textbook in political science funded by ASCCC OERI, in what we hope will become a complete library for the discipline. This textbook aligns with the C-ID Course Descriptor for Introduction to Comparative Government and Politics in content and objectives. It is organized thematically, with each chapter accompanied by a case study or a comparative study, one of the main methodological tools used in comparative politics. By contextualizing the concepts, we hope to help students learn the comparative method, which to this day remains one of the most important methodological tools for all researchers.

Material Type: Textbook

Authors: Byran Martin, Charlotte Lee, Dino Bozonelos, Jessica Scarffe, Josh Franco, Julia Wendt, Masahiro Omae, Stefan Veldhuis