This activity introduces students to the EPA's Surf Your Watershed website as …
This activity introduces students to the EPA's Surf Your Watershed website as they investigate a local waterway of their choice. The assignment guides students to analyze data about the waterway's current and historical discharge rates and impairments to water quality.
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This interactive map allows the user to explore projected alterations of land …
This interactive map allows the user to explore projected alterations of land surfaces in coastal communities, based on different scenarios of sea level changes over time.
This is a multi-step, interactive tool for users to identify potential risks …
This is a multi-step, interactive tool for users to identify potential risks (to people, buildings, infrastructure, contamination, land) for selected coastal areas in the US, using scenarios of water level rising (as a result of tides, sea level rise, and storm surge) from 0-10 feet. Tool provides local, regional and national resources as guidance for managing risk.
This text is designed to introduce the reader to the essential concepts …
This text is designed to introduce the reader to the essential concepts of sustainability. This subject is of vital importance – seeking as it does to uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet – but is only peripherally served by existing college textbooks. The content is intended to be useful for both a broad-based introductory class on sustainability and as a useful supplement to specialist courses which wish to review the sustainability dimensions of their areas of study. By covering a wide range of topics with a uniformity of style, and by including glossaries, review questions, case studies, and links to further resources, the text has sufficient range to perform as the core resource for a semester course. Students who cover the material in the book will be conversant in the language and concepts of sustainability, and will be equipped for further study in sustainable planning, policy, economics, climate, ecology, infrastructure, and more. The content is intended to be useful for both a broad-based introductory class on sustainability and as a useful supplement to specialist courses which wish to review the sustainability dimensions of their areas of study. By covering a wide range of topics with a uniformity of style, and by including glossaries, review questions, case studies, and links to further resources, the text has sufficient range to perform as the core resource for a semester course. Students who cover the material in the book will be conversant in the language and concepts of sustainability, and will be equipped for further study in sustainable planning, policy, economics, climate, ecology, infrastructure, and more.
The Daily Practice is an ongoing assignment that asks students to make …
The Daily Practice is an ongoing assignment that asks students to make a lifestyle change that contributes to environmental sustainability.
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Are you prepared to find strategic opportunities for sustainability-driven innovation within your …
Are you prepared to find strategic opportunities for sustainability-driven innovation within your business or organization? This engaging course will prepare you to do just that. BA 850 will give you the tools and practical experience needed to discern consumer and organizational needs related to sustainability, to create unique offerings to meet sustainability needs, and to develop innovative processes necessary to test and refine sustainable solutions.
Sustainability is a complex term applied to many different contexts in a …
Sustainability is a complex term applied to many different contexts in a variety of ways. As a result, it can be challenging to determine how sustainable something really is. In this module, students will use an analytical framework with publicly available data to formulate questions, analyze data, and report metrics of sustainability.
To understand sustainability, students must understand rates of change. This activity includes …
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.
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This music video features a rap song about some of the causes …
This music video features a rap song about some of the causes and effects of climate change with the goal of increasing awareness of climate change and how it will impact nature and humans.
This is an activity that uses the spreadsheet program Excel to explore …
This is an activity that uses the spreadsheet program Excel to explore the origins of subsidence in New Orleans. There are two versions. The first is a traditional Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum (SSAC) module that couples a PowerPoint presentation with an embedded Excel spreadsheet where students construct a spreadsheet, and then submit the Excel file for grading. The second is a macro-enabled Excel spreadsheet that provides automatic feedback to answers and calculates the score. Upon completion the students are given a code that encrypts their spreadsheet score and then take a follow-up quiz that probes their understanding.
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This resource is a collection of climate change-related graphs for teachers to …
This resource is a collection of climate change-related graphs for teachers to use in their classrooms, with links to the source articles and an explanation of how to guide students through reflecting on and learning from the graphs.
We systematically introduce chaos/complex systems theory concepts in at least four courses …
We systematically introduce chaos/complex systems theory concepts in at least four courses we teach, although to different depths depending on the goals of the course. We begin by exploring the behavior and properties of chaotic systems (about two 50 minute classes) and then use complexity theory models to talk about the different kinds of evolution (2-3 more 50 minute classes).
The courses include a general education class dealing with the Earth and its environments (GGEOL 102: Environment: Earth), the historical geology class for majors (GEOL 230, Evolution of the Earth), another general education course dedicated to evolutionary systems of all kinds (GEOL 200, Evolutionary Systems), and, a new course in the environmental science minor (ENVT 200 - Environmental Systems Theory) In all of the courses we demonstrate concepts with algorithms using computer based simulations where possible. In the evolutionary systems and environmental systems classes there are frequent breakouts to do computer lab experiments.��
Chaos/complex systems concepts in the historical geology class are developed in one fell swoop near the beginning of the semester, while in the others courses concepts are introduced in steps throughout the semester, exactly how and in what depth depends on the subject matter and course level.
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Teal is a visualization tool that enables users to explore climate variables …
Teal is a visualization tool that enables users to explore climate variables (air temperature, wind speed, precipitation, and solar radiation) and carbon emissions for the past 40+ years, from 1950 to near real time. A global map shows climate data by country and sub-country.
This video clip highlights the effort on by a group of young …
This video clip highlights the effort on by a group of young students to ban the use of plastic shopping bags in the city of Santa Monica. The video documents the effort and provides visual testimony of the effects that trash and specifically plastic bags have on the ocean ecosystem.
EME 807 overviews a wide range of contemporary technologies in the context …
EME 807 overviews a wide range of contemporary technologies in the context of sustainability and examines metrics for their assessment. The course explores the main principles that guide modern science and technology towards sustainable solutions. It covers such topics as resource management technologies, waste and wastewater treatment, renewable energy technologies, high performance buildings and transportation systems, application of informatics and feedback to sustainable systems, and more. Learning in EME 807 heavily relies on real-life examples and taps into current practices of technology analysis. This course goes beyond understanding the background, fostering critical thinking and challenging the students to draw connections between social, environmental, and economic aspects of sustainable technologies.
This interactive visualization provides information in text, graphic, and video format about …
This interactive visualization provides information in text, graphic, and video format about renewable energy technologies. Resource in the Student's Guide to Global Climate Change, part of EPA Climate Change Division.
This interactive map allows students to experiment with decadal average temperature projections. …
This interactive map allows students to experiment with decadal average temperature projections. Overall temperatures are expected to rise throughout the century and this tool demonstrates those projected measurements.
This visualization graphically displays temperature and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere as …
This visualization graphically displays temperature and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere as derived from ice core data from 400,000 years ago to 1950. The data originates from UNEP GRID Arendal's graphic library of CO2 levels from Vostok ice core.
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