Short Description:
Social media, digital devices, and networked communication systems have become fully integrated into our everyday living experience. This e-book touches upon the human experience of contemporary trends that affect how we perceive ourselves, others, and society.

Long Description:
Authored as a companion to COMM601 Trends in Digital & Social Media, Granite State College (USNH), Concord, NH.

Word Count: 25859

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In order to redress the legacy of residential schools and advance the process of Canadian reconciliation, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission makes 94 calls to action.

This visualization is a website with an interactive calculator that allows for estimation of greenhouse gas production from croplands in the United States.

Unit 1 introduces foundational concepts in geoscience, emergency management, and political science that are critical for developing a systems thinking approach and for achieving the learning objectives in the storm module. More specifically, within Unit 1, students acquire a vocabulary related to storm systems and risk, engage in practical exercises on event probability and frequency, and complete written activities and oral presentations that reinforce these concepts, using their own community and two case studies as examples. The activities include: a pre-and post-Unit survey on natural hazard risk, an optional concept map exercise to identify associations of risk in major storms, an exercise on probability and frequency of natural hazards in general and major storms in particular, an exercise using hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) and the HVA's findings, and a synthesis assignment that requires analysis of an assigned hazard mitigation plan (HMP) and development of a proposal to improve mitigation plans.

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This unit introduces the hydrological cycle to provide context for the module as a whole. It particularly focuses on those portions of the hydrological cycle that take place on land and that form the basis for water that is used by society. Students conduct a stakeholder analysis to better understand societal issues around water. Then the scientific exercise of the unit emphasizes quantitative approaches to describing the critical portions that humans have access to: surface water and shallow ground water. Students calculate residence times and fluxes between reservoirs and track water particles on an annual basis. They also explore available data sets for specific reservoirs such as snowpack and rivers.

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Online-adaptable: This exercise could be converted to online whole-class discussions/lectures and a breakout group activity. Would be best done synchronously.

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In this three to four class unit, students will:

Assess the case for a global water crisis and its relevance in America.
Expand their understanding of sustainability as a contestable concept and movement.
Consider water resource-management objectives through the lens of sustainability.
Analyze region-specific examples of unsustainable use of water for agriculture.

This is largely achieved via student discussion and evaluation of texts and statistics provided to them. The text and statistics are derived from a variety of disciplines, mostly not from the geosciences. As such, the unit is very interdisciplinary, requiring students to synthesize disparate information and take a holistic perspective on water 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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Unit 2 opens a window into water accounting and reveals intensive water use that few people think about. How much water goes into common commodities? Have you considered how much water it takes to support our modern American lifestyle and agricultural trade? Water that is embedded in products and services is called virtual water. Looking at the world through the lens of virtual water provides a watery focus to thorny discussions about water such as: the pros and cons of globalization and long distance trade; self sufficiency vs. reliance on other nations; ecosystem impacts of exports; and the impacts of relatively cheap imports on indigenous farming. Unit 2 also introduces the concept of a water footprint. A water footprint represents a calculation of the volume of water needed for the production of goods and services consumed by an individual or country. In this unit students will calculate their individual footprints and analyze how the water footprints of countries vary dramatically in terms of gross volumes and their components. As a result of these activities, students will learn of vast disparities in water access and application. They will also be challenged to consider mechanisms or policies that could foster greater equity in water footprints.

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After an opening discussion of systems thinking and models, student use webDICE , an online Dynamic Integrated Climate Economy model developed by Center for Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy at the University of Chicago. Students will manipulate input parameters and interpret output in small groups in-class and individually out of class to complete the major mid-module assignment. The goal is to develop their understanding of the sources of uncertainty around future predictions of climate change and its impacts. Students are also introduced to the concept of Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) which is central to subsequent units in this module.

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This unit shows how GPS records of surface elevation can be used to monitor groundwater changes. Students calculate secular trends in the GPS time series and then use the original and detrended records to identify sites that are dominated by the elastic response to regional groundwater changes versus those dominated by local subsidence. They then compare the magnitude and timescales of fluctuations in Earth's surface elevation that result from sediment compaction, regional groundwater extraction, and natural climatic variability. This unit provides students with hands-on experience of the challenges and advantages of using geodetic data to study the terrestrial water cycle. The case study area is in California and the GPS records include the period of the profound 2012 -- 2016 drought.

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Note: Although the term GPS (Global Positioning System) is more commonly used in everyday language, it officially refers only to the USA's constellation of satellites. GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) is a universal term that refers to all satellite navigation systems including those from the USA (GPS), Russia (GLONASS), European Union (Galileo), China (BeiDou), and others. In this module, we use the term GPS even though, technically, some of the data may be coming from satellites in other systems.

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Online-ready: The exercise is electronic and could be done individually or in small online groups. Lecture is best done synchronously due to the technical nature. Discussion would be better that way too.

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In this unit, students explore water privatization and freshwater access issues within the geophysical and cultural context of Cochabamba, Bolivia. Students identify topographical features that create rain shadows and their relationship to the water cycle. As they discuss several alternative models for supplying water to the residents of Cochabamba, they link concepts of environmental justice to the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000.

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Students watch a video and read about past evacuations, including a premature or unnecessary evacuation, a late or botched evacuation, and about people determined to stay put no matter what. Students participate in a role-playing exercise about making the decision to evacuate in the face of uncertain predictions.

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In preparation for the activity a lecture is given on the properties and history of polychlorinated biphenyls and other contaminants. Each student is assigned to one of six groups with an interest in the outcome of the debate. The teams must meet and prepare a position paper on the proposed environmental dredging in the Upper Hudson River. Each team must represent the interests of its assigned constituency. Data and background information is found on the world wide web and from the instructor's collection of related articles. On the day of the debate the student's orally present their position paper (some make posters or powerpoint presentations). After each group has made their opening statement the invited guest senators on the panel (other faculty, myself, interested students, those who were absent for the preparation) ask each group a series of questions related to their stance. After this a general debate begins with detailed and sometimes heated discussions between the groups and the panel. A few moments are saved at the end of class and everyone is allowed to drop their assumed affiliation and speak their mind on what should be done. Before leaving the class is give a series of big picture topics to think about over the weekend and these are discussed during the next class.

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The Uranium Boom: Stop 9 Museum of the West Virtual Tour. Watch this short video to learn about a Museum of the West exhibit or collection to preview your field trip or for a virtual field trip if you are unable to attend in person. The Museum of the West is part of the Museums of Westen Colorado. The Uranium boom made Grand Junction famous. Its nickname became “The City That Glows.” David Bailey explains the effect the Uranium boom had on Grand Junction.

In this role-playing exercise, students represent groups interested in buying the same piece of land and will need to consult land-use laws.

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This module looks at the feasibility of using deeper wells as a source of low As water. The data sets are described in detail by van Geen et al. (van Geen et al., 2003; van Geen et al., 2002).

Students are being introduced to background information about the Arsenic problem in Bangladesh in lecture format. This includes health aspects and the history of the issue. They also have been using the sand tank groundwater model distributed by the University of Wisconsin Stevens Point (https://www.uwsp.edu/cnr-ap/watershed/Pages/GroundwaterModelWorkshop.aspx) to develop an intuitive understanding of groundwater flow and transport and are familiar with basic hydrogeological concepts. They inject a dye into the shallow aquifer of the model and study how pumping effects the migration of the Arsenic plume (Fig 1).

Students get an Excel spreadsheet that contains the longitude, latitude, and depth of 6000 wells and a satellite image that shows the area of investigation. They use Arc GIS software to plot data on the satellite image (Fig. 2), or alternatively plot the data as a function of longitude and latitude as a bubble plot in Excel. They find that the distribution of As in many regions is very heterogeneous. They then select sub-regions and look at the depth distribution and find that often there is a gap in the depth population of wells which turns out to be due to a clay layer varying in thickness that separates the shallow aquifer from the deep aquifer. The depth distribution (Fig. 3) of As also shows a characteristic pattern with most of the elevated As concentrated in the top 30 meters.
Students then discuss remediation options, in particular the possibility of switching to neighboring wells and using deeper groundwater as an alternative source of drinking water. They find that in many regions there are safe wells within a few hundred m of the high As well. However, it is not clear how long these wells will remain low in dissolved As and there are social barriers as well to use the neighbors well. They then determine a depth below which As concentrations are low in their region and elevate the risk of using deeper groundwater for drinking water and irrigation. They find that personal use is resulting in only ~1cm year-1 of water use, while irrigation (~1 m year-1) would considerably lower the water table and potentially could contaminate the deeper aquifer as well. The conclusion is that if deeper groundwater is utilized its use should be limited to personal use.

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To prepare for this project / assignment, students could view the 'A Civil Action' movie, the instructor could read to them excerpts from the book and/or the trial testimony, and show them images from Woburn, wells G and H, the subsurface geologic materials, geologic cross sections, the trial participants, and the federal courtroom in Boston (see below). The materials in Bair (2001) about scientists in the courtroom, specific (excerpted) testimony presented by the three expert witnesses in the 'A Civil Action' trial, a chart summarizing the differences in their testimony, and the views of a federal judge on the goal of science versus the goal of a civil trial may also be worthwhile reading by the class prior to the assignment.

The instructor could show students the large plates included in the USGS report by Myette and others (1987) that display potentiometric data and contours before and after the critically important aquifer test performed in December 1985 and January 1986, just before the trial, and discuss the significance of the stream discharge measurement made by the USGS upstream and downstream of municipal wells G and H to the experts' testimony and the outcome of the trial.

The instructor could also show the animations of TCE movement from 1960 to 1986 from the five known sources of TCE contamination at the Woburn Wells G & H Superfund Site (W.R. Grace, UniFirst dry cleaners, Olympia Trucking, Beatrice Foods, and New England Plastics) and the animation showing temporal changes in induced infiltration from the Aberjona River to wells G and H that were created by Martin van Oort (M.S., 2005) based on the research of Maura Metheny (M.S., 1998; Ph.D., 2004) at Ohio State University.

The article by Bair and Metheny (2002) concerning the remediation activities subsequent to the famous trial at the Wells G & H Superfund Site could be used to show how groundwater contamination is cleaned up, why different remediation schemes needed to be used in different hydrogeologic settings, and why cleanup to U.S. EPA standards can take decades.

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The Volcanic Hazards Simulation is a complex role-play used to teach upper-level undergraduate students about volcanic forecasting and emergency management through the management of an authentic volcanic scenario.

The WSCSS K-8 Conference was about culturally responsive teaching in Social Studies classrooms. Listen to recorded sessions from Washington educators.

These resources are available for free online viewing.

Water rights are a big deal for many reasons. In this lesson, students learn where water comes from, what water rights are, and how a variety of competing interests factor into managing water resources in Washington State.

Got a 1:1 classroom? Find fillable PDF versions of this lesson’s materials below.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Identify key factors involved in Washington’s water resource management
Explain the basics of water rights and the prior appropriation doctrine
Analyze how competing interests affect water resources
Predict how impacts on a water source could affect competing interests