Students will be required to answer a series of simple questions for this assignment based on material covered in lecture. This assignment also allows students the experience of searching a website for more specific information about hurricane statistics that are not covered in lecture. Hurricane Katrina will be discussed in lecture. Students will see where Katrina falls relative to other major hurricanes while answering the questions.

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This homework assignment is given in the first two weeks of class. Students receive one or two lectures that cover the topics of atmospheric layers, temperature and pressure profiles, concepts of atmospheric mass and pressure and measuring (i.e. dropsonde) instrumentation. At the beginning of each lecture I briefly show them the tropical update from the NOAA National Hurricane Center web site; if there is an active storm, I show where I go to get more info, such as the projected storm track and storm history (for example, from Intellicast Hurricane Tracking). Then, for this assignment, I reintroduce them to these hurricane information web sites and demonstrate how to find the historical data on tropical storms (such as from the Unisys Hurricane Data Archive), and how to copy and paste text data into word and/or excel, as a tab- or space-delimited file. I point out some problem areas with this data-grabbing method, such as headers that get lost from their associated data column or date information that may not format as dates.
I then hand out the assignment, which asks them to:

Find data on a current or recent (this year) tropical system, provide the name and year of the storm and the reference web site, and plot the wind speed and pressure variables against time. Students should label the axes and give a descriptive title to the chart.
Describe what they notice in the graphed data and if it seems believable (this allows students to decide if they have done the task correctly by using their understanding of the data).
Predict what will happen if the storm a) intensifies or b) weakens.
I then provide another data set (of any long-duration tropical storm that formed, weakened and later re-intensified) and ask them to go through the same process of plotting and interpretation.
I tell them that some future climate predictions are for more storms with lower central pressures and ask which of the two charts best represents that future scenario, and why.

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In this field exercise, students measure channel cross sections in a rough alluvial and smooth bedrock-floored reach in a local stream. This exercise is hypothesis-driven. The hypothesis states that increasing roughness decreases average stream velocity, and so the depth and/or width must increase for the rougher bed. Working in groups, students use hand levels, tape measures, and surveying rods to document channel geometry. They then must reduce the data and plot it as distance-elevation on a chart. Finally, they analyze and compare the results to the predicted roughness-hydraulic geometry relation. Students learn simple surveying methods to collect field data. Students compare real world data to theoretical predictions. Students gain insight into how bank and bed roughness influences water flow, and thus can also influence flood heights.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Integrates geomorphology into a core course in geology
Designed for an introductory geology course
Uses geomorphology to solve problems in other fields

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This assignment is designed to expose students in my undergraduate 3 credit non lab elective geohydrology course to a variety of hydrogeological environments and groundwater issues/problems that exist in the United States. Much of the course (field trip and local groundwater contamination case study) highlights and emphasizes understanding of the shallow unconsolidated aquifers in Michigan. Students use as their main source of information the data and illustration rich professional USGS Groundwater Atlases. Using this resource, in this activity students learn about the structure of aquifers in volcanic rock, karst and permafrost regions. They teach their fellow students about groundwater problems that result due due to overpumping, subsidence, sinkholes, saltwater intrusion and coal mining.

Key words:
hydrogeologic environments, water supply and water quality problems, aquifers

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This activity is a single, semester-long project that involves a hydrogeologic assessment of a property in Central Texas. The project is presented in the lab portion of a hydrogeology class, and it is broken into several separate steps. Each step is treated as a separate assignment, however, the data and results associated with each assignment are applied towards the overall goal of the project. Students are required to maintain a file and a master Excel workbook containing all information, data, and results from each of the steps. All this information is then used to develop an analytical model that simulated drawdowns in the aquifer. This model is used to answer the primary question associated with the project. The results are then documented in a technical report.

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At the University of Vermont, instructors used land use change, driven by development of the University of Vermont campus and recent student occupancy of surrounding neighborhoods in Burlington, Vermont, as an opportunity for service learning and for teaching fundamental hydrologic and geologic skills. Students from a Geomorphology class, Geohydrology class and student senior research projects all worked on the preoject. In each of these studies, students worked closely with City and University staff and presented results at local forums, professional national meeting, and on the World Wide Web. These service-learning projects have received positive feedback from the students, city officals, and community members.

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The transgressive coastal sequence, as a fundamental concept in stratigraphy, will be explored by the students in a hands-on activity based on a set of high-resolution seismic profiles collected in the shoreface off Assateague Island, Maryland and Virginia. Small groups of 2-3 students will identify primary surfaces, such as the ravinement surface and sequence boundaries, and major sedimentary facies, such as offshore shoals, flood-tidal deltas, and tidal inlets, in a set of shore-parallel and shore-perpendicular lines. The exercise begins with factors controlling relative sea level and leads into accommodation space and preservation potential.

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In this project, students work in small groups to formally characterize an aspect of a local igneous rock, based on petrography, hand sample descriptions, and SEM and/or CL analyses. Students have two lab sessions and a field trip dedicated to working on this suite of rocks: one for detailed petrographic analyses and another SEM or CL imaging and analysis. The field trip is the field component of the project. The individual labs are ungraded, but all are required for completion of the project.

Papers must include the following sections:
Introduction, Geologic History, Petrography, Chemical Analysis, Discussion, References, Appendix (contains copies of ALL notes, calculations, drafts and revisions)

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The goal of this assignment is to introduce students to the degree to which ecosystems, climate, and geography have varied through Earth history. It requires students to work in groups (which many resist) and to research each geologic period using the Paleo Portal website and external websites.

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In this exercise, students explore NOAA and the Climate Data Center websites that provide information about El Ni��o. The students are then asked interpret a series of maps to describe the key changes in climate conditions during El Ni��o and La Ni��a. Two locations of emphasized: North America and Australia to illustrate the contrast in climatic changes and allow for determination of the impacts close to home.

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Objectives
-Demonstrate to students the enormous amount of produce that is wasted daily because they do not fit the aesthetic criteria of producers, retailers, and consumers.
-Show students that fruits and vegetables that do not look “perfect” taste the same as ones you find in the store.

This module includes 10 topics related to finding, evaluating, and presenting scientific information related to climate change or other interdisciplinary topics.

The ultimate goal is for students to prepare a paper and present it to their colleagues as though they were giving it at typical professional meeting such as American Geophysical Union, Geological Society of America, or American Quaternary Association. However, the technical level of the talk should be at a level that the class will understand and enjoy.

The topic should demonstrate scientific method rather than being merely descriptive or primarily applied science/technology. Students should use current literature. The presentation will be more interesting if the subject is somewhat controversial. The final product should demonstrate that the student understands and has gained the skills presented in all 10 topics.

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It is still unknown whether the cluster of childhood leukemia cases in east Woburn was caused by TCE and PCE contamination from five known sources of contamination within the capture zones of municipal wells G and H, or whether the leukemias were caused by induced infiltration of Aberjona River water, which may have contained dissolved concentrations of arsenic, chromium, and lead. Several papers have been written about the arsenic, chromium, and lead contamination in Woburn. These papers could be read, combined with a broad discussion about mobility of heavy metals under different oxidation states, hypotheses drawn by the class, and experiments designed by the students to ascertain whether contaminated river water could have reached wells G and H. Designing an experiment to test an hypothesis is a higher-order thinking skill needed by all scientists and engineers.

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While the ionic composition of surface seawater is basically the same anywhere in the world's oceans, the chemistry of inland waters can vary by orders of magnitude over short distances. In this activity we explore a data set on surface water chemistry in almost 5000 lakes across the Nordic countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland). Water chemistry of lakes in this mostly sparsely populated region does not carry a strong signal from local human activity. This allows us to explore large-scale gradients related to distance to the ocean, soil and landscape characteristics, post-glacial history, and effects of long-distance pollutant transport processes.

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If two inscribed angles intercept the same arc, then the angles are equal. Drag the orange points to change the figure.

Students in our online, introductory geoscience courses are given the opportunity to participate in an environmental service learning project, led by the Center for Earth and Environmental Science (cees.iupui.edu), and reflect on the local and global impact of their service in a short writing assignment. The goals of the optional service learning participation are to (1) provide hands-on field experiences to students in online classes, (2) allow opportunities to connect course concepts to real-life environmental issues, and (3) increase students' environmental awareness, and (4) apply an understanding of sustainability to participation in environmental restoration projects. As part of a larger study with CEES, students complete a pre- and post-environmental awareness survey.

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This activity provides an introduction to 3D sketching. Students sketch a cube, boxes, and cylinders. They watch a video about how to sketch boxes and cylinders, and then sketch a few more.

An introduction to a wide variety of aerial photos and interpretation of geomorphology and geologic relationships.

This ready-to-adopt Introduction to Business course develops students’ understanding of business fundamentals with learning design structured around timely, real-world case studies and examples. Key topics include the role of business, the global economic and legal environment, ethics, marketing, accounting and finance, and managing processes and operations. Enriched OER content (text, video, simulations, etc.) orients students to the shifting business landscape and prepares them for success in business program curriculum and the workplace.

This course was written by Linda Williams of Tidewater Community College and Lumen Learning and is supplemented by content from OpenStax Principles of Economics, Boundless Business, and videos from multiple sources.

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Our Criteria
Accuracy and Currency
How accurate is the material, based on current standards in the field?
If the material is inaccurate, does it acknowledge conflicts in perspectives and changes over time?
If the material is outdated, does it serve other purposes (to provide historical perspective, to provoke discussion, or to serve as an example)?

Within this review of Lumen's Open Educational Resource (OER) Introduction to Business by Linda Williams, I chose to pick one part of the course content to review - Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The material is based on current standards within the business ethics foundation. This portion of CSR goes over current terminology such as "green-washing" and connects to current controversies within CSR, which is important to students going forward in business. Thus far, I see that this information serves discussion purposes, as well as historical relevance. The chapter starts with President Calvin Coolidge's vantage to of business not being a part of business, outside of people being a foundation to business.

Bias
How does the material acknowledge perspectives (of the authors, of other experts in the field, of critical voices, etc.)?
How does the material present facts, opinions, and judgments?
How does the licensing of the material allow the instructor to remix or revise biased content?

The material doesn't acknowledge the author's perspective, which doesn't give a bias. It does present facts within the chapter. In my review, I am unsure if educators can revise the content; but, educators can add portions of the course OER to their classrooms, i.e. CANVAS or Blackboard.

Ability to Overcome Barriers to Engagement
How does the material engage students? Does the material reflect student experience and views?
How do students access the material? Does it require technology skills? Can it be accessed in multiple ways through multiple means?
How does the material/resource respond to accommodative and adaptive technologies?

In reviewing the CSR chapter, I was happy to see video supporting "Increased Pressure from Consumers" subsection of the chapter. This could be a great reflection of students views. This material does require technology skills in order for access to this chapter and OER book. In my review, I was able to connect to the OER course and chapter through a desktop computer, but I did not connect via a mobile phone. For accessibility (ADA) purposes, it is possible to use "talk to text" or "speechnotes" with this OER.

Publishing Process & Licensing
How was the material published? What kind of review/editing process was used?
How is the material licensed and stored? Can it be remixed and revised as needed? Is it subscription-based and if so, who pays for the subscription?
What is the 'permanence' of this material? Is it temporal (likely to be removed or taken down)? What would be the back-up plan if license/access to this material is lost?

Depending if the educator uses "Waymaker", "OHM", or "Candela", each student could pay between $10 to $25 per student as a subscription, in comparison to over $100 for a textbook. Lumen offer workshops and training within their OER program.

Relevant to Course & Institution
How does this material align with course objectives and learning activities?

At the beginning of the CSR chapter, it gives student outcomes such has the definition of CSR, describe the impact of CSR to its stakeholders, and give examples to students of what CSR is within business. This material is align to "Introduction to Business" student outcomes, as well as to AACSB International accreditation.

Relevant to Students
How does the material reflect student interests and learning goals?
How does the material give student autonomy in their learning?
How does the material encourage interaction, critical thinking, and deeper learning/processing