In this media-rich lesson, students explore some of the ethical, legal, and social issues related to personal genetic testing and genome sequencing.

This case study explores decision-making in high risk settings such as back-country skiing. The scenarios presented have application to many field-based studies where of physical injury or even death may be an outcome in circumstances that have known predictable risks that must be evaluated. Go? or No Go? What factors must be considered to ensure the safety of the group while achieving desired objectives? What are the ethical responsibilities of group leaders and group members in high-risk situations? Recommended readings on high-risk decision making are provided.

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The purpose of the assignment is twofold: first, to expose students to what is sometimes called a "feminist" or "care" perspective in ethics. The second is for students to apply these abstract ideas in ethics to the very real and complex issues relating to climate change in environmental ethics.

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Dinosaur fossils capture the interest of students and the public, but their study, collection, and disposition often engender signficant highly-publicized controversy. As such, ethical dilemmas emerge around fossil discoveries in the realms of scientific research, including professional and personal conduct, educational and economic roles of museums, landowner rights, fossils as commodities in a capitalist economy, and science journalism. This project uses the controversy over a highly-publicized pair of dinosaur skeletons collected from private land to examine the myriad complexly intertwined ethical issues that arise from the attempt to sell these fossils at public auction for private financial benefit. Students planning careers in paleontology and geology need to be aware of these types of controversies and the ethical choices they will face.

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This collection of case studies deals with ethics involved in publishing research in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Often, graduate students learn about these ethics informally as they go along and are often unaware that individual journals often have their own formal policies. This activity is intended to present students with some scenarios of "what would you do?", as well as guide them to find and read ethics policies of at least 2 scientific journals.

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This project involves students in substantial community-based ethnographic research. Working cooperatively together as a consultancy team, the students learn to use ethnographic and other research methods. They also learn to empower and give voice to various stakeholders and to assemble and synthesize data for a formal report.

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This chapter details cell-cell communication highlighting studies performed in the model organism Dictyostelium discoideum. Topics covered include signaling molecules, cell surface receptors, and subversion of host cell signaling by pathogens.

This activity leads to understanding common landslide hazards in the area and how they relate to weather patterns and/or local geology.

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An in-class jigsaw activity, in which students play the role of investigators consulting on behalf of an industrial client seeking an appropriate location to site a new facility to handle environmentally-damaging materials, allows students to interactively tie together key aspects of decision-making (e.g. hazardous Earth processes, prevention/mitigation strategies, sustainability, and the incorporation of multiple types of data to solve complex problems). This activity was designed to be completed within one ~75 minute class meeting, although aspects of this activity can easily be modified to accommodate shorter class periods. In small groups, students examine one of five possible proposed sites for the facility, evaluating it based on its described geologic, economic, and/or social criteria. Students are then scrambled into new, larger groups, in which representatives of all five proposed sites report their findings, and then the sites are collectively ranked in order of preference. Rankings between the larger groups are compared and discussed as a class, including topics such as a comparison of criteria and overall rankings, descriptions of most beneficial and most needed data, and comparison of the activity to "real-life" scenarios.

This lesson unit addresses common misconceptions relating to probability of simple and compound events. The lesson will help you assess how well students understand concepts of: Equally likely events; randomness; and sample sizes.

Students use a series of maps and natural hazard data to evaluate the risk to a building structure of their choice in the state of California. For each hazard, students rate the potential risk in two dimensions: (1) Probability - probability that a hazardous event "may" occur, and (2) Severity of Impact - the size of the impact in terms of cost and impact on human health.

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In this in-class exercise, students compare several lines of evidence that support the ideas of continental drift and plate tectonics. Before the class meeting, each student is given a preparation assignment in which he/she studies one "continental drift" and one "ocean floor data" map. In class, students divide into teams of 3, with each team member having prepared different specialties. They discuss their respective maps and look for spatial patterns among the data.

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This assignment is best presented in two lab periods to represent the "before" and "after" scenarios of land use and their impact on hydrology. It requires documentation in map and/or airphoto form of land use in a specific watershed at two times: historical and modern. Historical USGS topographic maps from the 19th century were used in this case, along with digital orthophotos for the modern-day scenario. Some means of quantifying subareas within the watershed is also needed, either using software (ArcGIS) or transparent overlays and boxcounting from a translucent grid would work.
For each of the sets of documentation: historical and modern, the students follow the USDA-NRCS TR55 empirical procedure to estimate event runoff depths and peak estimated discharge from the watershed. An area-weighted curve number (CN) is calculated based on tabulated categories of land use. Some judgment is involved in adapting the tabulated land use categories to the specific watershed used, and selecting an appropriate statistical average rainfall event to use. The sum of Darcy's Law calculations of discharge along streamtubes to a surface stream or estuary provides a groundwater discharge value over time for comparison. Each of these parts of the activity provides opportunities for the instructor to discuss uncertainties and sources of error.
Note that although software allowing TR-55 analysis exists, it is simpler and more instructive to have students use the paper method and forms in the manual.

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This is a module framework. It can be viewed online or downloaded as a zip file.

As taught in Autumn Semester 2009/10

The 'Evaluation Techniques' module is one of the core modules taught on the Masters in Public Health which is offered by the Division of Epidemiology and Public Health at The University of Nottingham. This resource includes an overview of the module, a recommended reading list that supports the module and 3 of the 7 lectures that are delivered.

Suitable for study at Masters Level.

Dr Puja R Myles, School of Community Health Sciences - Epidemiology an Public Health

Dr. Puja Myles is an Associate Professor of Health Protection and Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham. She trained as a dentist at Panjab University, India and worked as a dentist in India before completing her specialist training in Public Health in the East Midlands. She completed a doctorate in Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham. She is currently part of the Health Protection Research Group at Nottingham and her research is primarily in respiratory disease epidemiology. She is also interested in evaluation methods and is currently involved in some public health service evaluations.

Explore the concept of evaporative cooling through a hands-on experiment. Use a wet cloth and fan to model an air-conditioner and use temperature and relative humidity sensors to collect data. Then digitally plot the data using graphs in the activity. In an optional extension, make your own modifications to improve the cooler's efficiency.

This is a comprehensive science textbook for Grade 12. You can download or read it on-line on your mobile phone, computer or iPad. Every chapter comes with video lessons and explanations which help bring the ideas and concepts to life. Summary presentations at the end of every chapter offer an overview of the content covered, with key points highlighted for easy revision. Topics covered are: organic molecules, organic chemistry, organic macromolecules, polymers, reaction rates, electrochemical reactions, the chemical industry, motion in two dimensions, mechanical properties of matter, work, energy and power, doppler effect, colour, 2D and 3D wavefronts, wave nature of matter, electrodynamics, electronics, electromagnetic radiation, optical phenomena and properties of matter, light, photoelectric effect, lasers. This book is based upon the original Free High School Science Text series.

This activity provides an opportunity for students to examine the evidence that supports climate change and engage in a classroom discussion and self-reflection on that experience and empower them to consider their own actions and how they can make changes in their life practices

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This NASA website provides a summary of a study led by NASA's David McKay that may provide evidence for past life on Mars. McKay and his team found carbonate globule features on the ALH84001 meteorite that appear to be nanofossils. In addition, secondary mineral phases and hydrocarbons provide further evidence for past life. The website features color photographs as well as links to related web pages.

This activity introduces students to the idea that all living organisms must compete for food. Students control a rabbit in a field with edible plants, at first alone, and later joined by computer-controlled rabbits. With such competition it becomes harder and harder for the students to keep their rabbit alive. Students shift their thinking from a focus on individual organisms to a concern for the well-being of the population as a whole. (Evolution Activity 6 of 10.)

This activity places the control of the environment under the student's control. A field starts off with a uniform light level, and thus capable of growing plants with medium-sized leaves. Students can alter the environment by 'growing' a chain of mountains through the field. Students are challenged to grow the mountains to their maximum height (corresponding to the maximum change in light level on either side of the chain) while maintaining a viable population of plants on each side. (Evolution Activity 4 of 10.)