Unit 1: Energy, Space, and Earth's Effective Temperature part of Earths Thermostat
This unit is designed to engage students by introducing them to patterns in recent climate and investigating possible reasons for recent changes. Students work in small groups to plot and analyze real-world ...

Unit 2: Earth's Atmosphere and Its Influence on Temperature part of Earths Thermostat
This unit investigates the role of the atmosphere on incoming solar and outgoing terrestrial radiation and analyzes modern trends in greenhouse gas concentrations. Students first investigate radiation spectra to ...

Unit 4: Earth's radiation balance - a map and graph-based jigsaw part of Earths Thermostat
In this two-day activity spanning Units 4 and 5, students analyze spatial variation in climate through a map-based jigsaw exploration of NASA's Clouds and Earth's Radiant Energy Systems (CERES) Energy ...

Unit 6: Capstone: A modern catastrophic volcanic eruption? part of Earths Thermostat
This unit is the module's capstone project: developing a conceptual model of the climatic and societal effects of a catastrophic volcanic eruption occurring in modern times. Through independent research and ...

Unit 5: Circulation in the atmosphere - a map and cross section based jigsaw part of Earths Thermostat
In this optional activity, students analyze maps of wind patterns from three levels in the atmosphere in order to infer global atmospheric circulation patterns and their role in balancing the radiation budget they ...

Unit 4: Geomorphic change detection part of Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM
Applications of geodetic imaging in geomorphology research often center on monitoring and detecting change within a system over time. Since most geomorphic systems evolve over longer time periods—months, years, ...

Unit 5: Summative assessment project part of Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM
Unit 5 is the summative assessment for the module. This final exercise takes eight to ten hours. The exercise evaluates students' developed skills in survey design, execution of a geodetic survey, and simple ...

Unit 3: Geodetic survey of a fault scarp part of Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM
In this unit, students will design a survey (TLS and/or SfM) of a fault scarp. After conducting the survey in the field, students will analyze the data to identify the number and magnitude of possible fault ...

Unit 2: Geodetic survey of an outcrop for stratigraphic analysis part of Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM
Geodetic survey techniques, such as TLS and SfM featured here, have many applications in sedimentology research, including lithological identification and analysis, sediment surface topography, and sequence ...

Unit 1-TLS: Introduction to TLS part of Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM
Field experience using geodetic and geophysical tools provides a unique opportunity for upper-level undergraduates to learn research skills applicable to their future graduate research or career path. This unit ...

Unit 1-SfM: Introduction to SfM part of Analyzing High Resolution Topography with TLS and SfM
This unit introduces students to Structure from Motion (SfM). SfM is a photogrammetric technique that uses overlapping images to construct a 3D model of the scene and has widespread research applications in ...

Unit 1: Introduction to Systems Thinking – What is a System? part of Systems Thinking
This unit introduces systems and systems thinking. The unit is easily adaptable to any course and includes an introduction of terminology, motivation for using systems thinking, and practice reading, as well as ...

Unit 3: Modeling a System part of Systems Thinking
This unit introduces systems modeling, which allows students to quantify and manipulate system components to create system responses. Students use a simple systems model of a bathtub to explore the effect of flow ...

Unit 4: Feedbacks in a System part of Systems Thinking
Feedbacks are a critical part of many systems. In this unit, students use a systems model to explore the effect of positive (reinforcing) and negative (balancing) feedbacks on system behavior. Model results are ...

Isotope Hydrograph Separation part of Data and Model Driven Hydrology Education:Units
Separation of hydrographs into event and pre-event fractions based on measurements and data, rather than arbitrary formulae, was a revolutionary technique in watershed hydrology in the 1970s and has continued to be ...

Unit 3: Geologic Record of Past Climate part of Carbon, Climate, and Energy Resources
Students will be introduced to a few of the different methods used in paleoclimatology, including isotopic ratios as paleotemperature proxies. They will investigate the greenhouse gas connections of two ancient ...

Unit 8. Impacts of Extreme Hydroclimatic Events part of Water Sustainability in Cities
Unit 8 covers the basics of hydroclimatic extreme events with a focus on floods and droughts. Topics include introduction to floods and droughts, impact of urbanization on extremes, how to understand and predict ...

Unit 7. Low Impact Development and Green Infrastructure part of Water Sustainability in Cities
Unit 7 continues the use of the CME Building Case Study to explore water sustainability in the context of a building. The activity is extended to the catchment level, and a new tool for catchment level storm water ...

Unit 3. Urban Water - Atmospheric Environment Interactions part of Water Sustainability in Cities
Unit 3 addresses concepts related to urban-atmosphere interactions. The content explores how urban landscapes and atmospheric constituents modify or interact with the atmosphere to affect temperature, clouds, ...

Unit 6. Rainwater Harvesting part of Water Sustainability in Cities
Unit 6 covers the preliminary design of a rainwater harvesting unit. Pre-class assignments provide background on rainwater harvesting. An active learning exercise steps student teams through the process of sizing a ...