Unit 2: Water Footprints part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
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 ...

Unit 3: Crops and Irrigation Patterns in the United States part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
This unit is designed to allow students to quantitatively assess how much water is used for irrigating crops and how this varies across the United States. This unit also has students link water use to the economic ...

Unit 1: What is Sustainability in the Context of Water? part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
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 ...

Unit 4: Irrigation and Groundwater Mining part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
Is groundwater mining sustainable? In Unit 4, students compare and contrast long-term (decades) groundwater well levels in six states representing the East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest Plains states. Satellite ...

Unit 3: Getting started with GPS data part of GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes
This unit provides essential background information on GPS (global positioning system) and reference frames. Students learn how to access GPS location and velocity data from the Network of the Americas (NOTA). They ...

Unit 2: Mashing it up: physical models of deformation and strain part of GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes
Students gain an intuitive understanding of strain and deformation through a series of physical model activities using everyday materials such as bungee cords, rubber bands, fabric, index cards, silly putty, sand, ...

Unit 6: Applying GPS strain and earthquake hazard analyses to different regions part of GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes
Students select their own set of three stations in an area of interest to them, conduct a strain analysis of the area between the stations, and tie the findings to regional tectonics and societal impacts in a 5–7 ...

Unit 4: GPS and infinitesimal strain analysis part of GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes
Students work with GPS velocity data from three stations in the same region that form an acute triangle. By investigating how the ellipse inscribed within this triangle deforms, students learn about strain, strain ...

Unit 5: 2014 South Napa Earthquake and GPS strain part of GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes
The 2014 South Napa earthquake was the first large earthquake (Mag 6) to occur within the Plate Boundary Observatory GPS network (now Network of the Americas- NOTA) since installation. It provides an excellent ...

Unit 2.1: Hydrologic Impact of Land-Use Change part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
In this activity, students model the impact of land-cover changes on stormwater runoff using the EPA's National Stormwater Calculator (Calculator). The students are introduced to the Calculator through a ...

Unit 5: Oceans in Protection: Marine Protected Areas part of Ocean Sustainability
Students will review current ocean pressures related to overfishing and human impacts on ocean ecosystems. By examining data collected in relation to the presence of marine reserves, students will explore long-term ...

Unit 2: Ocean Conditions: Ancient to Modern part of Ocean Sustainability
Students will be provided with seawater pH and carbon dioxide concentration (pCO2) data spanning as far back as 1850. They will describe trends in pH, pCO2 and atmospheric CO2 concentration, outline why these ...

Unit 5: Balancing the Radiation Budget: A Jigsaw Exploration of the Global Climate System (Part 2) 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 ...