Home Energy Audit/Retrofits
Barbara Whitten, Colorado College; Sally Meyer, Colorado College; Mark Morgenstern, Colorado College
Home energy audit/retrofits allow students to apply thermodynamic principles to planning and executing a retrofit to make an existing home more energy efficient.

Where does your energy come from? Analyzing your energy bill
Mary Savina, Carleton College
Students use utility bills to determine the cost and sources of energy in their households.

An Environmental Assessment of Newark Road Prairie
Sue Swanson, Beloit College
The goal of this exercise is for students to complete a basic environmental assessment of Newark Road Prairie, a 35-acre wet-mesic prairie and state natural area owned by Beloit College. The exercise is completed ...

The Virtual Geology of Beloit College (using handheld PCs)
Sue Swanson, Beloit College
The goals of this exercise are for students to create their own geologic map and cross-section of the Beloit College campus and to describe the geological history of the campus based on their interpretations. The ...

Gathering field data using a GPS and ArcGIS 9.3 Part 1: Collecting Point Data
Jeff Clark, Lawrence University
Students learn how GPS and GIS can be used to gather and analyze point data. The main outcome is a digital map of campus trees classified by size and type. The technical skills learned in this lab will be used in a ...

Common Resource Experiment: Simulating Tragedy of the Commons in a Classroom
Dmytro Zhosan, Ripon College; Aaron Swoboda, Carleton College; Steve Holland, Luther College; David Hayes, Coe College
An in-class activity intended to introduce students to the Tragedy of the Commons, its causes and potential solutions.

Gathering field data using a GPS and ArcGIS 9.3 Part 2: streaming data and contouring
Jeff Clark, Lawrence University
This exercise introduces streaming data collection using ArcGIS and a GPS receiver. Analysis of these data serve as an introduction to the art of contouring and topographic map making. Routines within ArcGIS ...

Spatial Distribution of Lead in Urban Soils
Jeff Clark, Lawrence University
Students gather soil samples and collect information on property attributes (size, exterior type, condition, etc.) in order to analyze the spatial distribution of lead in soils in the neighborhood around Lawrence ...

The Effects of Storm Water Management on Water Quality
Jeff Clark, Lawrence University
This lab follows the skill development lab "Gathering Point Data using a GPS and ArcGIS 9.3." The topic is storm water detention ponds, which are designed in part to improve water quality. Using in-situ ...

Meal Satisfaction and Sustainability for Psychology
Lee, Jen, Coe College; Kent Simmonds, Luther College; Betsy Hutula, ACM; Jen Lee, Coe College

Remembering the Model T
Jim Farrell, St Olaf College

Understanding and Analyzing an Environmental Controversy
Steve Martin, Ripon College
Students will write a paper that analyzes a particular controversy that is related to the environment or issues of sustainability. In so doing, they will discover the role discourse plays in resolving, or failing to resolve, the different goals of competing interests.

Climate Change: Carbon Dioxide Data Analysis
Brock Spencer, Beloit College; Marty St. Clair, Coe College; Brad Spturgeon, Monmouth College

PANning for Facts
Tom Hicks, Coe College; Elise Y. Cross Associates, Inc.; Delyte Frost
This PANning observation presentation can help participants see the realities of their surroundings. Paired with almost any topic, it can shed new light on participants' experiences with issues of social justice and equality while helping them develop agency.

My Environmental Histories
Jim Farrell, St Olaf College
In American Environmental History, we emphasize the idea that everybody makes history every day, and that ideas and institutions have long-term environmental impacts that are often unobserved in history or in life. This final exam allows students to integrate their learning, and personalize it, seeing how their own lives are historically constructed, and how they can make history by constructing their lives differently. The exam also allows me to read papers that are academic and practical and personal, and a lot more interesting than conventional test questions.

Looking Back at History
Jim Farrell, St Olaf College
Students research an organism/commodity in the colonial period of American history, and write a first-person narrative/autobiography of its history as European settlers reshaped the environment (mental and physical) of North America.

Exploring in the Footsteps of Columbus: Letters Back Home
Nancy Gates-Madsen, Luther College; Anne-Marine Feat, Luther College
Students will write a letter back home describing a "pristine" wilderness scene of a Caribbean beach. They will compare their descriptions to Columbus's diary chronicling his first impressions of Hispaniola, paying attention to: 1. what is seen (and not seen) 2. the filter/frame of reference used to describe the landscape 3. the rhetoric of the letters.

Experiencing Systemic Thinking
Craig Mosher, Luther College
This teaching activity will assist social work students to experience and understand social and natural systems through observing and writing about their observations.

Phenology Plot Project
Suzanne Savanick Hansen, Macalester College; Jim Farrell, St. Olaf College
Students pick one place in the Carleton Arboretum to spend at least 20 minutes observing the biodiversity in that one place at least six times during the term. Students must record observations visually and with the written word and share their final projects with the class.

Treating Mental Illness Around the World
Susan Long, Lake Forest College
This activity asks students to understand indigenous mental health treatments and compare them globally.