Redlining Practices of the 1930s Leading to the Effects of Extreme Heat Waves Today
Tracy Fields, Bellevue Community College
This assignment relates the redlining practices from the 1930s, the corresponding freeway placement in the 1950s through 1970s, and the marginalized communities that are disproportionately affected most by extreme heat waves due to these practices and subsequent freeway placement.

Old Sticks in the Mud: Hazards of Lahars from Mount Rainier Volcano
Patrick Pringle, Centralia College
Volcanic debris flows (lahars) flow long distances, bury and aggrade river valleys, and cause long-term stream disturbances and dramatic landscape changes. Students will evaluate the nature, scale, and history of ...

Water and Civic Responsibility: An Online Discussion Exercise
Rob Viens, Bellevue Community College
Students apply their science learning to regional issues related to water quantity and quality.

Problem-Solving: Where to Put the Poop
Barry Maxwell, Whatcom Community College

Mapping Stormwater Runoff Infrastructure for the City of Bothell
Robert Turner, University of Washington-Bothell Campus
Term-long course activity for student groups to map the flow of stormwater runoff on newly developed or altered properties in and for the City of Bothell.

Using Google Earth Layers to Understand Local Geomorphology
Ralph Hitz, Tacoma Community College; Peter Selkin, University of Washington-Tacoma Campus
Using Google Earth to understand how geomorphology may control shallow groundwater flooding and surface hydrology.

Seeing Sustainability
Kate Davies, Antioch University McGregor
This assignment requires students to reflective observations of a particular place and to identify signs of sustainability and unsustainability.

Ethnographic Methods for Community Visioning
Karen Gaul, The Evergreen State College
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.

Town Planning using Geological Constraints
Tracy Furutani, North Seattle Community College
Students are divided into teams, each charged with writing a plan for the expansion of a fictional town in the North Cascades foothills. The town council (the instructor) has decided upon several expansion projects, such as an airport and housing subdivisions, and the student teams receive information about the bedrock geology, hydrology, soils, and slope stability of the area. Students present their plans in a open forum to the other students, and there is a vote of the students on the most reasonable science-based plan.