InTeGrate Modules and Courses >Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society > Student Materials > Module 3: Coastal Systems: Landscapes and Processes > Coastal Wetlands and Maritime Forests > Unit Summary
InTeGrate's Earth-focused Modules and Courses for the Undergraduate Classroom
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These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
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These student materials complement the Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society Instructor Materials. If you would like your students to have access to the student materials, we suggest you either point them at the Student Version which omits the framing pages with information designed for faculty (and this box). Or you can download these pages in several formats that you can include in your course website or local Learning Managment System. Learn more about using, modifying, and sharing InTeGrate teaching materials.

Unit Summary

In this unit the wide range of coastal environments that exist globally were introduced and discussed in terms of their morphologies and the fundamental processes that contribute to their existence. A focus of the unit has been to point out that processes such as plate tectonics (Unit 2) may affect the characteristics of a coast at the scale of several 100 to 1000's of kilometers along a continental margin but within such an extent of coast there may be smaller scale (10's to 100's of kilometers) systems that are considerably different from one another. For example the trailing edge coast of eastern North America varies substantially from Canada to Florida, with rocky coastline characteristics in Canada and the northeastern U.S. to major barrier island systems farther south around the mid-Atlantic States (ie North Carolina) of the United States. These variations along a continental margin are a result of sediment supply, climate, and hydrodynamic regime that also vary along the length of continental margins. As a result a wide variety of coastal landscapes/systems are possible.

These materials are part of a collection of classroom-tested modules and courses developed by InTeGrate. The materials engage students in understanding the earth system as it intertwines with key societal issues. The collection is freely available and ready to be adapted by undergraduate educators across a range of courses including: general education or majors courses in Earth-focused disciplines such as geoscience or environmental science, social science, engineering, and other sciences, as well as courses for interdisciplinary programs.
Explore the Collection »