Dr. Kristen Cecala: Using An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources in Biology 210 at Sewanee: the University of the South
Kristen Cecala, Sewanee: the University of the South
Ecology regularly integrates expertise developed in other disciplines to allow us to understand interactions in the natural world. Teaching concepts in ecosystem ecology that require rudimentary comprehension of chemistry for nutrient cycling and availability can be challenging for two reasons: 1) students have the misconception that scientific disciplines don't inform one another, and 2) nutrient cycling can seem abstract.

Meghann Jarchow: Using An Ecosystems Services Approach to Water Resources in Sustainability and Society at University of South Dakota
Meghann Jarchow, University of South Dakota
Using models to frame public discussions My course is one of two introductory, core courses for a sustainability major and minor. The course focuses on the environmental aspects of sustainability and is taught using team-based learning methods. My goals for the course include teaching students how to use some of the many scientific tools that have been developed for the public and teaching students how to translate the output from those tools into forms that can be used to effect positive environmental change. This module was an effective way to combine these two goals.

John B. Ritter: Using An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources in Environmental Geology at Wittenberg University
John Ritter, Wittenberg University
My course is an introductory environmental geology course taken by science and non-science students with content split between natural hazards and natural resources. The course is data-driven, using locally-available data or data from the U.S. Geologic Survey and state surveys, to analyze hazards and resources and their mitigation. This module was used to cover water resources but from the context of ecosystem services which, in my opinion, tended to broaden the interest among the biology majors in course. Students went from focusing on the generalities of ecosystem services that they mostly understood in a biotic context to using them to contextualize changes in the hydrologic cycle due to land use change.