Educating undergraduates about soil sustainability is central to our agricultural future. Soil erosion outpaces soil production and soil management is key. This teaching module provides undergraduates with activities that explore controls on soil formation and soil erosion in an applied context. Undergraduates examine the differences between landscapes and soil properties in intensively managed agricultural settings (e.g. grazelands, conventional tillage) and "natural" (forested or prairie) landscapes. Using hands-on activities, students develop a working knowledge of how our agricultural management practices influence soil properties. They examine soil profiles and spatial figures to make connections. This soil teaching module culminates with a project centered on making sustainable management decisions under global climate change.

The movement toward sustainable communities has brought into focus the centrality of food in our everyday lives and its myriad social, economic, and environmental connections. The purpose of this module, Food as the Foundation for Healthy Communities, is to position students to have engaging conversations about the social, economic, and environmental relationships between food, food producers, and health outcomes. The framework of this module is built on the platform of the food-energy-water connections in the context of community empowerment and environmental justice. This module offers students an opportunity to examine and refine their own perceptions regarding food production, good food access, and health outcomes. This module's design and format makes the conversation about good food and better health outcomes an attractive one—for both teachers and students. Students will see individual and community empowerment through sustainable food production efforts and food networks based on a range of partnerships. Engaging students in meaningful conversations and exchange of ideas about the relationships between food and health outcomes will inspire students to participate in the capacity building of their own communities with the goal of seeing fresh, affordable, accessible foods and improved health as commonplace. Participants will evaluate primary and secondary data sources, interpret findings, and synthesize information. The grand challenge is for human beings to return to a way of living that acknowledges that we will always be dependent on the natural environment and its offerings.

The Future of Food is an introductory-level science course that emphasizes the challenges facing food systems in the 21st century, including issues of sustainability, resilience, and adaptive capacity, and the challenges posed by food insecurity and modern diets to human health and well-being. Systems thinking permeates the course as students use a coupled human-natural system model throughout the course to explore the natural system (e.g., soils, water, climate, crops, pests) and its interconnection with our human food system. Twelve online modules, each designed for one week of instruction, include active-learning elements, reading materials, videos and exercises incorporating real data sets and the application of critical thinking and problem-solving skills to real-world issues. The course culminates in a capstone project in which students apply concepts explored through the semester to a particular food region. Students work on their assigned food regions throughout the semester. The online course materials and associated readings substitute for a course textbook. The materials for teachers provide options for customizing the modules for different class situations.

The 1996 World Food Summit declared food security to be "when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life." Over the next several decades, food security will continue to be one of the the most pressing issues facing our planet. In this three-week module, we take an Earth systems approach to understanding and addressing world food insecurity issues, and explore how social, economic, and political factors impact decision-making and can improve or compromise the biogeochemical interactions provided by the Earth system as they pertain to food production. Students will explore the very factors that cause food insecurity (including climate, socio-economic, and physical) through readings, lecture, case studies, and geospatial analysis using ArcGIS Online. The module will culminate with a summative assignment where students will design a community-based action plan utilizing a variety of data sources addressing food insecurity in a location of their choosing.

Water is the most critical substance for the sustenance of life, but the prognosis for the quality and supply of water resources in much of the world is somewhere between troubling and dire. This module provides a framework for students to learn about how people interact with water, peer into our water future, and consider ways we might foster more sustainability in water management. After assessing our major water challenges, the module has students learn about the concepts of water sustainability, virtual water trade, and water footprints. The focus then turns to the interplay between agriculture and water resources, as agriculture has the greatest impact on freshwater consumption and quality. The module has students use several types of data to understand the patterns of crop irrigation in the United States and link this to groundwater levels in different parts of the country. The module also has students assess how agriculture impacts the quality of freshwater resources and employ systems thinking as it relates to nutrient runoff and the development of the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zones.