Unit 1: Monitoring Volcanic Activity at Mount St. Helens part of Monitoring Volcanoes and Communicating Risks
Rachel Teasdale (California State University-Chico) and Kaatje van der Hoeven Kraft (Whatcom Community College)
How can data from an impending volcanic dome-building event be used to forecast the hazard to a surrounding community? In this activity, students will examine geodetic data (GPS and lidar) and seismic data in a ...

Unit 4: Comparing risks at different volcanoes part of Monitoring Volcanoes and Communicating Risks
Rachel Teasdale (California State University Chico) and Kaatje van der Hoeven Kraft (Whatcom Community College)
Students assess the risks from three different volcanoes based on the Risk Equation, Risk = Hazard x Value x Vulnerability. The three volcanoes--Fuego Guatemala, Rinjani Indonesia, and Moana Loa Hawaii--have ...

Unit 2: Kilauea Hawai'i - Monday Morning Meeting at the USGS Hawai'i Volcano Observatory part of Monitoring Volcanoes and Communicating Risks
Kaatje van der Hoeven Kraft, Whatcom Community College and Rachel Teasdale, California State University-Chico
How do volcanologists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory monitor volcanoes? In a jigsaw format, students first work in teams to learn one of the four volcano monitoring data sets (GPS, Tilt, Seismic and InSAR) and ...

Unit 8: Thermohaline Circulation part of Modeling Earth Systems
David Bice, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
In this module, students first review some background material on density-driven deep currents in the oceans, and then create a STELLA model of the thermohaline circulation in the North Atlantic Ocean. The model ...

Unit 1: Foundational Concepts part of Major Storms and Community Resilience
Lisa Doner, Plymouth State University; Lorraine Motola, Metropolitan College of New York; Patricia Stapleton, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Unit 1 introduces foundational concepts in geoscience, emergency management, and political science that are critical for developing a systems thinking approach and for achieving the learning objectives in the storm ...

Unit 2: Application of Concepts to Case Studies part of Major Storms and Community Resilience
Patricia Stapleton, Worcester Polytechnic Institute; Lisa Doner, Plymouth State University; Lorraine Motola, Metropolitan College of New York
In Unit 2, students apply and evaluate foundational concepts about storm hazards and risk in the context of two cases studies: Superstorm Sandy (2012) and the Storm of the Century (1993). Through different ...

Module 8.1: Cities in Peril: Dealing with Water Scarcity part of Water Science and Society
Demian Saffer and Michael Arthur, Pennsylvania State University and Patrick Belmont, Utah State University
In this first part of Module 8, we will focus on current strategies for addressing water scarcity. In part, these strategies have arisen within the confines of water laws that have shaped the history of water ...

Module 9: Water and Politics part of Water Science and Society
Michael Arthur and Demian Saffer, Pennsylvania State University
In this module, we will entertain several examples of international "water wars," referring to conflicts that occur within or between countries as the result of failed treaties and agreements, water ...

Module 4: Flood and Drought part of Water Science and Society
Patrick Belmont, Utah State University
In this module, we will discuss the causes, implications and ways to characterize and predict what are often referred to as "extreme events" in hydrology: floods and droughts. Such events play important ...

Unit 4: Irrigation and Groundwater Mining part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
Chris Sinton, Ithaca College
Is groundwater mining sustainable? In Unit 4, students compare and contrast long-term (decades) groundwater well levels in six states representing the East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest Plains states. Satellite ...