Action to Enhance Sustainability part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences:Activities
Bill Stigliani, University of Northern Iowa
This assignment is a 10-hour, out-of-class project where each student designs and carries out an action plan to enhance sustainability. Students select from a large suite of alternative actions, most of which can be quantified for reductions in CO2 and energy consumption, as well as in dollar savings.

Habitat for Humanity Build Day part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences:Activities
Lori Troxel, Vanderbilt University
Teaching sustainability through Habitat for Humanity.

8. Efficiency and Conservation part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Maurice Crawford, University of Maryland-Eastern Shore
Household energy use accounts for a significant portion of the nation's energy use; therefore, an important aspect of energy conservation is having buildings that are energy efficient. In this activity, ...

9. Hybrid and Electric Cars part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Randolph Chambers, College of William and Mary
This module reviews the history of the automobile and its varied power sources, culminating in the latest versions of hybrid and electric cars.

7. Better Ways to Illuminate part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Maurice Crawford, University of Maryland-Eastern Shore
In this module, students compare three types of lamps that are used for lighting: incandescent, compact fluorescent (CFL) and light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Students collect data on the amount of heat and light ...

5. Passive Designs part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Randolph Chambers, College of William and Mary
In this module, we consider how the actual design and placement of buildings can be important considerations for energy efficiency, thereby optimizing winter heating and summer cooling needs. One of the simplest ...

Capstone Project part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
For those teaching the modules as an entire course, we provide a capstone summary assessment activity. This activity is designed to incorporate scaffolding of the material, to use the gained knowledge to do ...

Energy Gallery Walk part of Energy:Energy Activities
Katharine Ellis, Front Range Community College
This is a cooperative learning activity using the Gallery Walk Strategy (strategy from the Starting Point Gallery Walk web pages) to enrich student understanding of the complex nature of solving our nation's ...

How Much Energy is on my Plate? part of CLEAN:CLEAN Network:Teaching Materials
Lane Seely, Karin Kirk
This activity is part of the community collection of teaching materials on climate and energy topics. This activity was submitted by faculty as part of the CLEAN Energy Workshop, held in April, 2011. This activity ...

The Lifestyle Project part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Experience-Based Environmental Projects
Karin Kirk, Montana State University/SERC and John J. Thomas, Skidmore College
This three-week project challenges students to learn about environmental alternatives by modifying their own lifestyles. Throughout the project, students reduce their impacts on the environment by changing the way in which they live from day to day.

From Grid to Home part of Energy:Energy Activities
Lisa Gardiner; Marie Johnson, United States Military Academy; Jonathan Hoffman, University of Wyoming
This one-period classroom activity is designed to have students analyze energy use, cost, and source patterns from household to regional scales and relate these patterns to CO2 emissions. This idea was generated at ...

Calculation of your personal carbon footprint part of Energy:Energy Activities
Scott Giorgis, SUNY College at Geneseo
This worksheet walks the students through the steps for calculating their personal carbon footprint. Additionally it helps them consider options for reducing their carbon footprint and the potential costs of those ...

Comparing Carbon Calculators part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Teaching with Data:Examples
Mark McCaffrey
Carbon calculators, no matter how well intended as tools to help measure energy footprints, tend to be black boxes and can produce wildly different results, depending on the calculations used to weigh various ...

The Lifestyle Project at Vancouver Island University, British Columbia part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Experience-Based Environmental Projects
Steven Earle, Geology Department, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada
The project is used in two courses, both with the theme of understanding the environmental implications of our use of energy, exploring personal energy use, and learning about the types of energy available to Canadians. One is a face-to-face course for Education majors, the other is an on-line course available to all upper-level (3rd and 4th year) students.

Home Energy Audit/Retrofits part of ACM Pedagogic Resources:ACM/FaCE:Projects:Integrating Sustainability into the Undergraduate Curriculum:Activities
Barbara Whitten, Colorado College
Home energy audit/retrofits allow students to apply thermodynamic principles to planning and executing a retrofit to make an existing home more energy efficient.

Resource Usage Project and Journal part of Energy:Energy Activities
Gina Szablewski, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Students keep track of one resource (water, electricity, gas, etc.) they use for a 7-day period. They summarize their usage patterns, give opinions, and get some self-realization about their habits.

Campus Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Campus Living Laboratory:Examples
Suzanne Savanick, Macalester College. Email: shansen2@macalester.edu Suzanne Savanick and Chris Wells co-taught a class like this for the Macalester College environmental studies senior seminar during spring 2008.
Students conduct a greenhouse gas emission inventory for their college or university. Students analyze findings and present information to the college or university community. -

Cost Effectiveness of Increased Fuel Efficiency part of Pedagogy in Action:Library:Teaching Quantitative Reasoning with the News:Examples
Stuart Boersma, Central Washington University
In this example students examine and critique an argument which implies that it is not cost effective to pay for an automobile with increased fuel efficiency. Using a few reasonable assumptions shows that some of ...

The Lifestyle Project at the University of Redlands part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Experience-Based Environmental Projects
Chris Sinton, Ithaca College
This three-week project begins with a measurement of "baseline" consumptive behavior followed by two weeks of working to reduce the use of water, energy, high-impact foods, and other materials. The ...

The Lifestyle Project at West Chester University of Pennsylvania part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Experience-Based Environmental Projects
Tim Lutz, West Chester University of Pennsylvania
This five-week project asks students to examine the environmental outcomes of their lifestyle choices, to investigate and try out more sustainable choices, and to write about their experiences.