Module 7: Soils and a Systems Approach to Soil Quality part of Future of Food
This module introduces what is meant by soil quality or soil health, indicators of soil quality, and the multiple cropping system approaches that can enhance soil quality for agricultural production. In the first ...

Module 8: Pests and Integrated Pest Management part of Future of Food
This module introduces three types of agricultural pests (insects, weeds, and pathogens), integrated pest management, and some of the transgenic crop technologies developed to reduce crop pests.

Module 9: Climate Change part of Future of Food
Module 9 is dedicated to climate change and explores the role that agriculture plays in human-induced climate change and the impacts that climate change may have on agriculture. In addition, adaptation strategies ...

Module 11: Human-Environment Interactions part of Future of Food
Module 11 focuses on the way that human-environment interactions in food systems respond to stress. Food production systems and food systems in general face adversity and must have sources of resilience to overcome ...

Module 1: Introduction part of Future of Food
In the two introductory modules (1.1 and 1.2) of the course we will introduce the main theme of the course: learning about food systems as systems that combine human social systems, with the natural earth system ...

Module 2: History of Food Systems part of Future of Food
This second module in the Future of Food course provides a historical overview of the emergence and development of food systems until the present. Module 2.1, the first half of this module, describes the transition ...

Module 3: Diet and Nutrition part of Future of Food
Module 3 covers the nutritional needs to which human consumption patterns ideally respond within food systems, and some of the nutritional challenges (related to both deficit and excess of diet components) that are ...

Capstone Project Stage 1 part of Future of Food
The goal of the Future Food Scenarios capstone project is for the students to investigate the food systems in a particular region in depth, and in particular to identify the current situation, determine the ...

Module 4: Food and Water part of Future of Food
In this module, students will be introduced to the connections between water and agriculture. The first part of the module (4.1) explores how water is essential for growing food and how water is embedded in all of ...

Module 5: Soils and Nutrients part of Future of Food
The purpose of this module is to give you as a learner a basic grounding in the nature of soils and soil nutrients. Module 5.1 provides the foundation for understanding soils, soil nutrients, and their connection ...

Module 6: Crops part of Future of Food
This module introduces students to key features of crop plants. The first part explores how climate and soil influence human selection of annual and perennial plants and how plant life cycles contribute to soil ...

Module 12: Capstone Stage 5 part of Future of Food
Module 12 is comprised of Stage 5 of the semester-long capstone project. In Stage 5, students compile, organize, summarize and synthesize the data and information they've collected through the semester about ...

Module 10: Food Systems part of Future of Food
Module 10 continues the theme of human-environment interactions seen at a smaller scale with agroecosystems in Module 8, and develops the ideas of coupled human-natural systems (CHNS) begun at the beginning of the ...

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 ...

7. Better Ways to Illuminate part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
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 ...

4. Creating Electricity from Light part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
This module introduces students to the various ways electricity is made from solar radiation. It provides a historical approach following advances over the last two centuries. Students see these technologies in ...

8. Efficiency and Conservation part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
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
This module reviews the history of the automobile and its varied power sources, culminating in the latest versions of hybrid and electric cars.

5. Passive Designs part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
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 ...

6. Energy from and to the Earth part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
This module compares the spatial availability of geothermal resources for heating and cooling and evaluates different ground exchange systems for practical application. The operation of enhanced geothermal systems ...