John Ritter

Unit 1: Recognizing Ecosystem Services and their Relation to the Hydrologic Cycle part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
In this module, students investigate the ecosystem services associated with local landscapes, particularly in relation to water resources. This unit, the first of three, provides students with the foundational ...

Unit 2: Measuring and Modeling Ecosystem Services part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
In this unit, students will model stormwater runoff for a landscape that has different land covers, to reflect the changes in the hydrologic cycle as land use changes. In doing this, they will (a) recognize the ...

Unit 3: Using an Ecosystem Services Approach for Civic Engagement part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
In this unit, students will explore the larger context in which ecosystem services are often utilized and real-world proposals for land-use change typically occur. Presented with a scenario for a proposed land-use ...

Unit 2.1: Hydrologic Impact of Land-Use Change part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
In this activity, students model the impact of land-cover changes on stormwater runoff using the EPA's National Stormwater Calculator (Calculator). The students are introduced to the Calculator through a ...

A Curricular Approach to Facilitating Transdisciplinary Thinking about Sustainability part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2023:Program:Poster Sessions:Friday Poster Session
Addressing the United Nations Sustainable Development goals requires educating a citizenry who can undertake the wicked problems of sustainability from multiple disciplinary perspectives. It requires curricular ...

Assessing Student Transdisciplinary Thinking about Sustainability through Wicked Problems part of Earth Educators Rendezvous:Previous Rendezvous:Rendezvous 2022:Program:Oral Sessions:Monday Oral Session A
To address the wicked problems of sustainability in a global economy, students need instruction that drives them to use systems thinking and integrate ideas from across multiple disciplines. The NSF-funded ...

A New Model for Transdisciplinary Curriculum Development in Higher Education Using the Wicked Problems of Sustainability part of Transforming Institutions Conference 2023:Program:Presentations:Session H
A scientifically literate citizenry is essential to meet the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals and ensure that the U.S. remains economically competitive in an increasingly resource-constrained society. Yet neither ...

John B. Ritter: Using An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources in Environmental Geology at Wittenberg University part of An Ecosystem Services Approach to Water Resources
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.