Future of Food
Future of Food Gigi Richard (Colorado Mesa University) Heather Karsten (Pennsylvania State University) Steve Vanek (Pennsylvania State University) Karl Zimmerer (Pennsylvania State University') Editor: Timothy Bralower (Pennsylvania State University)
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 ...

Modeling Earth Systems
David Bice, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll; Louisa Bradtmiller, Macalester College; Kirsten Menking, Vassar College
In this course, we develop the qualitative and quantitative tools for constructing, experimenting with, and interpreting dynamic models of different components of the Earth system. The integrated set of ten modules ...

Water: Science and Society
Demian Saffer, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus; Tim Bralower, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus; Michael Arthur, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus; Patrick Belmont, Utah State University
Water: Science and Society is a 10-module (12-week) general education course focused on the interrelationships between water and human activities from a science and policy standpoint. The course blends key readings ...

Critical Zone Science
Critical Zone Science Timothy White (Pennsylvania State University) Adam Wymore (University of New Hampshire) Ashlee Dere (University of Nebraska - Omaha) Adam Hoffman (University of Dubuque) James Washburne (University of Arizona) Martha Conklin (University of California, Merced) Susan Gill (Stroud Water Research Center) Editor: David Gosselin (University of Nebraska - Lincoln)
This course introduces and examines the Critical Zone (CZ), Earth's permeable layer that extends from the top of vegetation to the bottom of the fresh groundwater zone. It is a constantly evolving boundary ...

Water, Agriculture, and Sustainability
Chris Sinton, Ithaca College; nicole davi, William Paterson University of New Jersey; Robert Turner, University of Washington-Bothell Campus; terri plake, Northwest Indian College; Dave Gosselin, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
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 ...

Coastal Processes, Hazards and Society
Tim Bralower, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus; diane maygarden, University of New Orleans; Sean Cornell, Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania
This blended and online course will provide students with a global perspective of coastal landscapes, the processes responsible for their formation, diversity, and change over time, as well as societal responses to ...

Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability Benjamin Cuker (Hampton University) Maurice K. Crawford (University of Maryland--Eastern Shore) Randolph M. Chambers (College of William and Mary) Editor: David Gosselin (University of Nebraska at Lincoln)
This course will explore a variety of sustainable technologies with emphasis on understanding the fundamental scientific properties underlying each. Students will also examine appropriate applications of the ...

Heather Karsten: Using "The Future of Food" in 2016
Heather Karsten, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
This is a new introductory course on agriculture and food systems, the challenges and some potential strategies for sustainability. I co-taught the course with Steven Vanek and I was the instructor for three modules. This was my first experience teaching a "flipped class". Students were responsible for reading online, taking a weekly quiz online and submitting a formative assignment online before the class meeting. This format allowed us to review their quizzes and assessments and discuss material students had difficulty with, introduce themes of the second part of the module and the summative assessment, and for students to apply their understanding towards analyzing and interpreting data in a summative assignment.

Oceans in the News - Polar Ocean Science, Data, and the Media
Jonathan Cohen, University of Delaware; Matthew Oliver, University of Delaware; Victoria E Simons, University of Delaware
Interpreting scientific data is one of the most challenging skills students face today. Students are overloaded with information from various media sources, and often lack both the technical skills to analyze data ...

Sarah Fortner: Teaching A Growing Concern in Geology of the Critical Zone at Wittenberg University
This course will give students experience employing the scientific method. Laboratories will include fieldwork and inquiry-based activities. Students will also conduct research on environmental issues within their community and be responsible for conducting a community outreach project. This semester that will include evaluating potential urban wetland sites on vacant city lots. Activities & lectures will encourage interaction and discussion between students. Students will solve problems and work together as real scientists do over memorizing facts (e.g. definitions and equations) that can easily be looked-up.