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 ...

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 ...

North American Environments
Marguerite Forest, Florida Gulf Coast University
Natural environments of North America (north of Mexico and excluding Florida) and critical environmental issues in the region will be examined in terms of geology/geomorphology, climate/weather, and biogeography ...

Pinar Batur: Using Regulating Carbon Emissions in Killing Fog: Coal, Energy and Pollution at Vassar College
Pinar Batur, Vassar College
The course that I taught, 281-Killing Fog: Coal, Energy and Pollution, is a half-credit course, cross-listed between Environmental Studies, International Studies and Sociology. Open to all students, it was attended by 30-37 students, some 16 of them formally registered for a grade and others for pass-fail, or auditing. I organized he course into two sessions per week: two-hour Monday lectures were complemented by one-hour discussion or project sessions on Friday. Some of the Friday sessions were designed for one-on-one consultation with me as an advisor on the students' research. As a multidisciplinary course, the focus was to connect scientific knowledge to public policy making, to explore the boundaries of civic responsibility, and the communication of risk.

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.

Jennifer Sliko: Using Cli-Fi in Planet Earth at Pennsylvania State University - Harrisburg
Planet Earth is an introductory course about Earth, with emphasis on the processes the affect the landscape of Earth. Students learn about fundamental geologic processes and how they impact humans and the environment on regional and global scales. Some of these processes are slow, such as the movements of continents, and change Earth over a period of millions of years. Others are rapid, such as earthquakes and floods. Students learn how these processes are related and interact with each other.

Eric Small: Using Measuring Water Resources with GPS, Gravity, and Traditional Methods in Geology 2001: Planet Earth at UNAVCO
The module was used to provide students with real world examples of how geodetic data can be used to quantify water stored in different components of the terrestrial water cycle. They learn the challenges and methods of measuring different aspects of the water cycle and gain better understanding the very real societal hurdles to providing sufficient water for agriculture and communities - especially during droughts. By working with both traditional and geodetic methods for measuring the water system, they gain experience with methods over a range of time and space scales.