Biomass conversion into highly useful chemicals
This is CURE based course that aims at bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge in chemistry and its practical applications at solving real-world problems. It gives students an opportunity to construct and synthesize their knowledge and skills by learning to apply theoretical knowledge to practice by the laboratory research. The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the fundamental concepts of chemistry, synthetic methods and techniques. The emphasis will be on novel catalysts synthesis and evaluating their activity towards biomass conversion to liquid fuel and useful chemicals. Students will design synthesize, deduce identities of the biomass conversion products from chemical and spectral clues, and predict reaction products.

4. Creating Electricity from Light
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 ...

5. Passive Designs
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
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 ...

7. Better Ways to Illuminate
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 ...

Justice, Power, and Activism: What the Goldman Environmental Prize Winners Teach Us About Resilience and Democracy
This activity is a set of student-centered exercises that enable students to learn about the individual stories of Goldman environmental prize winners, the activism and organizing that grounds their work, and the underlying political and social contexts from which their struggles emerge. The lesson inspires critical reflection about justice, power, and democracy in green politics, and encourages ways to make personal connections to activism and environmental work.

Unit 6: Carbon Emissions Game
In this unit, students play a game, a variation on the "Pollution Game" (Corrigan 2011), to develop an appreciation of the pros and cons of the commonly discussed policy options for carbon abatement ...

Unit 3: Dynamic Integrated Climate Economy (DICE) Modeling
After an opening discussion of systems thinking and models, student use webDICE , an online Dynamic Integrated Climate Economy model developed by Center for Robust Decision Making on Climate and Energy Policy at ...

Working with State, National, and Global Petroleum Data
This activity takes place in a laboratory setting and requires ~1.5-2 hours to complete. Students work with data on oil production in Illinois, the United States, and the world, creating graphs to interpret data on ...

3. Thermal Energy from Light
In this module, students learn the basic principles and techniques involved with converting solar radiation to useful heat. They explore the concepts of temperature and heat, and the physical basis for solar ...

Unit 2: The Carbon Cycle
Students will explore the different aspects of the carbon cycle on Earth. This includes the original source of all the carbon on our planet, the near ubiquity of carbon, the six principle reservoirs of carbon in ...

Unit 3: Geologic Record of Past Climate
Students will be introduced to a few of the different methods used in paleoclimatology, including isotopic ratios as paleotemperature proxies. They will investigate the greenhouse gas connections of two ancient ...

Unit 5: Modern CO2 Accumulation
Students will examine data that record the modern increase in carbon dioxide concentrations and the associated increase in average temperatures, and they will investigate the effects of carbon dioxide on various ...

Unit 4: Fossil Fuel Formation
Students will explore various aspects of fossil fuels by examining the various ranks of coal and the processes by which coal, oil, and natural gas form.

Capstone Project
This educational resource page presents a capstone project for an undergraduate course on renewable energy and environmental sustainability, featuring a systems-thinking assignment where students design a sustainable community using technologies from prior modules, supported by a detailed assessment rubric and peer-reviewed instructional content from the InTeGrate and On the Cutting Edge programs. auto-generated The author of this page didn't provide a brief description so this one sentence summary was created by an AI tool. It may not be completely accurate.

9. Hybrid and Electric Cars
This module reviews the history of the automobile and its varied power sources, culminating in the latest versions of hybrid and electric cars.

8. Efficiency and Conservation
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, ...

Renewable Energy Virtual Field Trip
This is a virtual field trip on the subject of renewable energy. The Google Earth slideshow will take you around the world to different key renewable energy sites across the world. Each site will have a quick ...

Systems Thinking and Civic Engagement for Climate Justice in General Chemistry: CO2 and PM 2.5 Pollution from Coal Combustion
Students apply chemistry to a climate justice case study using a systems thinking perspective in class and discuss the connections between chemistry and climate justice in a conversation with a community outside of the classroom for civic engagement. The instructor offers formative feedback during class time and in response to discussion posts. Feedback is meant to build understanding and application of concepts important to learning chemistry within a systems thinking context and using civic engagement to communicate how chemistry relates to climate justice.

Climate Justice and Health Impacts of Methane (so-called Natural Gas) in General or Introductory Chemistry
In this activity, students explore the chemical forms of methane (CH4), learn about the various sources and uses of methane, and gain knowledge of human health impacts and the disproportionate impact of extraction pollution on poor and racialized communities. They also connect the social justice impacts of methane to methane chemistry and exercises in the classroom.