Power Source
In this lesson-opening activity, students or groups are tasked to make concept sketches that track the source of electrical power as far back as they can conceive. The concept sketches reveal students' prior ...

Energy Consumption Rates across the USA and the World
A investigation of differences in rates and categories of energy use between countries and US states

Investigating the Effect of Warmer Temperatures on Hurricanes
Students investigate the link between ocean temperatures and hurricane intensity, analyze instrumental and historical data and speculate on possible future changes.

Exploring the Link between Hurricanes and Climate using GCM Results
This activity requires students to examine global climate model output available online and consider the potential impact of global warming on tropical cyclone initiation and evolution. As a follow-up, students ...

Resource Usage Project and Journal
Students keep track of one resource (water, electricity, gas, etc.) they use for a 7-day period. They summarize their usage patterns, give opinions, and get some self-realization about their habits.

Where does your energy come from? Analyzing your energy bill
Students use utility bills to determine the cost and sources of energy in their households.

Campus Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
Students conduct a greenhouse gas emission inventory for their college or university. Students analyze findings and present information to the college or university community. -

Should I Unplug?
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Choosing Between Home Appliances: Benefits to the Planet and Your Wallet
Students research various options for new appliances and make purchasing decisions based not merely on purchase price, but also on energy efficiency, which has implications for the planet AND for longer-term personal finances. Students calculate the "payback period" for the more energy efficient appliance and calculate long-term savings.

Building Sustainable Communities, But What Kind?
This assignment, depending on the level and depth of implementation, seeks to challenge students by asking them to look beyond "greenwashed" advertisements and buzzwords to grapple with what sustainability means, whether it can be achieved, and what kinds of questions communities must confront in a search for sustainability.

Swimming Upstream: Relating Trapped Energy in Organic Hydrogenations to Use of Reduced Hydrocarbons as Energy Sources
An activity designed to inform the student of the potential and pitfalls of storing energy by the generation of reduced organic molecules, particularly as pertains to the generation of ethanol from molecules of a greater oxidation state and the ultimate fate of oxidized carbon when the energy potential is realized. As a part of a discussion of sustainability issues, the activity will be part of a discussion of global energy generation and use and couched in a form similar to the US energy flow trends.

Your Environmental Impact
The following homework assignments are designed to build understanding of personal water use, sewage, waste generation and disposal, pollution sources and impacts, and energy use and costs.

Climate Change and Atlantic Hurricanes: A GIS Inquiry
Students make hypotheses about how hurricane numbers, locations, or intensities have been changing, and then use hurricane tracks, wind speed, barometric pressure, and dates to test their hypotheses.

Hurricane Investigation
This is a simple homework assignment that will reinforce topics discussed in lecture as well as enabling students to search and analyze information on the web.

Poleward Heat Transport Jigsaw
Based on great plate tectonic exercise by Sawyer et al. (2005 JGE), this small-group exercise with maps of data about earth's energy balance helps students visualize poleward heat transport.

Confirmation of the IPCC Prediction re: Increased Storminess
A two-part culminating activity for a meteorology/climatology unit in an Earth Science course centered upon data acquisition and analysis regarding the confirmation of the IPCC predicition regarding increased ...

Student Lead Discussions: Articles from the Literature and Final Writing Assignment
This is a two-stage assignment. The first stage is a student-led discussion of a set of closely related articles selected by the instructors from the climate change literature. The second stage is an 8-12 page ...

Urban Environmental Excursions: Field trips to connect urban geology students with the world around them
Environmentally-themed field trips in urban areas can stimulate student interest in geology and environmental science while providing curricular links to topics such as global warming, energy resources, water ...

Are Clean Tech Startups Sustainable and/or Circular?
Students apply what they have learned from the common exercise to a clean tech startup company. They map out the lifecycle of the product or service, identify potential impacts in each phase, and evaluate the ...

Transitioning to Renewable Fuels: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
Students are guided through research project design and implementation based on biodiesel production and usage. Handouts and basic protocols guide students through the project providing boundaries for time considerations and chemical usage while giving students enough freedom to explore their chosen independent and dependent variables.