1. Electricity, Work, and Power part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
Benjamin Cuker, Hampton University
This module is designed to prepare students to better understand the other modules in the course. It is a review of basic high school-level physics, reminding students of the fundamentals of energy, work, power, ...

Unit 1: "If an earthquake happens in the desert and no one lives there, should we care about it?" [How are human-made infrastructure lifelines affected by earthquakes?] part of Imaging Active Tectonics
Bruce Douglas, Indiana University-Bloomington; Gareth Funning, University of California-Riverside
This unit initiates a discussion about the importance of recognizing faults in relation to modern societal infrastructure. Students consider the types of infrastructure necessary to support a modern lifestyle, ...

Capstone Project part of Renewable Energy and Environmental Sustainability
For those teaching the modules as an entire course, we provide a capstone summary assessment activity. This activity is designed to incorporate scaffolding of the material, to use the gained knowledge to do ...

Unit 7: Climate Change from the Socio-Environmental Systems Perspective part of Regulating Carbon Emissions
Robyn Smyth, Bard College; Curt Gervich, SUNY College at Plattsburgh; Eric Leibensperger, Ithaca College
This unit summarizes and synthesizes the previous six units by inviting students to reflect on their experiences throughout the module, identify key learning moments and consider how these events influenced their ...

How Much Oil Leaked from Deepwater Horizon? part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences:Activities
Stephen Boss, University of Arkansas Main Campus
Students develop an estimate of the total quantity of petroleum discharged from the Deepwater Horizon from 20 April to 15 July 2010 using only two known facts, the diameter of the riser and the flow rate of the oil/gas mixture emanating from the riser.

Action to Enhance Sustainability part of Integrate:Workshops and Webinars:Systems, Society, Sustainability and the Geosciences:Activities
Bill Stigliani, University of Northern Iowa
This assignment is a 10-hour, out-of-class project where each student designs and carries out an action plan to enhance sustainability. Students select from a large suite of alternative actions, most of which can be quantified for reductions in CO2 and energy consumption, as well as in dollar savings.

An Experiential Pedagogy for Sustainability Ethics: The Externalities Game part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Games:Examples
Susan Spierre, Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus
The Externalities Game is a non-cooperative game that teaches students about the concept of environmental externalities and allows them to directly experience the moral dimensions of collective action problems. It ...

Quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions at the County Level: A Collaborative Term Project to Enhance Understanding of Climate Modeling and Quantitative Reasoning part of Curriculum for the Bioregion:Activities
Robert Turner, University of Washington-Bothell Campus; Robert Turner
The general assignment is for the students to work as a team to quantify and map the variability in greenhouse gas emissions for the counties in Washington State. To accomplish this, students work in pairs ...

The Lifestyle Project part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Experience-Based Environmental Projects
Karin Kirk, Montana State University/SERC and John J. Thomas, Skidmore College
This three-week project challenges students to learn about environmental alternatives by modifying their own lifestyles. Throughout the project, students reduce their impacts on the environment by changing the way in which they live from day to day.

The Lifestyle Project at Vancouver Island University, British Columbia part of Starting Point-Teaching Entry Level Geoscience:Experience-Based Environmental Projects
Steven Earle, Geology Department, Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, BC, Canada
The project is used in two courses, both with the theme of understanding the environmental implications of our use of energy, exploring personal energy use, and learning about the types of energy available to Canadians. One is a face-to-face course for Education majors, the other is an on-line course available to all upper-level (3rd and 4th year) students.