Climate Justice and Climate Consequences: Education and Action for Social Justice and Regeneration part of Curriculum for the Bioregion:Courses
This graduate climate justice course brings clarity to the structural dimensions of climate change. It is designed around the belief that community-based action and contemplative processes to redress structural ...

Martha Richmond: Using Lead in the Environment in Government 438: Environmental Policy and Politics at Suffolk University part of Lead in the Environment
"Lead in the Environment" was a 3 week module used to introduce the larger topic of Environmental Policy and Politics. It was very successful in first showing students how and why environmental lead is today considered a "wicked" problem—a geologic issue that has impacts on environmental health, environmental justice, and challenges for environmental regulation and policy. Before looking at environmental lead, students often do not understand the scope and implications of present-day problems. Many students told me that they were surprised and saddened to learn about difficulties still encountered because of environmental lead.

Carey Gazis: Using Measuring Water Resources with GPS, Gravity, and Traditional Methods in Hydrogeology at Central Washington University part of Measuring Water Resources
A Case Study of Groundwater and California Drought in a Hydrogeology Course. I teach a hydrogeology course each year for undergraduate seniors and M.S. students. In this course, students learn the fundamental concepts about groundwater, how it enters the subsurface, is stored, and how humans use and rely on this resource. Each year, we use the same textbook and the same concepts are taught. Current concerns about groundwater availability and quality are often discussed, but are rarely examined in detail. This year, through the GETSI module, we had the opportunity to not only discuss a current groundwater concern, but to examine it in detail looking at data collected using emerging methods to quantify terrestrial water budgets.

Eric Small: Using Measuring Water Resources with GPS, Gravity, and Traditional Methods in Geology 2001: Planet Earth at UNAVCO part of Measuring Water Resources
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.

Sandra Penny: Using Regulating Carbon Emissions in Energy and the Environment (SCI-105) at Bard College part of Regulating Carbon Emissions
We spent 4 weeks on this module at the conclusion of a 14-week semester in an introductory course called "Energy and the Environment." Inclusion of this module is my first attempt to reform the course into a more activity-based environment that recognizes that global warming is a topic of special importance to the students. The real strength of this unit is that it brings in economics and politics to the discussion of climate change. About half of my students were business and public policy majors, and they welcomed the opportunity to make connections between a topic about which they are deeply concerned – global warming – and the topics that they have already chosen for their major field of study.

Pinar Batur: Using Regulating Carbon Emissions in Killing Fog: Coal, Energy and Pollution at Vassar College part of Regulating Carbon Emissions
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.

Ashlee Dere: Introduction to the Critical Zone at University of Nebraska at Omaha part of Critical Zone Science
The Introduction to the Critical Zone modules work well as a small (< 20 students) upper level/graduate course for geoscience majors and is now a permanent part of our geoscience curriculum. The materials employ active learning techniques that are enjoyable to work on with the students and provide a strong foundation in Critical Zone Science. Students really enjoyed the interdisciplinary nature of the material and the opportunity to use real data and practice skills they are likely to use in their jobs. The students reported and demonstrated improvement in their critical thinking skills and confidence in problem solving because the course focused on building skills rather than memorizing content.

Robert Turner: Using the Water, Agriculture, and Sustainability Module in Water and Sustainability at University of Washington-Bothell Campus part of Water, Agriculture, Sustainability
Engaging Students in the Unsustainability of Water Use The generation and inclusion of the InTeGrate Module (Water, Agriculture, and Sustainability) in my Water and Sustainability course is another big step in its gradual evolution. It started as hydrology light, which was unsatisfactory for everyone involved. Over time the sustainability aspects of the course grew to the extent that it squeezed out the water focus. This prompted me to take the bulk of what the course had become and generate a new course (Principles and Controversies of Sustainability) so I could pivot back to water challenges and opportunities in this course.

Vince Cronin: Using GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes in Structural Geology at Baylor University part of GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes
Students get particularly excited when they learn that GPS deformation analyses are a recent research area that most geology majors are not even studying yet and are really tickled to learn frontier science. Learning about earthquakes from the position of research that could be helpful to societal planning, empowers them to think about geology in a much more active way: make geohazards more manageable. They were very interested to see the link between GPS measurements of strain in the crust and faults and folds that seem to be the product or physical manifestation of the strain that they computed. And where those faults pass through population centers, they came to understand the growing threat faced by the people of those communities.

Phillip G. Resor: Using GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes in Structural Geology at Wesleyan University part of GPS, Strain, and Earthquakes
My course is one of several core courses that Earth and Environmental Science major students can choose from at Wesleyan. The course integrates field and laboratory exercises, quantitative analyses, and readings from the primary literature to teach students about rock deformation and its importance to a variety of societally relevant problems. I taught the GPS, Strain and Earthquakes module about midway through the course after students had been introduced to concepts of deformation, mapping and measurement of geologic structures and quantification of stress.