This exercise uses the example of the March 28, 2014 M5.1 La Habra earthquake to teach about earthquake risk and resilience in southern California. Students will examine seismic waveforms recording during the earthquake, as well as read reports from scientific agencies and news outlets to answer basic questions regarding earthquake risk and resilience.

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This interactive addresses the question if we can reduce CO2 emissions by 20% of 1990 levels and help avoid dangerous climate change? Users of this interactive can manipulate changes to various sources and uses (supply and demand) of energy with the goal of reducing C02 emissions in Great Britain by 80% in the year 2050.

This NOAA visualization on YouTube shows the seasonal variations in sea surface temperatures and ice cover from 1985 to 2007. The visualization is based on data collected by NOAA polar-orbiting satellites. El NiÃo and La NiÃa are easily identified, as are the trends in decreasing polar sea ice.

The coral reefs of the South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu are the backbone of the island's environmental and economic health. Today they face destruction from a silent predator that can rapidly decimate an entire reef. In this video, students learn about how a starfish is destroying the coral reefs of Vanuatu and how the islanders are adapting.

This video begins in the lush deltas of Bangladesh. The host of the video learns how communities are adapting to changing monsoons and dangerous sea-level rise. Floating gardens and floating schools are just the start of some of the country's innovative strategies.

In this video, learn how communities in the arid high-mountain region of Ladakh rely on glacial water to feed streams and water crops during the spring and summer months. Global warming is dramatically reshaping the future of these areas. Meet a Ladakhi teacher and engineer who devised a method to capture and store glacial runoff into magnificent ice pyramids that are used as water resources throughout the summer and during peak agricultural months.

In this video, an entrepreneur is finding new ways to manage the invasive Asian carp problem in the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Once introduced to help mitigate an algae problem, the carp became invasive. This video highlights how the local community has adapted to the issue, including how they have gained ideas about how to utilize the carp from other cultures to help mitigate the issue.

A video from the Extreme Ice Survey in which Dr. Tad Pfeffer and photographer Jim Balog discuss the dynamics of the Columbia glacier's retreat in recent years through this time-lapse movie. Key point: glacier size is being reduced not just by glacial melting but due to a shift in glacial dynamics brought on by climate change.

In this 6-part activity, students learn about climate change during the Cenozoic and the abrupt changes at the Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary (65.5 million years ago), the Eocene/Oligocene boundary (33.9 million years ago), and the Paleocene/Eocene boundary (55.8 million years ago).

In this activity, students use the absorption spectra of greenhouse gases to explore the nature of the greenhouse effect.

A Library guide to success at university

Short Description:
There is so much to learn when you start university. This book will focus on the most important academic skills you'll need to get started, leaving sufficient 'room' for actual learning and reducing your cognitive load. This book aims to give you a quick understanding of these skills which you can then apply within your area of study. This book aligns to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education supporting inclusive and affordable access to higher educational resources.

Long Description:
There is so much to learn when you start university. This book will focus on the most important academic skills you’ll need to get started, leaving sufficient ‘room’ for actual learning and reducing your cognitive load. This book aims to give you a quick understanding of these skills which you can then apply within your area of study.

This book aligns to UN Sustainable Development Goal 4 – Quality Education supporting inclusive and affordable access to higher educational resources.

Word Count: 7760

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This video follows biologist Gretchen Hofmann as she studies the effects of ocean acidification on sea urchin larvae.

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.

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This activity is intended to fill the first part of a class period on mining and mining impacts. It is a hands-on activity in which students, in small groups, "mine" the blueberries or chocolate chips out of a muffin. This activity helps to review the reading materials and facilitate discussion about mining and mining methods, waste, beneficiation, landscape destruction, reclamation methods, and more.

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This activity focuses on the interrelationships of ore grades, economics, mining impacts/decisions, and other factors. It is intended as a small-group activity, where different groups of students work on one of three different parts, with classroom discussion as a follow-up.

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Mined phosphorus is considered essential for agriculture, especially with the need to feed the ever growing population. However, there are consequences of phosphate mining and use, including pollution at mine sites and fertilizer processing plants, heavy metal accumulation in soil where fertilizers are used, national security issues intertwined with Morocco's dominance of the world supply, and eutrophication that comes with alteration of the phosphorus cycle. Students will consider these issues, their own roles in the problem, and possible solutions in this jigsaw activity.

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This activity asks students to investigate different aspects of gold mining and think critically about the perceived and real needs for this mineral resource as well as the impacts (both positive and negative) that both gold mining and recycling can have. It integrates concepts and terminology from earlier in the course into real-world situations and personal decision making.
This exercise is set up as a small-group jigsaw activity.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This 20-minute video, produced by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, describes adaptation strategies undertaken by several groups and nations in response to rising sea level and other aspects of climate change.

In this activity, students assess individual and national opinions on climate change and explore strategies that communities are employing to adapt to aspects of climate change already affecting them in addition to those likely to affect them in the future.

After the Ice: Our Food discusses changes in historic food sources for Arctic Native Americans. Global climate change is altering yearly cycles of both ice coverage and depth in the Bering Sea. Changes in the ice affect the way local native groups hunt in order to feed their community.