Principles of economics students are asked to collect and analyze data on a few macro economic aggregates to give them a first taste of empirical work.

Before engaging in lessons, students attempt to draw a diagram of a nitrogen cycle and add as many components as they can. This allows them to self-assess (and the teacher to assess) what they know about the nitrogen cycle.

Students research some of the nitrogen cycle components online at various websites or read printouts from websites provided by the teacher. They choose three or four facts of interest about their component and report to the rest of the class.

Each small group of students is given a set of materials including 20 objects, 20 picture-cards, 20 nitrogen cycle component explanation cards, 20 title cards for each nitrogen cycle component, heading cards for different environments such as the atmosphere, soil, water, etc., and many small arrows. The students work together to pair each object with its corresponding title card, description card, and picture card. Then these are all arranged to form a possible nitrogen cycle with various components clustered around heading cards and arrows used to show movement of nitrogen from one object to another.

Students then write humorous (limerick, couplet) poems or more serious poems (haiku) or structured poems (cinquain, diamante) to tell several facts about a component of the nitrogen cycle. They share their poems with the class.
Students may also engage in experiments with nitrogen fertilizer.

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To Drill or Not to Drill is a multidisciplinary problem based learning exercise, which intends to increase students' knowledge of a variety of topics through a real world environmental topic. In addition, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) impacts students either directly (depending on the age level) or indirectly (through their parents) as gas prices soar to record high levels.

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The focus on soil in this unit is accomplished by browsing and reading or browsing (in some detail) information from nine websites as well as a book chapter. This effort will help students to understand issues relating to soil erosion, the state factors of soil formation, methods of soil description and classification in the field, soil orders, soil surveys and threats to soil. Questions are posed that require written responses and the in-class activity involves a web-based soil survey using the Natural Resources Conservation Service Web Soil Survey. This activity can be accomplished individually or by groups and should involve a short report of findings.

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The term "Earth system science" is typically used to describe the science (especially quantitative modeling) of the interactions between the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and cryosphere, and biosphere---the addition of lithosphere to that list provides all of the main generalized components ("spheres") of the Critical Zone.
In this lesson, students will consider basic concepts of system science (studying complex systems), specifically as it can be applied to Critical Zone science. Students will engage in developing a qualitative systems model graphic of the Critical Zone. The knowledge gained here will be applied later in the semester to more in-depth systems thinking of the Critical Zone.

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Unit 1 introduces foundational concepts in geoscience, emergency management, and political science that are critical for developing a systems thinking approach and for achieving the learning objectives in the storm module. More specifically, within Unit 1, students acquire a vocabulary related to storm systems and risk, engage in practical exercises on event probability and frequency, and complete written activities and oral presentations that reinforce these concepts, using their own community and two case studies as examples. The activities include: a pre-and post-Unit survey on natural hazard risk, an optional concept map exercise to identify associations of risk in major storms, an exercise on probability and frequency of natural hazards in general and major storms in particular, an exercise using hazard vulnerability analysis (HVA) and the HVA's findings, and a synthesis assignment that requires analysis of an assigned hazard mitigation plan (HMP) and development of a proposal to improve mitigation plans.

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In this introductory unit, students will learn about the fundamental role of observation by viewing photographs of both agricultural and non-agricultural (natural) landscapes and making independent observations. They will learn how to relate physiographic features to land use by drawing conclusions about how the physiography of the land affects or is affected by various land use practices. They will then discuss their observations in small groups, organize their thoughts, and explain their conclusions in a classroom oral presentation. Finally, students will consider landscape features in the context of Earth systems and discuss how these systems are impacted by human activity.

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This unit introduces the hydrological cycle to provide context for the module as a whole. It particularly focuses on those portions of the hydrological cycle that take place on land and that form the basis for water that is used by society. Students conduct a stakeholder analysis to better understand societal issues around water. Then the scientific exercise of the unit emphasizes quantitative approaches to describing the critical portions that humans have access to: surface water and shallow ground water. Students calculate residence times and fluxes between reservoirs and track water particles on an annual basis. They also explore available data sets for specific reservoirs such as snowpack and rivers.

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Online-adaptable: This exercise could be converted to online whole-class discussions/lectures and a breakout group activity. Would be best done synchronously.

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This unit is designed to function as three days of instruction in an introductory urban planning, environmental science/studies or public health course.

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This unit will introduce methods and data from Critical Zone observatories as well as methods that scientists use in their research. These activities will provide an introduction to methods used in later units and help students develop a research proposal for the summative assessment activity.
In this unit, students will be introduced to basic scientific methods such as:

How to create an effective annotated bibliography.
How to use software such as MS Excel to graph, analyze, and interpret data.

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Students will learn about geoscience-specific methods used to analyze data in the Critical Zone from data-driven activities and short presentations by their peers. The topics include the use of carbon isotopes, rock and soil profile weathering rates, stream discharge, demographics, and soil carbon. Activities will build data analysis and communication skills while using real data to interpret Critical Zone processes and begin to think about human interactions in the Critical Zone. Students will use geoscience-specific methods when developing their research proposal for the summative assessment activity.

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In Unit 2, students apply and evaluate foundational concepts about storm hazards and risk in the context of two cases studies: Superstorm Sandy (2012) and the Storm of the Century (1993). Through different activities and assignments, students develop skills for finding, evaluating, and relating data to case studies and build an understanding of preparedness, response, and resilience. The activities include: an analysis of hazard mitigation plans for their local community, examination of storm-related geophysical processes in the context of societal risks, preparation of a press release for community preparedness, and a peer review and revision opportunity for the press releases. Instructors may also end this unit by having students revise their concept maps from Unit 1, applying lessons learned in Units 1 and 2.

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In this activity, the student groups organized at the end of Unit 3.1 will prepare presentations representing different stakeholder positions. This artifact -- Part I of the Module Summative Assessment (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 25kB Sep4 16) -- can be part of a presentation to the instructor, to a panel of faculty/students, or to a "board" representing some decision-making unit (Community Council, University Board of Trustees, City/County Planning Commission). At the conclusion of this unit, students will be prompted to reflect, individually, on an ecosystem services approach to natural resources management -- Part II of the Module Summative Assessment (Microsoft Word 2007 (.docx) 23kB Sep4 16) .

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Over the course of one week, students will apply and evaluate concepts in the context of their local community, culminating in the formulation and evaluation of Hazard Mitigation Plan recommendations presented in stakeholder position papers. These position papers, which will also serve as the summative assessment of the Major Storms and Community Resilience Module, will be presented and assessed during a Town Hall Meeting. In this role-playing activity, students apply and evaluate concepts in the context of assigned stakeholder positions from their local community. Over the course of the week, students formulate and evaluate Hazard Mitigation Plan recommendations for major storms, and then present those recommendations in a town hall-style meeting. These assignments demonstrate students' ability to develop strategies and recommendations to mitigate local community vulnerabilities to storms with specific emphasis on different sectors and/or stakeholders in that community. Instructors will assess student achievement of the learning goals through a formal oral presentation and a team policy position paper. As such, the culmination of Unit 3 in the Town Hall Meeting serves as the summative assessment for the Major Storms module.

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In the capstone, Unit 3, students are provided a real-world example of local community action to address the challenge of "healthy food access." The 2015 Leon County (Florida) Sustainable Communities Summit highlights the results of communities working together to promote environmental and food justice. By the end of Unit 3, instructors can deliver a call to action to empower students to be participatory citizens in their communities. The summative assessment will evaluate the students' ability to synthesize the module learning objectives and demonstrate the use of science practices.

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Students will identify potential stakeholders and assess the importance of communication and interaction among these groups to make recommendations on how to define and develop prepared communities.

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Landslides can have profound societal consequences, such as did the slide that occurred near Oso, Washington in 2014. Forty-three people were killed and entire rural neighborhood was destroyed. In this unit, students consider the larger-scale tectonic and climatic setting for the landslide and subsequently use lidar and SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) hillshade images, topographic maps, and InSAR (interferometric synthetic aperture radar) to determine relationships between landscape characteristics and different types of mass-wasting events. They conclude by considering the societal costs of such a disaster and ways that communities in similar situations may mitigate their risk.

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Online-adaptable: The exercises in unit are completely digital and thus at a logistical level it can be switched to online fairly easily. However, due to the relative complexity of the data investigations and group discussions, there will still be a fair bit of instructor support needed and/or extended small group that should be arranged.

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In this unit, student groups will evaluate different environmental case studies to critically investigate qualitative and quantitative data analysis, collection, and inquiry. Students will begin to consider different forms of sensory-related data collection and how experiential knowledge informs the ways in which one forms analytical, evaluative questions. Student expert groups are provided one case study (different expert groups will examine at least two different cases) that has a number of different kinds of resources that students will examine (e.g. journalistic, scientific, narrative, visual, auditory). Students will use cooperative learning methods to engage with problem-based inquiry rather than have the case study information delivered via instructor-based lecture. Given that students across disciplinary contexts may not have been exposed to scientific methods of investigation, this unit encourages systems thinking alongside other methods of investigation. As students consider the variety of perceptions that occur within a group of people sharing an environmental experience, students are able to consider the impact that different types of data have on one's perception of data collection and its analysis. This exercise also demonstrates the utility of interdisciplinary thinking -- by examining data sets from multiple academic disciplines, students gain a more complete understanding of the case study compared to what they would have understood by examining data from a single research approach. The activity also provides students with an opportunity to practice interdisciplinary thinking and collaboration skills. The cases address several key environmental challenges: soil contamination, water resources, and the impacts of industrial agriculture.
A collaborative learning method is used in conjunction with guided class and group discussion to critically examine different types of data and encourage consistency of data analysis between student groups. This unit uses a group exploration and presentation activity to ensure equal distribution of materials and accountability among class participants. In essence, the students teach each other about the case studies with the instructor providing questions to elicit depth and synthesis between groups as well as to ensure that critical data analysis is undertaken.

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Building on the work they did in Unit 3, students will perform an "ecocritical" rhetorical reading (the theoretical lens for examining the way that literary texts engage with climate and climate issues) in order to analyze a short story chosen from several provided by the instructor. They will utilize literary terminology in discussing this text and generating a rhetorical analysis of it.

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