This three-week project begins with a measurement of "baseline" consumptive behavior followed by two weeks of working to reduce the use of water, energy, high-impact foods, and other materials. The assignment uses an Excel spreadsheet that calculates direct energy and water use as well as indirect CO2 and water use associated with food consumption.

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This unit is designed to allow students to quantitatively assess how much water is used for irrigating crops and how this varies across the United States. This unit also has students link water use to the economic value of the crops that are produced--spanning the scientific and economic disciplines. The concepts that students learn here will connect back to the Water Footprint concept that was introduced in Unit 2, as students consider the accuracy of water calculators.

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Is groundwater mining sustainable? In Unit 4 students compare and contrast long-term (decades) groundwater well levels in six states representing the East Coast, West Coast, and Midwest Plains states. Satellite imagery maps of the well locations will give students an idea of the land cover, specifically the presence of irrigated crops. Using groundwater well data from the USGS, students will recognize the depletion of aquifers in the western United States (e.g., the Ogallala/High Plains Aquifer), or groundwater mining, as an unsustainable practice.

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Units 3 and 4 of this module explored how water resources are used for agriculture in the United States and how this can vary depending on location. In Unit 5, students explore how agricultural practices can affect the water quality in streams, rivers, lakes, and coastal areas. Important concepts in this unit include processes that transport suspended material (e.g., sediment) and dissolved material (e.g., nutrients) away from crop fields and into regional water bodies. The effects of dissolved nutrients on the health of the water ecosystems will be presented with examples of hypoxic zones in coastal areas and lake eutrophication. This last unit is well-suited to foster student advancement in systems thinking.

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Students are first assigned reading from the textbook (Strahler and Merali, Visualizing Physical Geography) to present the concepts of the global energy balance, including the role of greenhouse gases. In class, I go over the concepts and work with the class to figure out how to calculate solar elevation angle at a given latitude at different dates. Prior to class, I had visited the website of the University of Oregon Solar Radiation Monitoring Laboratory (http://solardat.uoregon.edu/SunChartProgram.html) to generate a Sun chart for my latitude. I have copies of this chart ready. Outside, the students use a compass to find the azimuth and elevation for the sun's arc for the solstice and the equinox. They are asked to trace these different arcs using their arms to get a sense of the difference. Students are then asked to take a compass bearing of the sun's azimuth and use the sun chart to determine the time. (Usually, it is one hour off - they need to figure out why - daylight saving)

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