The Roman emperor had key relationships with several differing groups within the Roman empire, including the senate, the populace of Rome, the army and the provinces. This unit will focus on exploring the emperor's relationship with the provinces and will show you how this relationship was represented and mediated, manifesting the culture of the empire in the figure of the emperor.

Since the invention of the phonograph in 1877, the recording and playback of sound has been a key element of life in the western world. This unit traces the technology and characters of the sound recording industry as it advances from Edison's original phonograph to the formats we know today.

This unit looks at the short poems in German that were set to music by Franz Schubert (1797-1828) for a single voice with piano, a genre known as 'Lieder' (the German for 'songs'). Once they became widely known, Schubert's Lieder influenced generations of songwriters up to the present day. This unit then discusses a selection of Schubert's settings of Goethe's poems, and recordings of all of them are provided. You can find the poems, in German with parallel translations into English and the music scores of four of the song settings, on the unit home page. You are not expected to be able to read the music, but even if you are not very familiar with musical notation, you may well find the scores useful in identifying what is happening in the songs.

From paving your patio to measuring the ingredients for your latest recipe, squares, roots and powers really are part of everyday life. This unit reviews the basics of all three and also describes scientific notation, which is a convenient way of writing or displaying large numbers.

Ever wondered why rats, mice and squirrels seem to reproduce at such an alarming rate? Rodents are among the most successful of all the mammal groups. In this unit you will learn more about some of the evolutionary features that make these creatures so pl

Who were our ancestors? How are apes and humans related? And where does the extinct Homo erectus fit into the puzzle? In this unit we will examine culture, tool use and social structure in both apes and humans to gain an understanding of where we come fro

David Attenborough looks at ͢__ëńlife in the trees͢__ë_ ˘: examining how species have evolved to cope with arboreal living. You will learn how lemurs, anteaters, bears and many others have developed different methods to help movement and survival.

The powerful and majestic carnivores are the focus of many television documentaries. In this unit we will delve into the lives of these fearsome hunters and explore their physical adaptations and social behaviour. This is the fifth unit in the ͢__ëńStudying

From the mouse-deer to the elephant, plant eaters come in all shapes and sizes. But how do they manage to flourish on a salad diet? In this unit we will examine the special features that allow them to extract their nutrients from leaves, and see how some

Some of the most unusual and versatile of all the mammals are the groups that live, feed and reproduce underwater. In this unit we will see how these formerly land-based mammals adapted to a return to the water, discussing such challenges as breathing, mo

From pygmy shrews to armadillos, a wide range of mammals survive on a diet made up largely of insects. Many of these have fascinating adaptations suited to catching or rooting out their prey. In this unit you will learn about these adaptations, along with

Many mammals are food specialists, with complex adaptations that gear them toward a particular food source. So how do the omnivores survive and prosper without these fancy evolutionary features? This unit examines the physiology, diet and strategies of so

Monkeys have long fascinated us because of their similarities to the human race. In this unit you will find out about some of the characteristics that make them so like us: their physiology, complex social interactions, large brains and intelligence. This

This unit is an introduction to studying the arts and humanities. It takes you through a series of exercises designed to develop your approach to study and learning at a distance and improve your confidence as an independent learner.

In this unit, we study one aspect of the fluctuating nature of an organism's environment. We consider how organisms living in a temperate climate, such as that in Britain, are adapted to cope with winter. You will see that there is much diversity of adaptations among organisms, with different species coping with the demands of a fluctuating environment in quite different ways. As cyclic variations are a widespread feature of environments, the range of adaptations to them is an important source of biological diversity.

Using the virtual microscope, students will zoom, pan, and rotate specimens in variable light conditions, helping to develop their classification and identification skills without need for high cost microscopes and thin section preparation facilities. The virtual microscope may be used as a complete collection or reused and repurposed individually, since each specimen will have a unique URL. The intention is to engage and excite students in Earth science using rocks of the British Isles held in key collections, and aid teaching of mineral and rock identification skills in HE institutions and schools. We plan to explore continued expansion of the initial collection by offering a digitisation service to HE institutions and industry.

Water is a natural resource that is vital for human survival and health, although only a tiny fraction of the Earth's supply is available to humans and terrestrial animals. In this unit we look at threats, such as pollution, to water's capacity to support life around the world.

For writing center and writing program scholars, administrators, and practitioners hungry for changing how we labor and how we teach writing, this book details several interventions, pedagogies, and programmatic approaches that place wellness, vulnerability, and anti-racist community care at the forefront of our work. For practitioners outside of the United States, I hope that this book generates meaningful conversations about wellness challenges and care opportunities and leads to interventions that are culturally-specific and site-specific. Of course, as I have detailed in my other work on wellness and labor, the pandemic has given new urgency to these conversations and has upped their stakes. This book, then, is an artifact of a pre-pandemic world. While subsequent revisions have woven in pandemic-specific reflections and information, we are still sorting through the wreckage of a harrowing year. In years to come, I hope that we will look back on this period of uncertainty and fear, and process how the pandemic reshaped us: our work, our tutoring and teaching practices, our attitudes about our institutions, our profession, our programmatic goals. I also hope we examine what the pandemic failed to reshape and the many aspects of the academy that the pandemic adversely shaped.

Have you always wanted to try to write poetry but never quite managed to start? This unit is designed to illustrate the techniques behind both the traditional forms of poetry and free verse. You will learn how you can use your own experiences to develop ideas and how to harness your imagination.