Module 10: Food Systems
Steven Vanek, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll; Karl Zimmerer, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
Module 10 continues the theme of human-environment interactions seen at a smaller scale with agroecosystems in Module 8, and develops the ideas of coupled human-natural systems (CHNS) begun at the beginning of the ...

Unit 1: Slip-sliding away: case study landslides in Italy and Peru
Sarah Hall, College of the Atlantic; Becca Walker, Mt. San Antonio College
How have mass-wasting events affected communities, and what lessons have we learned from these natural disasters that might help us mitigate future hazards? In this unit, students answer these questions by being ...

Future of Food
Future of Food Gigi Richard (Colorado Mesa University) Heather Karsten (Pennsylvania State University) Steve Vanek (Pennsylvania State University) Karl Zimmerer (Pennsylvania State University') Editor: Timothy Bralower (Pennsylvania State University)
The Future of Food is an introductory-level science course that emphasizes the challenges facing food systems in the 21st century, including issues of sustainability, resilience, and adaptive capacity, and the ...

11. Composting Toilets
Maurice Crawford, University of Maryland-Eastern Shore; Benjamin Cuker, Hampton University
Toilet use accounts for the largest use of water in single family homes. In 2016, the average US household toilet accounted for a quarter of a home's total indoor water. Compost toilets are one method that may ...

Capstone Project
For those teaching the modules as an entire course, we provide a capstone summary assessment activity. This activity is designed to incorporate scaffolding of the material, to use the gained knowledge to do ...

Assessing the Risk of Invasive Species Using Community Science Data
Matthew Heard, Belmont University
This module introduces students who are already familiar with GIS to doing comparative analyses with large-scale community science (often called citizen science) data sets. Students will explore how we can use ...

Unit 2: Global Sea-Level Response to Temperature Changes: Temperature and Altimetry Data
Bruce Douglas, Indiana University-Bloomington; Susan Kaspari, Central Washington University
What is the contribution of seawater thermal expansion to recent sea-level rise? In this unit, students create time-series graphs of global averaged sea surface temperature anomaly (SSTA) data spanning 1880–2017 ...

Unit 3: Managing the Risks of Lead Exposure
Katrina Korfmacher (University of Rochester), Richard Gragg (Florida A&M), Martha Richmond (Suffolk University), and Caryl Waggett (Allegheny College)
In the past two units, students considered the strengths and limitations of scientific tools to identify exposure pathways and demographic patterns of lead poisoning. In Unit 3, students evaluate domestic ...

Unit 1: Use of Lead in the Environment and Health Impacts on Human Populations
Katrina Korfmacher (University of Rochester), Richard Gragg (Florida A&M University), Martha Richmond (Suffolk University), and Caryl Waggett (Allegheny College)
In Unit 1, students engage in discussion of the historical use and resulting distribution of lead throughout the human environment. Activity 1.1 introduces the systems dynamics linking geology, human use, and human ...

Module 2: History of Food Systems
Steven Vanek, Pennsylvania State Univ-Penn St. Erie-Behrend Coll; Karl Zimmerer, Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
This second module in the Future of Food course provides a historical overview of the emergence and development of food systems until the present. Module 2.1, the first half of this module, describes the transition ...