Course Structure

The Learning Environment

EARTH 530 will be conducted entirely on the World Wide Web. There are no set class meeting times, but you will be required to complete weekly assignments. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:

• This Web site - The instructional materials in this site consist of seven units of study, each including multiple pages of text, graphics, and activities. Activities prompt readers to explore selected Web sites, to download data and/or software, or to tackle other adventures. Registered students are also prompted to navigate to Canvas to participate in class discussions and to submit assignments.
• Canvas (http://psu.instructure.com)—Penn State's course management system. In Canvas, registered students consult course calendars, communicate with instructors and fellow students, submit assignments, receive feedback from the instructor, take online quizzes and surveys, and check assignments' scores and course grades. Note that a link to Canvas appears in the main menu. In Canvas, you will find links back to this site from corresponding lessons under the Modules tab.

Students who register for this Penn State course gain access to assignments and instructor feedback, and earn academic credit. Information about Penn State's Online Geospatial Education programs is available at the Geospatial Education Program Office.

Topics of Study

This course is organized into seven units. The structure was chosen to include a focus on the four driving questions which active scholars have identified as the most important for understanding the "Critical Zone". The science lesson in the first unit will introduce you to the concept of the Critical Zone. Units 2 through 6 will cover issues related to soil, the atmosphere and climate, water, landforms, and ecosystems, respectively, as they relate to Critical Zone studies. Finally in Unit 7, with your newly attained knowledge of the Critical Zone, we will integrate the lessons learned in Units 2 through 6 into an Earth Systems framework and consider the impacts of human society on the Critical Zone. We will also revisit the outstanding questions in Critical Zone science and consider the implications of the state of the Critical Zone to the overall health of life on Earth.

As further outlined below, the course consists of twelve lessons divided into the seven aforementioned units. Lessons will be completed at a rate of one per week and each contains interactive exercises, links, animations, movies, and novel explanations of the basic scientific principles of Critical Zone science.

The first page of content for each lesson contains an overview of what that lesson will cover, including a list of any "external" reading assignments (articles, book chapters, etc.) and a list of "deliverables" (things you have to submit for that lesson).

Course Assignments

EARTH 530 will rely upon a variety of methods to assess and evaluate your learning progress, including:

• Lesson assignments, such as short papers and reports, that require you to apply lesson concepts and to provide opportunities for instructors to gauge your progress.
• Required participation in online class discussion forums where you will reflect on how to apply lesson topics and concepts to your own teaching and learning environment.
• Four unit projects that will require you to apply the principles you have learned to various scientific inquiries of Earth surface processes in the Critical Zone. The unit projects will each involve an exercise that engages scientific methodologies to understand some aspect of Critical Zone processes. In most of these you will perform a study that is specific to your region of the state/country so that you can easily incorporate the exercise into your classroom. However, in some cases, lessons [or concepts] are best examined using specific examples from a select region of the country. In this case, you will still have crafted an exercise that can be incorporated into your classroom, but it may not seem as immediately relevant to your students’ lives, so I will work with you to potentially make these exercises as regionally specific as possible. A final report, not to exceed five pages of double-spaced, single-sided pages (including references) will be expected for each unit project; figures can be included on additional pages.
• A semester project that will require you to use the skills and knowledge you develop in the course to produce a learning module that you, in turn, will be able to use to teach course concepts to your own secondary school students.