We are very happy that you have decided to join us this semester. Before we begin our semester of study together, it is important that you review all of the material in the Orientation and on our course syllabi. These two resources will prepare you to be successful in this course and will make the journey over the next several weeks significantly easier for you.
You should complete the Orientation before the first week of class so you are prepared.
The following is an overview of the activities that must be submitted for the Orientation. Detailed directions and submission instructions are located on the page containing the assignment. If you are at Colorado Mesa, some course activities will take place in D2L and if you are at Penn State they will take place in Canvas.
Tasks | Page of Orientation |
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Personalize your course management system (LMS) space (PSU Students Only) | The Learning Environment |
Forward your LMS e-mail to your regular email (PSU Students Only) | The Learning Environment |
Bookmark the course website: Geog 3 [1] | The Learning Environment |
Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class. | Getting to Know You |
Learn about what to expect in the course | Course Introduction |
Learn about Modern Earth Science Principles | Modern Earth Science Principles |
Download the Course Syllabus for your campus | Syllabus |
Read about the Course Capstone Assignment | Capstone |
You may want to print this page to serve as a checklist as you go along.
Have you looked at the syllabus yet? This Orientation complements and expands on the information provided in the syllabus. If you haven't read it, be sure to review that document carefully! It is linked from this website and may also be available in your LMS (Canvas or D2L).
There are two ways you can get help in the class.
For the quickest response directly from your professor, use email through your course management system. We will check several times daily during the week and daily on weekends. Please use this mode of communication for questions and concerns you do not wish the rest of the class to see.
If you have any questions that you want to share with the class, please post them to our Questions? discussion forum (not e-mail), located in Canvas (Penn State) and D2L (Colorado Mesa). We will check that discussion forum daily to respond. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate.
Once you are ready, click the next link in the orientation menu and work all the way to the end of the list.
Connor is a Ph.D. student investigating land-atmosphere interactions. In his Master’s research, Connor studied the influence of soil moisture on convective precipitation for the U.S. Corn Belt. His dissertation research is further investigating land surface impacts on Corn Belt precipitation, with emphases on soil moisture and land cover.
Outside of Penn State, Connor teaches high school earth science in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. His hobbies include running, guitar, and barbershop quartet singing.
Zach Goldberg is a Master's student in Geography. He is also a farmer with diverse experiences around the globe.
Growing up below sea level in New Orleans, Louisiana instilled in Gigi Richard an early fascination with water, weather, and good food. Hurricanes and floods were constant threats living on the Mississippi River delta close to the Gulf of Mexico, and with a Cajun heritage, growing up in a food-oriented culture, her food obsession came naturally. Following an undergraduate civil engineering degree focused on water resources from MIT in Cambridge, MA, Gigi moved to Colorado and spent a couple of years practicing as a civil engineer. After designing roads, subdivision and water, and sewer lines for a while, she realized that studying and understanding the natural environment was her passion, and continued her graduate studies focused on water and more specifically, river dynamics at CSU in Fort Collins, CO earning an MS and PhD in civil engineering. Gigi’s graduate research focused on the Rio Grande in New Mexico, studying the impacts of a dam on the river. Following graduate school, she spent a year as a post-doc in New Zealand, studying human impacts on the Waiho River draining Franz Josef Glacier on the south island of New Zealand. In 2002, Gigi started teaching at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction, CO in the geology program where she created the Watershed Science program, co-founded the Hutchins Water Center at CMU and was the founding coordinator of the CMU/CU-Boulder Mechanical Engineering Partnership Program. Gigi’s research at CMU has focused on flash flooding in ephemeral washes of the Colorado National Monument, understanding human impacts on the Yampa, Dolores and Colorado Rivers in western Colorado, and monitoring the impact of invasive vegetation removal on channel morphology of the Colorado River. Gigi is currently the Director of the Hutchins Water Center and is taking on the role of the coordinator of the new CMU/CU-Boulder Civil Engineering Partnership Program in spring 2016. In addition to her academic activities and to support her fresh food habit, Gigi spent four summers working at a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in Palisade, CO and remains an active member of the Field to Fork CSA. Gigi is also a volunteer weather reporter for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow (CoCoRaHS) Network and enjoys the outdoors in western Colorado, often on her bicycle or skis, as well as by growing her own food (and cooking it and eating it!).
Since she can remember, Heather Karsten's favorite color has been green. A native of the suburbs of Pittsburgh, PA, Heather Karsten's interest in plants and nature was nurtured through lots of outdoor recreational activities, gardening with her mother, and spending time on her family's friends' farm. Due to her keen interest in plants and the environmental sciences, she studied Environmental Biology at Yale where she discovered the field Agroecology. Inspired to contribute to developing more ecologically-friendly agriculture, she went on to earn her MS and PhD program in Agronomy and Agroecology at Cornell University, where she was fortunate to enjoy exploring diverse agroecosystems and their food systems through a Fulbright year in New Zealand studying pasture ecology; studies of tropical agriculture and Spanish in Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica; and her PhD research on a pasture-based commercial dairy farm in New York. After post-doctoral research on irrigated pasture systems in the Intermountain West stint at Utah State University, she returned to Pennsylvania to join the faculty at The Pennsylvania State University in 1998 where she teaches and conducts research in agronomy and agroecology. At Penn State, she has researched management intensive grazing systems, the influence of the grass-based diet on livestock product healthful fatty acid composition and vitamin content, and strategies to help organic farmers with whole farm nutrient management. She currently leads an interdisciplinary research team who are evaluating innovative conservation dairy cropping systems designed to conserve soil, nutrients, and energy; protect water quality, and reduce pesticide use with funding from the USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program. For more information see Department of Plant Science [2] and Research [3]. And although she continues to enjoy traveling to explore other agroecosystems and sampling diverse foods, in the beautiful ridge and valley region of central Pennsylvania, Heather enjoys both the natural ecosystems and agroecosystems through hiking, biking, gardening, visiting the farmers market, and eating fresh and diverse food with her family and friends.
Steven Vanek: as an indication of the twists and turns that can lead one to contemplate food systems, I pursued physics in my undergraduate program at Cornell University, and then, through a series of volunteer and teaching experiences with rural development organizations in the developing world, I attended graduate school first in Horticulture for an MS and then a PhD in soil science. I’ve conducted basic research on the processes that allow soils to feed plants and supply food systems, but much of my work has been on understanding agriculture at an applied level and in the way it contributes to global food systems, from case studies of organic farms in the Northeast United States to collaborations with nutritionists in studying Bolivian smallholder farming households. I currently collaborate with a Peruvian organization that seeks better options for maintaining soil fertility with forage crops that can also feed livestock in the Andes of South America. Over the last two years, I have been pursuing a post-doctoral research post in the Geography lab of Karl Zimmerer, where we study relationships between agrobiodiversity, soil management, and geographic factors of tropical mountain regions. In my time at Penn State, we have been able to try out some of the content of this course in a seminar course last spring. I’m very happy for the opportunity to form part of the multifaceted team that has authored the course, and to be a Penn State instructor for this innovative approach to fostering your learning about food and sustainability. Last but not least, I love food in all its varied glory, from the Czech and Italian recipes of my family to homemade kimchi, bread, and barbecue that I’ve attempted over the years. I appreciate pretty much any restaurant that can serve decent portions.
The materials for this class are on the World Wide Web. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:
Following is information about Canvas, Penn State's Learning Management System (LMS). In Canvas, registered students may consult course calendars; communicate with instructors, teaching assistants, and fellow students; submit assignments; receive feedback from the instructor and teaching assistant; take online quizzes and surveys; and check assignment scores and course grades. A link to Canvas appears on every page.
If you are new to Canvas, it is strongly recommended that you complete the PSU: Canvas Student Orientation [6].
You may also want to review the Canvas Student Guide [7] to acclimate yourself further, and watch the following video:
Credit: Canvas Overview for Students [8] from Canvas LMS [9].
In this video, you will learn how to navigate your Dashboard, courses, and Global Navigation Menu in Canvas.
When you log in to Canvas, the first thing you see is the Dashboard, which provides a high-level overview of your current courses. The Dashboard can be displayed in three different viewing options.
Card View displays a course card for each of your favorite courses. Each card can include clickable icons for Assignments, Announcements, Discussions, and Files. List View displays an agenda view of graded items from your courses, as well as any non-graded items your instructors designate for a course To Do list. You can also add your own items to the agenda.
Recent Activity View displays a stream of recent notifications from all your courses, including announcements, conversations, assignments, discussions, and peer reviews.
You can also access the course grades page from the Course Card and Recent Activity Views by clicking the View Grades button. The Grades page displays grades for all of your courses. To view grade details for a specific course, click the name of the course.
To view a course, click the Courses link in Global Navigation and click the name of the course you want to view. The course opens to the home page set by your instructor.
You can use the Course Navigation links, breadcrumb navigation, or the sidebar to navigate to different areas of the course.
The sidebar includes a To Do list that displays links to announcements and other items that require action in your courses, such as assignments, quizzes, discussions, and pages.
If your course includes student groups, you can view a list of your groups in Course Groups. Click the group name to view the group homepage. View recent assignment feedback in Recent Feedback. Click the assignment name to view feedback in the Submission Details page.
Canvas displays a Global Navigation Menu that gives you direct access to your courses and other areas of Canvas.
Click the Account link to log out of Canvas, specify your notification preferences, upload and view personal files, modify your user settings, manage ePortfolios, obtain a QR code to log in to the Student app, view global announcements, and enable a high-contrast user interface.
Click the Dashboard link to return to the Canvas Dashboard. Click the Courses link to quickly access your favorite courses and view a list of all your courses. Click the Groups link to access groups in which you are enrolled or view a list of all your groups.
Click the Calendar link to view your personal calendar and course calendars. Click the Inbox link to view and send messages to your instructors and peers within Canvas. Click the History link to view a list of course content and content areas you have viewed within the last three weeks.
Click the Help link to access help resources for your institution.
Thanks for watching this Canvas overview video. To learn more about Canvas, ask questions, or engage with other Canvas users, please visit community.canvaslms.com.
The Canvas Help Center provides extensive, up-to-date documentation [10] on making sure your computer is configured properly for Canvas. Failure to follow these recommendations may result in significant issues while viewing materials, taking assessments, and using drop boxes. Use of unsupported browsers is at your own risk.
Your Canvas Profile and User Settings let you control your personal information in Canvas. Take a few minutes to personalize your Canvas profile and set your Notification Preferences, by following the instructions below.
Task | Instructions |
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Personalize your Canvas Profile |
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If you use PSU OneID |
Students who are enrolled with OneID will not receive emails automatically from Canvas due to not having PSU email access. We advise that students set up a personal email address for notifications.
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Set your notification preferences |
You have the option to select how, when, and for what information you would like to receive notifications. This can be very helpful when keeping track of items such as discussion posts, assignment due dates, and exams. Visit Canvas Notification Preference Support [12] and follow the instructions for setting up your notification preferences. The video below this table provides additional information. To ensure that your Canvas Inbox messages forward to your regular e-mail account immediately, check the "Notify me right away" option (the checkmark) for each item under "Conversations" in Notification Preferences. |
Set your timezone |
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Download the Canvas App | For information on using the app by device, please see the following:
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Colorado Mesa University uses an online course management system called Desire2Learn (D2L) to deliver its online courses to registered students. Lecture materials, reading assignments, assessments, and quizzes will be on D2L.
To access D2L, visit the MAVzone Login Page [16] and log in using your assigned username and password. Click on the D2L icon in the center of your MAVzone page. Once in D2L, select GEOL 196 from the Select a course… menu.
To get help with D2L, contact the CMU IT Help Desk [17]. There are three Ways to Contact the Information Technology Help Desk
This site includes the majority of the instructional materials for this class. There are a few things you should know about this website.
This site uses a "tab" interface to organize content. The tabs are used as follows:
The content of this course is divided into four broad areas or Sections. Each Section is made up of three Modules.
The Future of Food is an active course. We will have you look at real data so you can put the concepts we teach you into action. This means that many of the assignments are based on lab activities. Here we explain the various types of assignments.
Readings are specified on the Assignment page at the beginning of each Module. All reading is mandatory.
As you work through each module we have assignments that help you become familiar with concepts. All of these assessments are for credit.
Formative activities are those that occur in the middle of a module, that address single or a few concepts explained in the text. You will do these by the end of the day on Tuesdays. You will need to download the worksheet, fill it out, and turn it in online to be graded or take a quiz that is based on the correct answers to the worksheet. If submitted as worksheets, they will be graded according to a rubric that is provided with the worksheet.
Module Summative activities are given at the end of a module. In these activities, you will be required to integrate multiple concepts. You will need to download the worksheet, fill it out, and turn it in online to be graded or take a quiz based on the correct answers. They will be graded according to a rubric that is provided with the worksheet.
The Course Summative Activity is introduced in the Orientation and at the end of Section 1 (Module 2) and is for credit. You will work on this on your own. The capstone will be graded according to a rubric. Module 12 is dedicated to the Capstone. This assignment will be turned in at the end of the course.
Quizzes are designed to evaluate your understanding of the course materials. They pertain to the week's module and are multiple choice.
These Discussions will serve as a discussion forum, where students in our class can share ideas and questions about some of the broader, over-arching questions related to specific topics covered in our course.
As described in the Syllabus, course Assessment is as follows:
Students are expected to read all assigned materials, study them well, and submit work according to the deadlines. Refer to the course syllabus for assignment weighting and final grade calculation.
Sometime this week, introduce yourself to your classmates in the Introduce Yourself Discussion in the Orientation Module in Canvas. All other discussions throughout the course will use the same format described below.
For this orientation discussion post, you will provide a 150-250 word (1-2 paragraph) introduction of yourself and what you hope to learn from this class. I would also like for you to pose two questions to your fellow classmates. Once everyone has submitted their introductions, you will then respond to two of your classmates, either by commenting on their introduction or answering one of their questions. Remember to remain respectful and curious and to use netiquette in your introduction and responses.
Your initial post with your introduction and questions is due on Friday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time. You then need to reply to at least 2 classmates by Sunday at 11:59 pm Eastern Time.
Once you have read and engaged with the content on the course website, read or viewed the weekly readings or videos, and completed the other weekly assessments, you are ready to contribute to the Weekly Discussion. For more information and directions on exactly what you should do, refer to the Discussion section of the syllabus on the course website. Your initial post with your reflection and questions are due on Friday at 11:59 pm Eastern. You then need to reply to at least 2 classmates by Sunday at 11:59 pm Eastern.
The post should include three sections.
Before you begin working through the course, you need to make sure the computer you are using is configured properly for the multimedia that you will encounter. Below are the specifications and tests to help make sure everything is in working order.
Access to a reliable Internet connection is required for this course. A problem with your Internet access may not be used as an excuse for late, missing, or incomplete coursework. If you experience problems with your Internet connection while working on this course, it is your responsibility to find an alternative Internet access point, such as a public library or wifi hotspot.
For this course, we recommend the minimum technical requirements outlined on the World Campus Technical Requirements [19] page, including the requirements listed for same-time, synchronous communications. If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the IT Service Desk [20] (for World Campus students) or Penn State's IT Help Portal [21] (for students at all other campus locations).
Access to a reliable Internet connection is required for this course. A problem with your Internet access may not be used as an excuse for late, missing, or incomplete coursework. If you experience problems with your Internet connection while working on this course, it is your responsibility to find an alternative Internet access point, such as a public library or Wi-Fi ® hotspot.
This site is considered a secure web site, which means that your connection is encrypted. We do, however, link to content that isn't necessarily encrypted. This is called mixed content. By default, mixed content is blocked in Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome. This may result in a blank page or a message saying that only secure content is displayed. Follow the directions on our Technical Requirements [19] page to view the mixed content.
You will be using Google Earth in a few of the modules. It is a very standard program that works on both Macs and PCs. Go to Google Earth [24] and download the latest version for your computer. Later in the orientation, there is a tutorial to help familiarize you with the software.
You will be using Google Earth in the lab part of the course. Please make sure to spend time learning it this week. In Module 1 we jump right into Google Earth, so pay particular attention to the videos, load the software and begin to play with it.
Google Earth is an incredible geospatial tool that can be used for a wide variety of educational and research purposes. This digital globe software is very easy to use. Individuals can download the software for free and can easily browse, carryout inquiry, create new knowledge and data. You can save and share information using KMZ data files, or you can easily output the content as image files for incorporation into presentations or reports. Google Earth is a great research tool and with it, anyone can collect information. A wide range of imagery, including historical imagery, contains a great deal of information about both natural and human landscapes around the Earth's surface. Street View functionality is also expanding in major cities and some rural areas. This adds an incredible array of 360° panoramic views, as though the user were actually in that place on the street. Built-in features also provide terrain views to add to 3-D visualization. A whole range of additional tools (measuring tools, image overlay tools, video touring tools, and others) allow for both qualitative and quantitative analysis of landscapes through time. Google Earth Layers offers additional geographic information sorted by thematic area and provides labels, political boundaries, and more. Google Earth is also searchable and allows you to fly to most any location by name or coordinates.
For all of these reasons, this software will be the principal tool that will be used in this course to help you develop critical geospatial skills.
Go to Google Earth [24] and download the latest version for your computer.
To be sure you are able to access reserve readings and other library resources in this course, visit the library’s Online Student's Use of the Library [27] site. This guide outlines all that Penn State libraries offer you as an online student. It is strongly recommended that you visit the Services for Students [28] page.
If you have questions, just ASK! [29] a librarian! The ASK! page will connect you to librarians in a manner that meets your needs; e-mail, phone, or chat for a quick response.
Colorado Mesa University’s Tomlinson Library offers a wide array of resources to both on-campus and off-campus students. The newly renovated and expanded library opened on November 30, 2015, with 24-hour study space, group and quiet study room, many more computer workstations and very helpful reference staff to help you find the resources you need. Online, the library’s website [30] is a very helpful portal for all your information needs. You’ll find research guides and tutorials [31] for different subject areas, databases [32], and interlibrary loan [33]for anything the CMU library doesn’t have in its collection. And, any time you have a question, you can always “Ask a Librarian [34]”.
For online courses, the advice most likely to lead you to success is "Engage, Engage, Engage!"
What does this mean? Quite simply, it means being active in the course on a regular basis. It means keeping in sync with what's going on in the course, staying on top of deadlines and assignments, asking for help when necessary, and taking every opportunity to interact with the content and the instructors. It means making this course a regular part of your routine. Do this, and frankly, it will be difficult for you NOT to succeed in this course.
In online courses, the role of both the instructors AND the students tends to shift from the traditional classroom roles. The instructors' role is similar to that of good supervisors, and the students' role is closer to that of a good employee. The instructors define and set overall goals, outcomes, and timelines; make the information, resources, and experiences available to you to meet those goals; and, provide the support, guidance, communication channels, and feedback to help you succeed. The students' primary responsibilities are to stay on task; to manage their time and energy in order to get everything done on a weekly basis; to ask for guidance when in need of clarification; and, to take every opportunity available to improve their chances of success.
So, the very best advice we can offer you is to be engaged in this course at least nine hours each week, and log on 5-6 days of the week to spread out your study and thinking time. In the final analysis, completing multiple online sessions of quality study time is a tried-and-true recipe for success in this course.
Here are some quick tips to keep in mind when preparing to be successful in an online course:
It is a good idea to record any questions you might develop as you move through the content. Maintaining a digital course notebook is a great idea (you can use Microsoft OneNote, Evernote, etc.) to assist you. The process can be very easy with modern technology including your tablet, or computer. OneNote is often included with Microsoft Office software, and Evernote can be installed as a free app on tablets/iPad's. All software/apps work similarly and can be extremely useful once you get the hang of them, they are especially useful when you want to review content and prepare for assignment work.
And finally, in this course which has a lab component, it is critical that you read the lecture materials before you come to your lab.
The links below will connect you with other resources to help support your successful online learning experience. They are from Penn State but they apply to students from anywhere and are openly available.
The links below will connect you with other resources to help support your successful online learning experience:
Tips for Being a Successful World Campus Student [35]
This website provides links to many resources on everything from taking notes online to managing your time effectively. Please note that you must be a World Campus student to receive some of the support services mentioned on this website.
Tutoring and Technology Resources [36]
As a student, you have access to several resources to help you improve your understanding of the course material or better use technology needed for your courses. This website provides instructions and links for accessing online tutoring, writing help, and assistance with learning technology.
Penn State World Campus Blog [37]
This blog features posts by Penn State staff and students on a wide variety of topics relevant to online learning. Learn from online students and alumni, as well as staff members dedicated to student success, how you can get the most out of your online course experience.
Penn State iStudy Online Learning Tutorials [38]
The iStudy online learning tutorials are free and available to all Penn State students. They cover a broad range of topics including online learning readiness, time management, stress management, and statistics - among many others. Check out the extensive list of topics for yourself to see what topics may be of most use to you!
Linkedin Learning [39]
This website provides access to an extensive free online training library, with tutorials on everything from creating presentations to using mobile apps for education. There is a wealth of information here - all provided free of charge to Penn State faculty, staff, and currently enrolled students.
Netiquette is the rules of etiquette when internet manners, online etiquette, and digital etiquette all rolled into one word.
Links to more resources on netiquette:
Effective Technical Writing in the Information Age: E-Mail Etiquette [40]
Netiquette, by Virginia Shea [41]
Penn State Office of Student Conduct [42]
Wikipedia: Etiquette in technology [43]
Learn the Net [44]
Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of a successful online class.
Sometimes questions arise as to whom to contact about a certain issue and where. Use the information below to guide you in seeking answers to your questions.
If you have any questions about the course content or activities, at any point in the course, please post them to our Discussion Forums in Canvas (Penn State) or in D2L (Colorado-Mesa). That way, everyone can benefit from seeing the question and the answer! That forum will be checked at least once per day, Monday through Friday and once a day on weekends. While you are there, feel free to post your own responses if you, too, are able to help out a classmate!
If you have a question that you would prefer not to share with the rest of the class, such as about your grade, you are welcome to contact your faculty member via email through the course management system anytime. We guarantee a response within 24 hours.
Whenever you post a message in a forum or send course mail, use a descriptive subject line. Subject lines that include the gist of a question or comment increase the chances that recipients can retrieve the messages we're looking for. Poor subject lines, such as "Question" or "Lesson 1," are useless as search keywords.
The "Getting Help" link in the top menu is a shortcut to the people and resources available to you.
By the time today's undergraduates send their children to college, there will be more than eight billion people on Earth. Our climate will be punctuated by extreme weather events. One or more major metropolitan areas may have experienced a devastating earthquake or volcanic eruption. Energy resources will be strained and more expensive. This world requires both an Earth literate public and a workforce that can bring geoscience to bear on tough societal issues. Developing widespread Earth literacy and this workforce are the objectives of the InTeGrate project.
InTeGrate is a 5-year, NSF-funded STEP Center grant, running from 2012 through 2016. The STEP (STEM Talent Expansion Program) Center program enables "a group of faculty representing a cross-section of institutions of higher education to identify a national challenge or opportunity in undergraduate education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and to propose a comprehensive and coordinated set of activities that will be carried out to address that challenge or opportunity within a national context." This course was developed through the InTeGrate STEP grant. For more information see InTeGrate Project [45]
Have you ever eaten at a restaurant, grown your own food in a garden, made a traditional recipe handed down in your family, hunted, or shopped at a supermarket or open-air market? If you’ve done any of these activities, you’ve played an important role in the global food system of planet earth. This introductory course takes on the subject of food not just in the way it is produced or consumed, but as a system: the relationship of food production to the environment, human knowledge, and social factors like government policies, and the way that we consume food as a product of regional cultures, history, and climate. We call the course “the future of food” because we will place emphasis on the challenges facing food systems in the 21st century, and issues of sustainability for agriculture and other food production activities as well as the challenges posed by food insecurity and modern diets to human health and well-being.
The first section or Introduction presents the themes of the course. Here we will introduce the concept of the food system as a coupling or interaction of human societies and human knowledge with natural environments around the world. We will also spend time analyzing the history of food systems and the emergence of modern food systems, and introduce the course capstone assignment (see below).
The second section, Environmental Drivers, can be thought of as your introduction to the natural factors where the interactions between societies and environments play out to produce food, with modules that feature soil, water, the atmosphere, plants, and other earth system features of food systems and how these are modified and managed by humans. It’s in this section that the overarching theme of sustainability emerges strongly.
The third section, Human-Environment Interactions is where you as learners will put together some skills and overarching concepts that are used to analyze food systems. We will weave together human and natural factors in a very deliberate way that should help you in the capstone project for the course. You will learn concepts and gain tools that you can come back to throughout your university education when you discuss sustainability (a word that is all about Humans and the Environment). Among other topics, we’ll look at ways to quantify the food system impacts on earth systems, the concept of resilience, management and policy interactions with agroecosystems, and food insecurity and diet.
One of the marvelous things about studying food systems is that they come in so many descriptions and sizes based on culture, nature, and geography, and yet we all have good intuitions about food systems because we all participate as consumers of food and observers of our local food systems. In that vein, and because doing is learning, you’ll be putting together an analysis of a food system in a given part of the world over the semester, working in stages as you complete the other learning tasks for each module and section. You will draw on the material in the course to both describe and assess different parts of the food system. The capstone culminates in you proposing scenarios for “the future of food” for the region you choose out of the ones assigned.
Online and assessments: if you have read this far in the orientation, you know that this is an online course. In the online portion, you will be expected to read the course materials, along with some outside resources, usually websites, videos, or occasional reserve readings. These resources will allow you to complete the formative assessments. You will also use the website to complete the summative assessments. Along with weekly quizzes and the capstone project, these assessments form the basis of your grade in the course.
Many of you have not had an Earth Science class before so it is necessary to prepare you for a new way of thinking that you will be practicing throughout the class.
The Earth is a wonderful, big messy pile of rock, water, and air with life teaming all over it. Earth scientists are used to dealing with this messy and highly complex system, but you are not. So let's simplify things to start. The Earth is an integration of four systems or spheres: air, water, land, and life. Technically speaking these are known as the atmosphere (air), hydrosphere (water), lithosphere (land) and biosphere (life).
Modern Earth Science is focused on the connections between the spheres and this approach is extremely relevant in this course. Water is a basic human right, and climate change combined with the increase in global population and worsening pollution, are going to make clean drinking water an increasingly scarce commodity in coming decades. Thus human survival (the biosphere) is going to depend more and more on access to this precious part of the hydrosphere. As you will learn the water cycle involves the atmosphere (rain and snow) and the lithosphere (soil and rock) where groundwater resides in aquifers. During the course of the semester, we will consider the interactions between the different Earth systems on a continual basis. In Units 1 and 2, we consider the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere and how they interact with one another in terms of how water flows on the Earth's surface and underground. In Unit 3 we focus on how humans use (and misuse) water and how politics enters into groundwater resources.
Because Earth scientists are continuously working at the intersection between the spheres, their field is by necessity an integrative one, meaning that the techniques that they use are built upon the connections the earth, air water, and life. As we mention above, these connections are inherently complex and subject to great changes over time. Thus Earth scientists are accustomed to dealing with complexity, fluctuation, and uncertainty and you will see good examples of each of these factors throughout the semester.
The complex connections between the involve what are known as “feedbacks.” These are mechanisms that dampen or accelerate the impact of one process on another. Sounds complex? The best way to explain a feedback is to give an example and the best example involves the growth of ice such as in a glacier. Ice reflects sunlight better than almost any other material on Earth, and in reflecting sunlight, it lowers the amount of energy from sunlight absorbed by Earth, which makes it colder. If the Earth becomes colder, glaciers may grow, covering more area and thus reflecting even more insolation, which in turn cools the Earth further. Thus cooling instigates ice expansion, which promotes additional cooling, and so on — this is clearly a cycle that feeds back on itself to encourage the initial change. Since this chain of events furthers the initial change that triggered the whole thing, it is called a positive feedback. There are also examples of negative feedbacks whether the chain slows the change that triggered the events. We will point examples out to you in the modules.
Moreover, when you really get involved in studying processes on Earth, you will find out that some variables are related to one another in a linear fashion, for example, an increase in variable X leads to a doubling of variable Y, but in fact, many processes are related in a non-linear way. At the level of this course, we will not be exploring linearity and non-linearity in much detail, and as you can imagine most of the processes we discuss are non-linear.
In common usage, we think of the word complex meaning something like "difficult to solve" or "multifactor". In this course and across the disciplines of social, earth, and biological sciences, however, complexity has a more specific meaning: a complex system like the food system has many interacting parts with multiple levels of organization (think of fields within farms within regions within world climates, in interaction with markets and transportation networks, government policies and regulation, and small and large food companies). All of these interacting parts, or many of them, may have interactions consisting of linear or nonlinear relationships and feedbacks we've just considered above. Therefore the behavior of the system as a whole may be initially difficult to understand and may produce unexpected, sudden, and/or self-organizing and self-reinforcing behavior. In our daily lives we may be used to systems like human-designed machines, math problems, daily routines, or other processes that are designed to be very non-complex, like the way we control the motor of a car or the handlebars of a bicycle driving down the street, or play a musical instrument using simplified systems like vibrating strings or reeds in a deliberate way. We hope very much that a car, a piano, or a clarinet do NOT produce unexpected behavior or nonlinear feedbacks, but we do expect that from a regional food system or a local agricultural landscape. Complex systems may, therefore, require new skills to appreciate and understand, and it's our hope that by learning about the multiple interacting parts of food systems, from soil to rainfall to the sandwich at the local deli, you will gain appreciation for the need to study complex systems, especially those combining humans and the global environment, that are currently faced by sustainability challenges. Furthermore, by the end of the course, we want you to be able to apply skills in analyzing complex systems to develop scenarios for better human management of complex environmental systems. To appreciate complexity it is necessary for us to practice systems thinking, something that will be addressed in the first module. It's also important to not become overwhelmed by complexity and to have frameworks and methods that allow us to digest complexity and consider scenarios within systems. Throughout the course, we'll try to flag when we are dealing with systems approaches or a reading or module section that focuses on complexity. We may directly point out examples of complexity, feedback and Earth Systems in the modules. Whenever you see "Earth Systems, Complexity, Feedback IN ACTION" pay attention!
You can find a nice description of complexity including definitions from a variety of authors at Developing Student Understanding of Complex Systems in the Geosciences [46].
The considerable threat of food shortages, access to clean drinking water for large numbers of people and other massive problems facing humanity, has provided a boost to the Earth sciences, broadly defined to include geoscience, geography, atmospheric science, and oceanography. Massive datasets are now available to study the Earth and with technology that can handle terabytes of data in a heartbeat, this is an extraordinarily exciting time to be an Earth scientist. In the class, there are several examples where real data are used in activities. For example, in Module 2 you will look at the Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of Potato in smallholder Andean and North American production systems and in Module 5 you will classify the crops used to produce the current top 20 world commodities and interpret how vulnerable they are to climate change, how they have changed since 2000 and what factors might explain the change in production.
We hope that this course brings a lot of the enthusiasm that is permeating modern Earth science.
In order to assess your understanding of the interdisciplinary topics covered in this course, The Future of Food, you will need to demonstrate your mastery of the course learning objectives via the completion of a capstone project. The capstone project requires that you assess the current status of the food systems in an assigned region. Then consider the food systems in your assigned region for the future scenarios of human population growth and increased temperatures. You will develop your assessment of the current status of the regional food system gradually as you progress through the course material. At the end of every third module, you will complete an assignment designed to help you gather and organize the information you will need to assess the future food scenarios.
You will need to select a region with consultaion from your instructor. More information will be providedat the end of Module 1.
You have reached the end of the Orientation! Double-check the "Orientation Tasks" on the Orientation Welcome page to make sure that you have completed all of the activities listed there before continuing on to Module 1. Then click on "Modules" to move on to the first Module.
Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog3/
[2] http://plantscience.psu.edu/directory/hdk3
[3] http://plantscience.psu.edu/research/areas/crop-ecology-and-management/cropping-systems
[4] https://psu.instructure.com
[5] http://www.coloradomesa.edu/mavzone
[6] https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1780857
[7] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-4121
[8] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/Canvas-Overview-Students/ta-p/383771
[9] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/tkb-p/videos
[10] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1284
[11] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1285
[12] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10624-4212710344
[13] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1559
[14] https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-1666
[15] https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/Notification-Settings-All-Users/ta-p/383690
[16] http://mavzone.coloradomesa.edu/
[17] http://www.coloradomesa.edu/information-technology/services/helpdesk.html
[18] http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/DocAPA.html
[19] https://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/general-technical-requirements
[20] https://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/help-and-support/technical-support/it-service-desk
[21] https://pennstate.service-now.com/sp?id=get_it_help
[22] https://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/help-and-support
[23] http://www.itservicedesk.psu.edu/
[24] https://earth.google.com/web/
[25] https://support.google.com/earth/?page=guide_toc.cs#topic=4363013
[26] http://serc.carleton.edu/sp/library/google_earth/UserGuide.html
[27] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/onlinestudentlibraryguide
[28] http://guides.libraries.psu.edu/c.php?g=516093&p=3540332
[29] http://ask.libraries.psu.edu/?stream=8
[30] http://www.coloradomesa.edu/library/index.html
[31] http://libguides.coloradomesa.edu/
[32] http://libguides.coloradomesa.edu/az.php
[33] http://www.coloradomesa.edu/library/search-research/inter-library-loan/index.html
[34] http://www.coloradomesa.edu/cmulibrary/askalibrarian.html
[35] https://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/a-z-index/tips-for-being-a-successful-world-campus-student
[36] https://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/student-services/tutoring-and-technology-resources
[37] https://blog.worldcampus.psu.edu/
[38] http://istudy.psu.edu/
[39] https://linkedinlearning.psu.edu/
[40] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c7_p2.html
[41] http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/
[42] http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/conduct/
[43] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_in_technology
[44] https://websitebuilders.com/how-to/
[45] http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/about/index.html
[46] http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/complexsystems/definitions.html