Poster shows a large chicken, two figures representing Great Britain and Canada, and four eggs, representing egg production in Canada and sales to Britain. Text continues: Very little eggs for such a big bird. Canada must do better. Title from item.

Poster shows two figures representing Great Britain and Canada exchanging money for a pig. A large hog indicates how many pounds of pork Britain buys and the smaller pig represents how much Canada sells. Text continues: We're glad to have it, Canada, but we need ten times more. Title from item.

Our agricultural system is made up of interconnected resources. The availability of these resources affects how much food we can produce. In this module, you will explore the resources that make up our agricultural system in order to answer the question: can we feed the growing population? Food production is faced with an ever-growing number of challenges. Growing enough food depends on the availability of resources such as arable land, sunlight, rain, and organic matter. Throughout this activity, you will explore land uses and soil quality through graphs of land use and crop production. You will run experiments with computational models to compare the effect of different management strategies on the land. You will not be able to answer the module's framing question at the end of the module, but you will be able to describe how humans can maintain and replenish important resources to be able to produce food long into the future.

This activity from NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory introduces students to the scientific understanding of the greenhouse effect and the carbon cycle. The activity leads them through several interactive tasks to investigate recent trends in atmospheric carbon dioxide. Students analyze scientific data and use scientific reasoning to determine the causes responsible for these recent trends. By studying carbon cycle science in a visual and interactive manner, students can learn firsthand about the reasons behind our changing climate.

In this activity, students work in groups, plotting carbon dioxide concentrations over time on overheads and estimating the rate of change over five years. Stacked together, the overheads for the whole class show an increase on carbon dioxide over five years and annual variation driven by photosynthesis. This exercise enables students to practice basic quantitative skills and understand how important sampling intervals can be when studying changes over time. A goal is to see how small sample size may give incomplete picture of data.

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, find out how cars made of a material stronger than steel and half the weight can help combat climate change.

This video features a number of different climate scientists describing the effects of the increasing amount of carbon dioxide on global climate and proposing a series of solutions to mitigate these effects. Video addresses health problems and other costs to humans associated with climate change.

What is carbon? A hot topic in agriculture. Attend to preview new Nebraska-specific lesson plans aligned to Nebraska AFNR standards, that highlight the advantages and disadvantages of carbon.Explore answers to questions such as: What is the carbon cycle? How are agriculture and carbon connected? What steps are farmers and ranchers taking to reduce their carbon footprint?  Thee lesson plans and worksheets are included.  Curriculum developed by Rebecca Wulf.Sponsored by TallGrass, Leading Energy Solutions and the Nebraska FFA Foundation.

The 4th edition of Caring for Our Children: National Health and Safety Performance Standards Guidelines for Early Care and Education Programs by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Public Health Association, and National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education is available for free online. This 600+ page resource provides standards for just about any health, safety, or nutrition. It is copyrighted and freely accessible digitally (but a request for permission to use in OER was denied).

In this video segment from NatureScene, explore Cartwheel Bay, a wetland in South Carolina, and learn about the variety of carnivorous plants native to this unique landform.

In this video adapted from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, learn about carnivorous plants that act as both producers and consumers in an ecosystem. See sundews and blatterworts capture and digest insects.

In this activity, student teams research and develop a proposal to decrease the carbon footprint of their city's/town's public transportation system and then prepare a report that explains why their transportation plan is the best for their community.

Compiled and modified for instructional use by: Kate Darby, Western Washington University
In 1887, Robert Towne built a metals smelter two and a half miles northwest of El Paso, Texas, across the river from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico and across the state border from several small towns in New Mexico. The smelter, which processed metal ore from regional mines, was quickly acquired by ASARCO (American Smelting and Refining Company) and became an important visual and economic institution in the region. In 1967, following the mantra of environmental regulation at the time—"the solution to pollution is dilution"—ASARCO erected what was then the tallest smokestack in the world: an 828-foot structure visible from much of the region. While the facility provided jobs to many in the region and produced metals important for a range of manufacturing and consumer products, by the 1970s, residents and scientists began to question the other products from the smelter—especially heavy metals pollution.

This case study includes discussion questions and data sources for further information.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this activity, students consider how several communities are adapting to climate change-related problems including drought's impacts on agriculture, loss of assets due to climate-related hazards, freshwater availability, and extreme heat waves. They will read brief case studies about agro-forestry, insurance strategies, the "Room for the River" program in the Netherlands, water storage from retreating glaciers, and city planning for heat waves. Based on these examples and knowledge of their own community, they will suggest possible adaptation strategies that will be most beneficial to their area.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Short Description:
“Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion – 2nd Edition” was inspired by students and co-authored by people who are usually under-represented in higher education. These realistic, emotional cases are designed to help students grapple with ethical issues related to discrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion and general social issues in the workplace. These valuable cases are appropriate for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in the humanities, business, healthcare, agriculture, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, land use studies, law and more. In addition to the background description and scenario, each case comes with modifiable discussion questions, notes on teaching strategies, and a reading list.

Long Description:
This Open Education resource, “Cases on Social Issues: For Class Discussion – 2nd Edition”, includes valuable cases for student use on issues of discrimination, diversity, equity, inclusion and general social issues in the workplace. Included are cases for discussion on workplace scenarios as follows: homophobia; working with Indigenous communities; oil and gas pipelines and the family ranch; invisible disabilities; employee anxiety; safety for women, transgender women and non-binary people; and the bullying of new immigrants and refugees. The critical events portrayed in the cases are realistic and emotional, and most feature the experiences of under-represented and marginalized people. These thoughtful, contemporary cases pose ethical dilemmas about social issues that encourage post-secondary students and instructors to have stimulating, inclusive, and compassionate discussions. Inspired by input from post-secondary students and authored by students and people who are usually under-represented in education material, this resource is designed for upper-level undergraduate or graduate students in the humanities, social sciences, business, healthcare, science, agriculture, environmental studies, Indigenous studies, land use studies, law and more. Each case is supplemented with modifiable discussion prompts, notes for teaching strategies, and a short reading list.

Word Count: 35076

ISBN: 978-1-989864-68-5

(Note: This resource's metadata has been created automatically by reformatting and/or combining the information that the author initially provided as part of a bulk import process.)

This interactive resource adapted from the National Park Service presents the key concepts of cave and karst systems, including how and where they form, different types, and various cave environments.

Student groups compete to design a process that removes the most iron from fortified cereal. Students experiment with different materials using what they know about iron, magnets and forces to design the best process for removing iron from the cereal samples.

This activity engages learners in exploring the impact of climate change on arctic sea ice in the Bering Sea. They graph and analyze sea ice extent data, conduct a lab on thermal expansion of water, and then observe how a scientist collects long-term data on a bird population.

Students run a simplified computer model to explore how climate conditions can affect caribou, the most abundant grazing animal in the Arctic.

This animation illustrates how the hardiness zones for plants have changed between 1990 and 2006 based data from 5,000 National Climatic Data Center cooperative stations across the continental United States.