This sophomore-level course is a project-oriented introduction to the principles and practice of engineering design. Design projects and exercises are chosen that relate to the built and natural environments. Emphasis is placed on achieving function and sustainability through choice of materials and processes, compatibility with natural cycles, and the use of active or adaptive systems. The course also encourages development of hands-on skills, teamwork, and communication; exercises and projects engage students in the building, implementation, and testing of their designs.

This course examines why democracy emerges and survives in some countries rather than in others; how political institutions affect economic development; and how American politics compares to that of other countries. It reviews economic, cultural, and institutional explanations for political outcomes. It also includes case studies of politics in several countries. Assignments include several papers of varying lengths and extensive structured and unstructured class participation.

Learn about urban water services, focusing on conventional technologies for drinking water treatment. This course focuses on conventional technologies for drinking water treatment. Unit processes, involved in the treatment chain, are discussed as well as the physical, chemical and biological processes involved. The emphasis is on the effect of treatment on water quality and the dimensions of the unit processes in the treatment chain. After the course one should be able to recognise the process units, describe their function, and make basic calculations for a preliminary design of a drinking water treatment plant.

Introduction to Earth Science is a 530+ page open textbook designed to provide a comprehensive introduction to Earth Science that can be freely accessed online, read offline, printed, or purchased as a print-on-demand book. It is intended for a typical 1000-level university introductory course in the Geosciences, although its contents could be applied to many other related courses.

This text includes various important features designed to enhance the student learning experience in introductory Earth Science courses. These include a multitude of high-quality figures and images within each chapter that help to clarify key concepts and are optimized for viewing online. Self-test assessment questions are embedded in each online chapter that help students focus their learning. QR codes are provided for each assessment to allow students using print or PDF versions to easily access the quiz from an internet-capable device of their choice.

Adapted from openly-licensed works in geoscience, the sequence of the book differs from mainstream commercial texts in that it has been arranged to present elementary or foundational knowledge regarding rocks and minerals prior to discussion of more complex topics in Earth Science. Unlike prominent commercial texts for Earth Science, this book dedicates an individual chapter to each of the three major rock types, the processes of mass wasting, geological time, Earth history, and the origin of the universe and our solar system. Book content has been further customized to match the Pathways General Education Curriculum at Virginia Tech with a focus on Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for Pathways Concept 4, Reasoning in the Natural Sciences.

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How to Access the Book
This text is available in multiple formats including PDF, a low-resolution PDF which is faster to download, and ePub [coming mid 2023]. These are available at: https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. The book is also available in HTML/Pressbooks at https://pressbooks.lib.vt.edu/introearthscience. Softcover print versions with color interior are available at the manufacturer’s lowest price at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1957213361. The main landing page for this book is https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience.

PDF: ISBN 978-1-957213-34-7
HTML/Pressbooks: ISBN 978-1-957213-33-0
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Table of Contents
1. Understanding Science
2. Plate Tectonics
3. Minerals
4. Igneous Processes and Volcanoes
5. Weathering, Erosion, and Sedimentary Rocks
6. Metamorphic Rocks
7. Geologic Time
8. Earth History
9. Crustal Deformation and Earthquakes
10. Mass Wasting
11. Water
12. Coastlines
13. Deserts
14. Glaciers
15. Global Climate Change
16. Energy and Mineral Resources
17. Origin of the Universe and Our Solar System

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Attribution
This work includes content from multiple sources reproduced under the terms of Creative Commons licenses, Public Domain, and Fair Use. Specifically: Chapters 1-16 are adapted from An Introduction to Geology https://slcc.pressbooks.pub/introgeology (CC BY NC SA) by Chris Johnson, Matthew D. Affolter, Paul Inkenbrandt, and Cam Mosher. Chapter 17 is adapted from Section 22.1 of Chapter 22 “The Origin of Earth and the Solar System” by Karla Panchuk in Physical Geology, 2nd edition (CC BY) by Steven Earle https://opentextbc.ca/physicalgeology2ed/part/chapter-22-the-origin-of-earth-and-the-solar-system, with Sections 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4 of Chapter 7 “Other Worlds: An Introduction to the Solar System” https://openstax.org/books/astronomy-2e/pages/7-1-overview-of-our-planetary-system from OpenStax Astronomy, 2nd edition https://openstax.org/details/books/astronomy-2e (CC BY). And, figures are from a variety of sources; references at the end of each chapter describe the terms of reuse for each figure. Version notes located at the end of the book describe author changes made to these materials by chapter.

About the Author
Laura Neser, Ph.D. is an Instructor in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech. Dr. Neser earned her B.S. in Geosciences at Virginia Tech in the spring of 2008 and completed her Ph.D. in Geological Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) in 2014. Her doctoral research focused on the structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy of formations that were deposited along the flanks of the Beartooth Mountains as they rose during late Paleocene-Eocene time. Dr. Neser has worked as an athletic tutor and online instructor at The University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, NC), in temporary positions as an Adjunct Instructor at Chowan University (Murfreesboro, NC) and Full-Time Lecturer at Indiana State University (Terre Haute, IN), and as a Professor at Seminole State College (Sanford, FL) before starting as an Instructor at Virginia Tech in the fall of 2021.

Although she is currently focused on teaching online sections of Introduction to Earth Science, Earth Resources, Society and the Environment, and Climate History, her teaching background is significantly broader and includes Environmental ‬Science, Astronomy, Environmental ‬Ethics, Earth History, Structural Geology, and Field Geology‬.

Suggested Citation
Neser, Laura (2023). Introduction to Earth Science. Blacksburg: Virginia Tech Department of Geosciences. https://doi.org/10.21061/introearthscience. Licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0.

Report Errors: https://bit.ly/report_error_intro_earth_science
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Funding and Project Support
This publication was made possible in part through funding and publishing support provided by the Open Education Initiative of the University Libraries at Virginia Tech.

Accessibility Statement
Virginia Tech Publishing is committed to making its publications accessible in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The Pressbooks (HTML) and ePub versions of this text are tagged structurally and include alternative text, which allows for machine readability.

Disclaimer
This work may contain components (e.g., illustrations, or quotations) not covered by the license. Every effort has been made to clearly identify these components but ultimately it is your responsibility to independently evaluate the copyright status of any work or component part of a work you use, in light of your intended use. Please check the references at the end of each chapter before redistributing.

Textbook covering topics orienting undergraduate-level students to the major engineering disciplines (civil, computer and electronic, and mechanical) and professionalism within these disciplines.

Students in ESD.00 work on projects to address large, complex and seemingly intractable real-world problems, such as energy supply, environmental issues, health care delivery, and critical infrastructure (e.g., telecommunications, water supply, and transportation). The course introduces interdisciplinary approaches - rooted in engineering, management, and the social sciences - to considering these critical contemporary issues. Small, faculty-led teams select an engineering systems term project to illustrate one or more of these approaches.

Students are presented with examples of the types of problems that environmental engineers solve, specifically focusing on air and land quality issues. Air quality topics include air pollution sources, results of poor air quality including global warming, acid rain and air pollution, as well as ways to reduce air pollution. Land quality topics include the differences between renewable and non-renewable resources, the results of non-renewable resource misuse and ways to reduce land pollution. (Water quality is introduced in a later lesson in a separate presentation, as it is the focal point of this unit curriculum.)

Introduction to Environmental Science and Sustainability Canvas Commons Course

SUS 102

General Description:

This course serves to introduce students to the science behind critical environmental debates and the biological basis of creating and maintaining sustainable ecosystems. This course focuses on critical thinking skills to assess such questions as: how do we decide what to believe about environmental issues? How do we predict trends in population growth, or climate change? How do we calculate and understand uncertainty in these predictions? Should people eat lower on the food chain? How are human activities linked to the phosphorus and nitrogen cycles, and pollution and eutrophication? How can fisheries be made to be more sustainable? How can we quantify and value biodiversity? Can we restore “natural” ecosystems and should wolves be re-established in the west? What is valid science in the global warming debate?

Learning outcomes
Upon completion of this course students should have the ability to:
• Recognize and apply concepts and theories of population biology to interdisciplinary fields such as conservation ecology;
• Apply principles of evolutionary dynamics and ecosystem biogeochemistry to understand and predict effects of pollutants such as heavy metals, pesticides, or acid rain on ecosystems;
• Effectively debate and evaluate scientific arguments behind such diverse fields as genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or organic vs. conventional farming;
• Interpret data critically, and understand uncertainty in scientific data and model prediction in such diverse fields as nitrogen saturation and global climate change;
• Calculate carbon footprint, water footprint of human activities
• Develop an awareness of the responsibilities of professional scientists.

This course offers a broad overview of physical, chemical, biological, geological, principles of environmental sciences, and serves as a core course for EEOS majors. Examples will focus on linked watershed and coastal marine systems. The student will be introduced to natural processes and interactions in the atmosphere, in the ocean, and on land. There is a focus on biogeochemical cycling of elements as well as changes of these natural cycles with time, especially with recent anthropogenic effects. Topics include plate tectonics, global climate change, ozone depletion, water pollution, oceanography, ecosystem health, and natural resources.

In this lab I simply have students dissolve halite and sylvite in water at various temperatures. I use this experiment to introduce students to the principles of equilibrium thermodynamics, as well as basic lab skills, data analysis, and lab report writing. Students use basic laboratory skills to conduct their experiments then analyze their data using a spreadsheet program such as Excel. They then write up their results and discussion in a formal lab report.

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To learn ArcExplorer GIS, students perform these four exercises using data sets of Brooklyn and water quality data collected at various locations in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Through these exercises, the students gain an understanding of how GIS works and what can be done. Ideally, the students should collect the water data and locate the sampling sites using a GPS. If lab time is limited, water data and site locations can be provided. Combining field data with existing data sets helps make the GIS applications more understandable and relevant to the students. As a final product, students create a map using a variety of GIS data layers. They also examine spatial patterns and use GIS to generate questions and hypotheses. Uses online and/or real-time data Addresses student fear of quantitative aspect and/or inadequate quantitative skills

This undergraduate level course presents a basic study in geology. It introduces major minerals and rock types, rock-forming processes, and time scales; temperatures, pressures, compositions, structure of the Earth, and measurement techniques; geologic structures and relationships observable in the field; sediment movement and landform development by moving water, wind, and ice; crustal processes and planetary evolution in terms of global plate tectonics with an emphasis on ductile and brittle processes.

This session presents an overview of the association between water, sanitation, hygiene and human health. A particular focus upon transmission and treatment of diarrhea disease among small children. Other diseases given particular priority in the presentation include Hepatitis A and E viruses and bacteria that cause cholera or typhoid fever. Likewise, the importance of water-washed diseases, especially infectious skin and eye diseases, such as scabies and trachoma are presented. The preventive actions needed to reduce the burden of the various infectious diseases associated with water, sanitation and hygiene will be introduced.

Previously infectious diseases previously caused the majority of ill-health and premature death globally, but in high- and middle-income countries during the 20.th century infectious diseases – with the exception of HIV – declined. Introduction of hygiene and discovery of microbes and later vaccines an antibiotics contributed to the decline, but changing living conditions with better housing, nutrition, water and sanitation were the main drivers of infectious diseases’ decline.

This session will expand the student´s knowledge about human health and quality of life in the context of global and local ecology. Examples will be provided on how environmental management and development influence human health. The session provide an overview of the disease burden attributable to the environment, and much of this burden is placed across different geographical regions of the world. Examples will be presented on the impacts of poor quality water, insufficient access to water, lack of appropriate sanitation and poor personal hygiene. Other examples of environmental health factors included relate to reduced forest cover, unsustainable agricultural production systems, climate change, and poor management of natural resources that significantly influence livelihood, food security and migration patterns.

What determines our health? Why does life expectancy differ so much from country to country, or even from one group to another in the same country? Well, there is no easy answer to these questions. There are many factors that play a part in determining the well-being of the population, or even of an individual. In global health, we call these factors determinants of health. Determinants of health interact with each other, and influence our health status is in numerous ways, in turn influencing our well-being, morbidity, mortality, and life expectancy. As you already know, the first and most important health determinant is income. Income of an individual or a household, but also income of the country a person lives in. Other important health determinants are education, access to water, diet, environment and many more. In this presentation we will look closer at how health determinants determine an individual’s health, and how different health determinants interact with each other.

Get transcript for video here: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/module/58789/overview

The session argues for why the three main resources that humanity needs for its survival on this planet are land / soil, water resources and air. In addition, how degradation of such resources places limits health and to the quality of life for the affected human population.
Participants: Senior adviser (IWA) Robert Ros

The newborn or neonatal period relates to children during the first 28 days of life. This session will explore how really simple and low cost interventions at high coverage could save the life of a large proportion of newborn children. During the past two decades, we have seen a dramatic improvement in child survival. In 1990, almost 13 million children died every year. Today, this number has reduced by more than half
to below six million. This is the result of an increasing number of people gaining access to clean water,
vaccination, education, nutrition, and health care. Learn more by watching this video.
Get transcript for video here: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/module/58789/overview

Handwashing is one of he most cost-effective way to improve health that we know of. Learn more about handwashing, hygiene and toilets in this session.
Get transcript for video here: https://www.oercommons.org/courseware/module/58789/overview

In this lab, students investigate groundwater flow and water quality within a groundwater well field on the CSU campus. The well field is part of the GroundWater Education and Teaching (GetWET) Observatory south of the Hilton Inn off Centre Drive. Students determine water flow paths and rates as well as measure water quality parameters such as water temperature, pH, electrical conductivity, and dissolved oxygen.

Materials needed for this lab include:

Groundwater equipment: Groundwater well or wells adjacent to a perennial stream.
Water quantity equipment: Electronic water meter, staff, plate, tape, stop watch, and float to measure surface velocity.
Water quality equipment: pH, temperature specific conductance, and dissolved oxygen meters, bailer, and bucket to collect samples.
Other equipment: Map of site showing location of wells and stream.

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