Published on EARTH 111: Water: Science and Society (https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth111)

Home > Orientation

Welcome

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 16 weeks significantly easier for you.  

What will we learn about in the Orientation?

  • An overview of your school's course management system
  • An overview of the course website
  • Technical requirements for this course including learning about software you will be using
  • A brief introduction to the course
  • Modern Earth Science principles
  • How to succeed in this course
  • Where to get course assistance if you need it

What is due for the Orientation?

You should complete the Orientation before the first week of class so you are prepared.

The following is an overview of the activities for the Orientation. Detailed directions and submission instructions are located on the page containing the assignment within this orientation. Some course activities will take place in Canvas.

Orientation Tasks
Tasks Page of Orientation
Personalize your course management system (CMS) space. The Learning Environment
Forward your CMS e-mail to your regular email The Learning Environment
Bookmark the course website [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

(Note: 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 on 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 Canvas. 

Questions?

There are two ways you can get help in the class.

E-mail

For the quickest response directly from your professor, use email through your course management system (e.g., Canvas). 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.

Class Discussion

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. 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.

What is next?

Once you are ready, click the next link in the orientation menu and work all the way to the end of the list.

Meet the Instructors

Welcome to Water Resources!

The materials for this course were developed by three professors, two at Penn State (Dr. Michael Arthur and Dr. Damien Saffer) and one at Utah State (Dr. Patrick Belmont). Dr. Maureen Feineman and Dr. Erin DiMaggio teach the course yearly.

Pennsylvania State University-University Park
Dr. Michael ArthurMIchael Arthur Michael Arthur is a sedimentary geologist/geochemist with an interest in climate and paleoclimate and water/rock interactions. He is a Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, where he has worked since 1990, and is Co-Director of the Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research at Penn State. He received his Bachelors and Masters Degrees at the University of California, Riverside, and a PhD from Princeton University. He has previously worked with the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of South Carolina, and the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, and the Geological Society of America. Among other awards, he has received the Francis P. Shepard Medal in Marine Geology from the Society of Sedimentary Geology and the Lawrence L. Sloss Medal from the Geological Society of America.

Dr. Demian Saffer

Much of my research lies at the exciting crossroads between geohydrology, active tectonics, fault mechanics, and structural geology. My group’s research focuses on quantifying the relationships between fluid flow, mechanics and deformation, solute transport, and heat transport in a range of geologic settings.

Specifically, my group's work centers on two basic themes: (1) understanding factors that control the distribution and magnitude of fluid pressure, particularly at active plate boundaries, and (2) constraining the flow pathways and fluid budgets in these dynamic hydrologic and tectonic settings.

Dr. Erin DiMaggioErin DiMaggio

Erin DiMaggio is a sedimentary geologist and volcanologist in the Department of Geosciences at Penn State University. Her research is focused on extensional sedimentary basins and tephrochronology. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and Masters and PhD from Arizona State University. Before joining the faculty at Penn State in 2014 she taught at Occidental College in Los Angeles. She has taught classes in sedimentary geology, and field geology, as well as freshman seminars. She conducts research primarily in Africa but has also worked on geomorphology and tectonics-related projects in Spain and Mexico.

Erin is part of an interdisciplinary team made up of geologists, archaeologists, and paleoanthropologists that work together to solve important questions about human evolution in Africa. Erin’s main research is focused on studying 2 to 3 million year old sedimentary rocks and volcanic ash layers in Ethiopia to learn about past depositional environments, rift tectonics, and volcanic systems.

Dr. Maureen Feineman

I am interested in understanding the processes that take place beneath the Earth’s surface in the lower crust and upper mantle.  My primary tool is geochemistry.  I use a combination of analytical geochemistry, experimental petrology, and numerical modeling to understand subsurface processes.  A main focus of my research has to do with fluid-rock interaction at subduction zones, including metamorphic reactions in the downgoing slab, interaction of slab-derived materials with the mantle wedge, and volcanic processes occurring immediately prior to and during eruptions at volcanic arcs.

Utah State University

Dr. Patrick BelmontPatrick Belmont

Patrick Belmont is an Assistant Professor in the Watershed Sciences Department at Utah State University. His research combines hydrology and geomorphology with general interests in landscape evolution and sediment dynamics of modern river systems. He works in a wide variety of landscapes, from the upper Midwest, to the Pacific Northwest, southern Utah and Death Valley. Some of the over-arching questions of his research program include: How do climate, geologic history, and human activities in a landscape influence river hydrology and sediment dynamics? What are the mathematical laws that govern the erosion, transport, and deposition of sediment and how do those processes function at the watershed scale? How do landscapes and ecosystems co-evolve? What are the primary drivers and feedback mechanisms that determine the dynamics of life and it's landscape?

Patrick teaches several courses at USU, including Small Watershed Hydrology, Fundamentals of Watershed Science, and Sediment Transport in Stream Assessment and Design. Prior to coming to USU in 2009, he was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Minnesota working with the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics in the Department of Civil Engineering. Research during his post-doc identified a profound shift in sources of fine sediment in the upper Mississippi River Basin. Specifically, fifty years ago the majority of the sediment was derived from agricultural fields. More recently, the amount of sediment has not changed, but the source has shifted to near-channel erosion of streambanks and bluffs, which dramatically changes the conservation, policy and management strategies needed to reduce sediment loading.

Prior to Minnesota, Patrick completed his PhD (geomorphology) and MS (aquatic ecology) in Earth and Environmental Sciences at Lehigh University and his BS in Molecular Biology at Texas Christian University. In his shrinking pot of spare time, Patrick explores/skis the mountains near Logan, Utah where he lives with his wife and daughter, and with diminishing frequency and ability, runs and plays golf.

The Learning Environment

This materials for this class are on on the World Wide Web. Registered students in this course will need to navigate between several environments in the World Wide Web. These include:

  • This site - The instructional materials in this site include 10 modules, plus this course orientation. Each module contains an introduction, followed by the reading assignments, lengthy presentation of the topic and between 1 and 4 laboratory exercises.  The lab exercises are a key part of the class, designed to provide you with a stronger grasp of the concepts in each module.   A few of the lab exercises include Google Earth, you must be able to download this software.  We will help you if it does not work on your computer.  The Orientation includes a tutorial to get you up to speed.  The other key components of the course are the readings.  These are mandatory.  Some of the material in the readings is not covered in the text of the course and you will be expected to master that material.  Most of the readings are from journals are are intended for a general audience.  Even though the reading material is compiled at the beginning of the module, we recommend that you read the references after you have read the text.  The Earth is very visual and we have incorporated a lot of images in the text, more than a typical on-line course.   Make sure that you take in these images as you read the text.  The final element of the course are videos.  Make sure you watch them.
  • Course Management Systems
    • Penn State Students use Canvas [2], 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 surveys, and check assignment scores and course grades. Note that a link to Canvas appears at left in the Resources menu.

Topics of study

The content of this course is divided into three broad areas or units.   Each unit is made up of Modules.  There are ten modules in the course, eight are one week in length and two are two week in length.

Unit 1:  Fresh Water: Scarcity or Surfeit? [3]

  • Module 1: Freshwater Resources - A Global Perspective [4]
  • Module 2: Climatology of Water [5]

Unit 2: Physical Hydrology [6]

  • Module 3: Rivers and Watersheds [7]
  • Module 4: Flood and Drought [8]
  • Module 5: Dam It All! [9]
  • Module 6: Groundwater Hydrology [10] (two weeks)

Unit 3: Social Science of Water [11]

  • Module 7: What is in your water? [12]
  • Module 8: Cities in Peril [13](two weeks)
  • Module 9: Water and Politics [14]
  • Module 10: Solving the Water Crisis? [15]

Course assignments

  *Please refer to the assignment page in the course orientation [16] and your course syllabus for more details including assignment weighting and final grade calculation.

About Canvas

How Canvas Organizes Content

Penn State uses an online course management system called Canvas to deliver most of its online courses to registered students. (For more information about Canvas, visit the Getting Started with Canvas page). Canvas organizes content using different sections in its site. Here is how we use it for the Penn State courses that use this course text. (Registered students might want to open Canvas in a second tab or browser window while studying this page.)

Main Menu in the left pane:

  • Courses - This section provides links to all courses you are enrolled in.
  • Calendar- This is the official record of assignment due dates. Refer to this page to see when you are instructed to begin working on readings or assignments and when you are instructed to complete quizzes and projects.
  • Inbox - Here is where you can send messages to your instructor, grading assistant and other students in class. Please try to utilize this section for most course communications.
  • Account - This is where you can customize your personal profile, Canvas settings, and how you want to be notified about activity in the course (e.g., email forwarding).

Menu of links once inside a course:

  • Modules - This section contains the bulk of the course materials. Here you'll find separate modules corresponding to each chapter of the course text and the course project. Contents of these folders include:
    • Chapter modules: discussions, assignments, lesson supporting materials;
    • Project module: project readme file, project milestone assignments.
  • Syllabus - This section contains a link to the complete syllabus document in our course text website, which details all of the expectations, deliverables and policies of the course. Also provided is a summary of the course schedule where you can track your progress.
  • Grades - This page allows you to view your assignment grades.
  • People - This section list all of the members of the course and provides a link to each individual's profile page so you can learn more about them.

For a more complete introduction to Canvas please see the Getting Started with Canvas page.

Configure Your Canvas Account

To get the most out of Canvas, registered students should configure their Canvas profiles as follows:

  1. Update your "Profile" for Canvas to make sure that the rest of us have current information about you.
    • Click "Account" in the main menu and follow the "Profile" link. Click the "Edit Profile" button to enter biographical information about yourself, your interests, etc., that you want to share with others in the class. Please upload your picture so that we can "see" each other in discussions and communications. Provide links to other sites that are relevant to you and share any social media outlets you'd like people to know about.
  2. Set up your course e-mail preferences. It is very important that you specify a personal e-mail address in your Canvas account.
    • Click on the "Settings" link. By default, your Penn State email address is included; be sure that any other preferred email address(es) are listed on this page. If you would like to have information sent to a different or additional account, click the "Add Email Address" link and provide the address.
    • Click on the "Notifications" link. On this page you can specify what kinds of communications you want sent to any of your email address(es). To forward all Canvas email messages to your regular email account, change the settings for each of the items under "Conversations" to "ASAP". This will forward all messages in the Inbox section of Canvas to your external email account.
    • Feel free to configure the other items on this page as you see fit. We recommend that you enable email notifications for other items, such as discussions and announcements so you don't miss important information.
    • NOTE to registered students: All official communications from the Penn State World Campus are sent to students' Penn State e-mail accounts (your @psu.edu e-mail account), not the Canvas Inbox. Be sure to check your Penn State account regularly, or forward your Penn State e-mail to your preferred e-mail account, so you do not miss any important information. You can control the forwarding (recommended, easy) of your @psu.edu e-mail account by going to www.work.psu.edu [17].
    • There is more information concerning this in the "Communication" section of the Orientation.

Need Help with Canvas?

When in Canvas, at the bottom-left corner of the screen you will see a round icon with a question mark. Click this question mark icon for a list of options, including "Search the Canvas Guides", which provides lots of information about how to operate in the Canvas site.

About the Course Website

This site includes the majority of the instructional materials for this class.  There are a few things you should know about this web site. 

How the website is organized

This site uses a "tab" interface to organize content. The tabs are used as follows:

  • Orientation -You are currently in the Orientation. It provides an introduction to the instructor, the learning environments, the technical requirements, and a page on how to succeed in an online class.
  • Syllabus - The Syllabus is a complete outline of the course.  Read it carefully as it will serve as our course "contract".
  • Modules - The Lessons tab is where the bulk of the course learning material can be found. Each lesson contains an introduction, reading assignments, links, assessments, etc.
  • LMS - The LMS tab takes you a page that will allow you to select your school's LMS link.
  • Getting Help - The Getting Help tab provides information about who to contact in varies circumstances.

How to Print a Lesson or Page

  • To print an entire lesson you must be on the top level page for that lesson and then select the "printer-friendly version" link.
  • To print a single page, go to the page you want to print and select the printer-friendly version link.
  • WARNING: many pages contain required videos, animations and links that will not work in print mode, so please do not rely on the printed lessons for all of your learning.

Technical Requirements

Before you begin working through the course content, you need to make sure the computer you are using is configured properly for the multimedia that you will encounter. Below are specifications and tests to help make sure everything is in working order.

Note:

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.

Mixed Content

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 below to view the mixed content.

  • Firefox
    Click the shield icon to the left of the address bar.
    In the pop-up window, click the down arrow next to "Keep Blocking" and select "Disable Protection on This Page".
  • Chrome
    Click the shield icon to the right of the address bar.
    In the icon dialog box, click "Load anyway".
  • Internet Explorer
    Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click "Show all content".

Flash movies and QuickTime video

We have Flash movies and QuickTime video material in many of the lessons in this course. Chances are pretty good that you already use a Web browser that is configured to open up a QuickTime movie and play SWF (Flash) files, but to be safe, here is a "test" file (36 seconds) that you should try out now to make sure you won't have problems later in the course. If these files run smoothly for you, then you're ready to go. If you can't get the file below to play on your computer, then please refer to the steps at the bottom of this page to troubleshoot your problem.

Having trouble? Troubleshooting tips...

  • Step 1: Install a New Plugin. If you are not able to play the files, start by installing (or re-installing) the QuickTime plugins. The links here will take you to the respective download sites (and their accompanying directions.)
    • QuickTime Plugin [18]
  • Step 2: Request Help. If you still have not had any success, then its time for you to contact the ITS Helpdesk [19]. It is in your own best interest to be as specific as you possibly can. Vague descriptions of a problem only delay assistance. Try to include information such as:
    • Indicate the specific course page, quiz question, etc. you were on, what you attempted to do when that failed, and the exact language of any error message displayed on your screen
    • The date and time when your problem occurred
    • Any other pertinent information (does the problem happen consistently and always in the same way, etc.)

Browsers

Water and Society must be viewed using one of the following browsers: Firefox (any version), Safari (versions 5.1 or 6.0) or Internet Explorer with the MathPlayer Plugin [20]. If you use any other browsers there will be pages that do not render properly.

Google Earth

You MAY 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 [21]and download the latest version for your computer. Later in the orientation, there is a tutorial to help familiarize you with the software.

Viewing Equations

This course uses many equations.  In order to view the equations, you must use one of the following browsers.  This list supersedes the list of browsers found on the Technical Requirements page. 

  • Firefox (any version)
  • Safari (versions 5.1 or 6.0)
  • Internet Explorer with the MathPlayer Plugin [20].

If you use any other browsers there will be pages that do not render properly. If you need technical assistance at any point during the course, please contact the Outreach Helpdesk [22] (for World Campus students) or the ITS Help Desk [23] (for students at all other campus locations).

Using the Library

All Penn State students qualify as eligible users of the library and can borrow materials."Eligible users include currently enrolled or employed Penn State faculty, staff, and students in good standing who do not have access to a Penn State campus." So just like any on-campus Penn State student, as an online Penn State student you have a wealth of library resources available to you too! All you need to do to gain access is to properly register. So make sure that you complete the Activity at the bottom on the page.

With the Penn State Libraries, you can:

  • search for journal articles (many are even immediately available in full-text) [24];
     
  • request articles that aren't available in full-text and have them delivered electronically; [25] (may require login)
     
  • borrow books and other materials and have them delivered to your doorstep [26];
     
  • access materials that your instructor has put on electronic Library Reserves; [27]
     
  • talk to reference librarians in real time using chat, phone, and e-mail; [28]
     
  • borrow e-books; [29]
     
  • gain access to research and subject guides; [30]
     
  • ...and much more!


All World Campus students should use the World Campus Library home page. [31] Please also review the library information for Off-Campus Users [32] for more information.

Activity

So that we can be sure you are able to access reserve readings and other library resources in this course, follow these steps NOW:

  1. Go to the Penn State Libraries [28] website and follow all the steps in the "Get Started" section.
  2. Review the information on the Library Information for Off-Campus Users [28] website

Don't forget! If you have a question you can just ASK! [33] a librarian! They are there to help you! The ASK! page will connect you to librarians in a manner that meets your needs; e-mail, phone, or use the chat window for a quick response!

How to Succeed in an Online Course

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 time lines; 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:

  • Treat online learning as you would a face-to-face class. You should plan to devote at least the same amount of time to your online courses as you would to attending lectures on campus and completing assignments. Other good study habits, such as attending class (logging on) regularly and taking notes, are just as important in an online course as they are in a lecture hall!
  • Intentionally schedule your time. You should plan to devote 10-12 hours per week to completing lesson readings and assignments. Your learning will be most effective when you spread this participation out and engage with the course on a daily basis, if possible.
  • Engage, Engage, Engage! Take every opportunity to interact with the content, the instructor and your classmates by completing assignments and participating in discussion forums and group activities!
  • Be organized. Keep in sync with what's going on in the course and stay on top of deadlines and upcoming assignments.
  • Ask for help! Ask for guidance when you are in need of clarification. You can also use the Discussion Forum to ask general questions about the course set-up or content.

Recommendations

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.

  • Save all work routinely (at least every 10 minutes). We also recommend you save your work in multiple locations. For tech savvy folks, you can set your computer to do this for you automatically. If you don't know how, we recommend that you look this up for your specific computer system.
  • With respect to content-related questions as you move through the material… hopefully some of them will be answered as you go, but some might not be. If your questions are not answered, then it is important for you to ask those questions as appropriate, either through discussion with other course participants, additional readings, or during communications with the instructor.

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:

Penn State World Campus Strategies to Improve Online Learning [34] - 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.

Penn State World Campus - The Corner of College and Allen Blog [35] - 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 [36] - 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!

Netiquette

Netiquette is the rules of etiquette when internet manners, online etiquette, and digital etiquette all rolled into one word.

  • Subject Lines.  Whenever you post a message in a forum or send course mail, use a short yet descriptive subject line.
  • Limit your comments or questions to one subject per email or discussion post.
  • Stay on topic. When in a discussion forum, stay on topic. Start a new discussion when appropriate.
  • Proof-read.  Email and discussion posts are written communication (not spoken) and should contain correct grammar, punctuation and spelling.  
  • Never use all CAPS.  Using all CAPS is equivalent to shouting.
  • Language.  Use professional language.  Avoid slang and text acronyms and never use vulgar or inappropriate language.
  • Basic Courtesy.  Be courteous and respectful in all of your course communications.
  • Consider your tone. A poorly worded note can easily be misunderstood or misconstrued. Remember, recipients can't see your body language or the expression on your face. Nor can they hear the intonation in your voice. If you have a suspicion that something you wrote might be taken the wrong way, it probably will. 
  • Remember your audience. Your classmates come from all over the country and the world. Remember that language, humor and idioms are not universal.  Be especially careful with sarcasm. When reacting to someone else's message, address the ideas, not the person.

Links to more resources on netiquette:

Penn State: Effective Technical Writing in the Information Age [37]

Netiquette, by Virginia Shea [38]

Penn State Code of Conduct: [39]

Wikipedia: Etiquette in technology [40]

Learn the Net: Netiquette [41]

Course Communications

Meaningful interactions among students and instructors are the hallmark of an successful online class.

Sometimes questions arise about whom to contact about a certain issue and where.  Use the information below to guide you in seeking answers to your questions.

For general questions about the course content and activities...

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. 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!

For questions of a personal nature...

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 Resources menu (top) is a short cut to the people and resources available to you.

Getting to Know You

Now that you've had a chance to learn about the course and the online learning environment, we'd like to get to know you...and help you get to know each other! Complete the activity below, then continue with the remainder of the Course Orientation.

Directions

  1. Introduce yourself and meet the rest of the class!
    In Canvas, your first discussion question is the introduce youself to your instructor and the rest of the class. See Canvas for more details.
  2. Post an introduction personal including:
    • Who are you (include your year and your major)?
    • What do you do when you are not taking this class?
    • What do you hope to learn from this course?
    • Is this the first time you are taking an on-line class?
  3. View other students' postings to learn more about them!

Course Introduction

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 the InTeGrate Project [42].

Water is a particularly critical component of Earth's sustainability. In fact, water may be THE most critical part. Here are direct facts which convey the magnitude of the current global water emergency.

  • Nearly 1 billion people are living without accessible water
  • 2.5 billion without adequate sanitation
  • 440 million school days lost
  • 220 million hours each day are spent collecting water
  • 3.7 miles walked each day by women and children
  • 4100 children under five die each day from preventable water-related illness
  • 3.4 million people die each year from preventable water-related disease

More than any other resource, with the exception of food, water is crucial for human survival. Ancient civilizations were repeatedly forced to deal with the threat of diminishing water supply. Now, climate change presents a new threat by causing the supply and distribution of water to change over coming decades and centuries. This situation will be made significantly more dire by explosive population growth in parts of the world where water is scarce and by pollution that will continually limit the supply of clean drinking water. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2007 stated the situation very clearly: “Water and its availability and quality, will be the main pressures on, and issues for, societies and the environment under climate change.”

Course Goals

Upon completing this course, you will be able to:

  • Describe the two-way relationship between water and human society
  • Explain the distribution and dynamics of water at the surface and in the subsurface of the Earth
  • Synthesize data and information from multiple reliable sources
  • Interpret graphical representations of scientific data
  • Identify strategies and best practices to decrease water stress and increase water quality
  • Thoughtfully evaluate information and policy statements regarding water resources
  • Predict how human interaction with water on Earth is expected to change over the next 50 years
  • Communicate scientific information in terms that can be understood by the general public

Modern Earth Science Principles

The Earth System

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 and Earth scientists are used to dealing with this messy and highly complex system. But you are not, so lets 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).

Schematic of the The Earth System consisting of the Geosphere (=Lithosphere), the Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Atmosphere
The Earth System consisting of the Geosphere (=Lithosphere), the Biosphere, Hydrosphere and Atmosphere.
Wikispaces: Geography and History, Activities Unit 2 [43]

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 increasing 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 each other 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.

The techniques of modern Earth sciences: How Earth scientists think

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.

Feedbacks and Linearity

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.

Big Data

The considerable threat of events such as sea level rise, hurricanes and tsunami to humankind 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. We will introduce you to a lot of data in this course. In the coastal zone, for example, satellite data provide elevations at centimeter accuracy and we can monitor how processes such as sea level rise and hurricanes are impacting the shoreline.

So we point out examples of complexity, feedback and Earth Systems in the modules. Whenever you see "Earth Systems, Complexity, Feedback IN ACTION" pay attention!

If you want to read more about how us Professors want you to think, check out Teaching for a Sustainable Future in Undergraduate Courses [44].

We hope that this course brings a lot of the enthusiasm that is permeating modern Earth science.

Water Journal

Water Journal [45]

Summary and Final Tasks

Reminder: Complete all of the Course Orientation tasks!

You have reached the end of the Orientation! Double-check the to-do list 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 Modules.


Source URL: https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth111/orientation/index

Links
[1] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth111/
[2] http://psu.instructure.com/courses/1791273
[3] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth111/node/819
[4] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth111/node/3
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[16] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth111/orientation/assignments
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[21] http://www.google.com/earth/download/ge/agree.html
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[33] http://ask.libraries.psu.edu/?stream=8
[34] https://student.worldcampus.psu.edu/academic-support-resources/strategies-to-improve-online-learning
[35] http://studentblog.worldcampus.psu.edu/
[36] http://istudy.psu.edu/
[37] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/styleforstudents/c7_p2.html
[38] http://www.albion.com/netiquette/book/
[39] http://http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/conduct/
[40] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etiquette_in_technology
[41] http://www.learnthenet.com/learn-about/netiquette/
[42] http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/about/index.html
[43] http://geographyandhistory.wikispaces.com/ACTIVITIES+UNIT+2
[44] http://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/teaching_materials/index.html
[45] https://www.e-education.psu.edu/earth111/node/848