Workshop Synthesis

Societal issues of interest to local communities (icebreaker topics):

North Carolina: Flooding - water in general - as a resource, as a hazard; water quality and contamination from fracking
Kansas City: Energy
Edmonton, Alberta, CA: students are familiar with the concept of energy resources, need more than gas
Edmonds, WA: Energy types, diversit
Arizona: Water resources (too much all at once/not enough in general)
Yucaipa, CA: Wind energy, water contamination
Arkansas: Flash floods, pre-disaster mitigation
Seattle: water (contamination, hydroelectric energy, salmon habitat); energy transport and export (coal trains, oil and gas pipelines)
Ohio: fracking, groundwater and surface water contamination
Pacific northwest: Natural Hazards (EQ, Tsunami's, Landslides, Lahars)
Minnesota: fracking, groundwater, minerals mining (Pt, Au) and sand mining for fracking
Oregon: legacy mining remediation
New Mexico: water resources, desalination, EQ, mining remediation, nuclear, land use, sinkholes, flash flooding (esp in burned areas)

Suggestions for current materials

Incorporate alt tags for all images in web pages, PPTs, and PDFs (all documents, not just web); this is good practice for all students, not just for students with disabilities
Assure that student materials can be easily read aloud by screen readers, or develop audio versions as appropriate.
Develop support for cultural adaptations for the way different students approach the classroom (Chinese, native American, etc.)

Pull out and highlight activities with rubrics from all modules that address particular skills (quantitative, etc.).
Add links or develop materials that support some of the basic skills and/or content knowledge (chemical bonds, Math you Need, etc.)
Provide alternatives for activities that have lots of physical materials needed

Environmental justice and freshwater resources has an activity on Love Canal, but that's only one type of waster.

Mitigating the effects of climate change
Ocean acidification
Energy resources, including transportation of energy resources (pipelines and trains, distribution)
Advertising and marketing - behavioral change through campaigns
International environmental issues - what can the US learn from other countries?
Workforce preparation in intro courses - we have lots of materials at the program level, but ideas for incorporating into individual courses.
Differences between states; the role of politics in these Earth-related issues
Intro-level fracking
Groundwater contamination
A more quantitative approach to soil science
Adding upper level/more quantitative activities to intro modules

Biological oceanography - something that is hands-on for marine biology (especially in the continental interior)

Weather and climate - more interaction and hands-on rather than all maps and quantitative

Evolution through a geologic lens - how do we bridge the gap to biological evolution, teaching it conceptually without offending -- includes some professional development for instructors who are trained as geologists
Biodiversity and modern extinction
Geologic time and change through time
Forensic geology
Getting beyond the black and white of "good" and "bad" of extracting oil, etc. Consumer side of the equation