Reclaiming Broken Places: Introduction to Civic Ecology
ADD FREE starts 10 April 2015
Around the world, people who are fed up with environmental degradation and the breakdown of their communities are banding together to revive blighted vacant lots, polluted estuaries and streams, and other "broken places." Civic ecology practices, such as community gardening, wetlands restoration, river cleanups and tree planting, empower people to express resilience and rebuild communities marked by disaster and disinvestment. In this course, e-learners will Explore the people, places, and practices that restore nature and revitalize neighborhoods; discuss and evaluate contemporary thinking in resilience, social-ecological systems; and explore the relationship between nature and human/community well being.

Preparing for the AP Environmental Science Exam- Part 4: Exam Review
ADD FREE starts 21 April 2015
Preparing for the AP Environmental Science exam requires a deep understanding of many different topics in physics as well as an understanding of the AP exam and the types of questions it asks. This course is Part 4 of the series, "Preparing for the AP Environmental Science Exam." It will provide you with study guides, review material and practice exams that cover all material relevant to the AP exam. You’ll have access to live help and review sessions with AP teachers and teaching assistants throughout the course.

Organic Solar Cells - Theory and Practice
ADD FREE always open
This course will give students awareness of the largest alternative form of energy and how organic/polymer solar cells can harvest this energy. The course provides an insight into the theory behind organic solar cells and describes the three primar research areas within the field, namely: materials, stability and processing.

Sagas and Space - Thinking Space in Viking Age and Medieval Scandinavia
ADD FREE starts 7 Apr 2015
Space is a basic category of human thought. Thinking about spaces, places, locations, or landscapes covers a spectrum of meanings from the concrete and material through to the abstract and metaphorical. In this course, you will explore various categories of space in the field of Old Norse culture. Guided by international guest scholars from different fields, we’ll learn how mythological, heroic, historical, geographical spaces or landscapes look in written and oral narratives, and also on picture-stones, runic inscriptions, paintings, woodcarvings and manuscripts. The course will also examine the relationship between texts, images and maps and the process of mapping itself.

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The Science of the Solar System
ADD FREE starts 30 Mar 2015
Explore our solar system using concepts from physics, chemistry, biology and geology. Learn the latest from Mars, explore the outer solar system, ponder planets outside our solar system, and search for habitability in the universe. Unlike typical solar system classes, which plod from one planet to the next, we will focus our examination of the solar system on four main topics: (1) Where is the water on Mars? (2) What is inside of a giant planet? (3) how can we use the smallest bodies in the solar system to answer the biggest questions? (4) Where might we look for life? To answer these questions, we’ll learn details of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics, planetary interiors and magnetism, the geological history of planets, spacecraft exploration, and telescopic observations of planets around other stars. We’ll also examine spectroscopic determinations of composition, biochemistry of water- and non-water based life, and many other fascinating areas. In short, we’ll learn about the whole solar system and about planets in other systems besides ours.

Introduction to Renewable Energy
ADD FREE starts 29 Mar 2015
This seven-week course will open with some fundamental questions on energy: What are the energy needs of the global population today, and what will they be tomorrow? What are the resources at our disposal? What are the available processes for harvesting, converting and utilizing energy resources? What are the problems generated by the use of fossil fuels? Subsequent lessons will introduce the main types of safe, clean, natural and renewable energy sources currently available: wind energy, solar energy, water energy and bioenergy. We’ll explore existing technologies that already harness these resources and supply simple tools for computing conversion efficiencies, calculating the amounts of energy produced through the various methods, and assessing their economic feasibility.

Note: This course is offered in both English and Hebrew.

Water in the Western United States
ADD FREE starts 1 Apr 2015
This course provides an overview of the science behind water and climate in the Western United States, with a survey of major legal, political, and cultural issues focused on this precious resource. We begin with an overview of the geography of the Interior West and its extreme contrasts, from snow-capped mountain peaks to bone-dry deserts. We will then look at how humans have learned to adapt to life in such a dry place as we examine the history of water development in the region and the main legal, political and cultural issues at stake. We'll explore the primary role of snow as a water source as we discuss the physical science of water in the West.

How Green Is That Product? An Intro to Life Cycle Environmental Assessment
ADD FREE starts 30 Mar 2015
This course provides an overview of the science behind water and climate in the Western United States, with a survey of major legal, political, and cultural issues focused on this precious resource. We begin with an overview of the geography of the Interior West and its extreme contrasts, from snow-capped mountain peaks to bone-dry deserts. We will then look at how humans have learned to adapt to life in such a dry place as we examine the history of water development in the region and the main legal, political and cultural issues at stake. We'll explore the primary role of snow as a water source as we discuss the physical science of water in the West.

Planet Earth and You
ADD FREE starts 28 Feb 2015
In this five-week course, offered free by the University of Illinois, you will learn about the great geological forces that have shaped our planet earth -- earthquakes, volcanoes, ice ages, floods, life evolution, plate motions. The course presents an overview of several aspects of our home, from a geological perspective. We begin with earthquakes—what they are, what causes them, what effects they have, and what we can do about them. We’ll then move on to consider volcanoes, types of eruptions, and typical rocks found there. In the final section of the class, we’ll explore the processes that produce the energy and mineral resources that modern society depends on and sustainability challenges that we will face in the future.

Water for Liveable and Resilient Cities
ADD FREE always open
Water plays a central role in our urban environment and quality of life in our cities. This free online course explores how water can be used in the planning of cities to improve liveability in the face of global climate change and population growth. You’ll hear from leading researchers and in Australia and around the world about key actions in developing water-sensitive cities. You'll discuss the latest solutions and concepts on urban design and modelling, climate change adaptation, behaviour change, and social and government engagement. The course will go on to examine effective ways to create water sensitive cities as we draw upon case studies from Australia and around the world.

From the Big Bang to Dark Energy
ADD FREE always open
Explore how the Universe has evolved in 13.7 billion years since the Big Bang. Scientists now believe that more than 80% of matter in the Universe is mysterious Dark Matter, which caused stars and galaxies to form. The newly discovered Higgs-boson became frozen into the Universe a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang, but we still do not know how ordinary matter (atoms) survived against annihilation by anti-matter. The universe is now expanding rapidly, in effect being ripped apart, and Dark Energy is the culprit. The course examines these startling discoveries and what may lie ahead in the future.

Environmental Justice
ADD FREE starts 30 Mar 2015
Understand how environmental change affects people and how justice can be achieved in environmental management. This free course will help you understand how injustice is a common feature of many environmental problems. Over 10 weeks, the course will delve into deforestation, biodiversity loss, climate change and other environmental issues. You’ll learn that sustainable environmental management requires attention to justice - and we must strike a balance between the needs, interests and rights of various stakeholders. You'll study with the University of East Anglia's Global Environmental Justice Group - an interdisciplinary mix of scholars interested in the links between social justice and environmental change.

Environmental Psychology
ADD FREE always open
How are people affected by overcrowding, traffic congestion and noise? Why do people litter or vandalize their environments? How do buildings affect their occupants? Does the architectural design of apartment buildings influence patterns of neighboring and friendship formation? Can residential, work and neighborhood settings be designed to reduce stress and increase productivity? These are some of the questions that have concerned environmental psychologists, and this course explores the interdependence between physical and social aspects of our everyday environmental surroundings.

Introduction to Oceanography
ADD FREE always open
This e-course from University of California provides a general introduction to geological, physical, chemical and biological processes and history of Earth’s global oceanic system.

Sustainable Living
ADD FREE always open
Sustainable Living is a student-designed and student-facilitated program offered through the Institute of the Environment. This video course brings together guest speakers from UCLA and across the country to speak on specialized topics, including green business, food systems, organic gardens, sustainable living, green living, and environmental law. Speakers include authors, professors, community activists, environmentalists, nonprofit representatives and government officials.

How Climate Works: Fundamentals of Climate Science
ADD FREE always open
This video course from Princeton University features leading environmental scientists who provide an overview of the state of art of climate research in a variety of fields, including climate and the oceans, ecosystems and climate, atmosphere, clouds and climate, the global carbon cycle, the cryosphere and planetary climate.

Climate Change and the Law
ADD FREE always open
Climate change is a core concern that will influence policy and economic activity for years to come. This course on global climate change from University of California Berkeley examines classic issues of law and science, risk, uncertainty and precaution, litigation strategy, technology policy and international relations. Students will leave this course with an understanding of the sources and impacts of climate change, the key state, national and international policies, and the role of law.

Global Warming
ADD FREE always open
This 10-week course for non-science majors focuses on a single problem: assessing the risk of human-caused climate change. The focus of the class ranges from physics, chemistry, biology, geology, fluid mechanics and quantum mechanics to economics and social science. The class will consider evidence from the distant past and projections into the distant future, keeping the human time scale of the next several centuries as the bottom line. The lectures follow a textbook, "Global Warming, Understanding the Forecast," written for the course.

End of Nature
ADD FREE always open
This e-course presents a broad survey of texts (both literary and philosophical) drawn from the Western tradition and selected to trace the growth of ideas about nature and the natural environment of mankind. The term nature in this context has to do with the varying ways in which the physical world has been conceived as the habitation of mankind, a source of imperatives for the collective organization and conduct of human life. In this sense, nature is less the object of complex scientific investigation than the object of individual experience and direct observation....

Writing and the Environment
ADD FREE starts 23 Feb 2015
Environmentalists have traditionally relied upon the power of their prose to transform the thoughts and behavior of their contemporaries. In this class, we will do our best to follow in their footsteps. We will consider the strategies of popular science writers, lesser-known geologists, biologists, and hydrologists, and famous environmentalists. Students will have a chance to try out several ways of characterizing and explaining natural environments. Weekly writing exercises will help students develop and explore material for the longer papers.