In this course, learners begin with a macro-level view of the current state of the world and touch upon topics such as climate change, plastic pollution, social inequity, and the economic systems that got us to where we are today. Learners investigate how such an economy cannot sustain itself and the need for a rapid transition to something different. We define sustainability, the meaning of sustainable development, and the United Nations' Sustainability Goals. Recognizing that change is imperative, we begin looking at energy, and more specifically, power generation as this is widely understood as the leading cause of climate change today. We show why this is the case and explore pathways to reduce carbon emissions, such as through the transition from coal and natural gas to renewables such as wind and solar. The concept of the carbon footprint and how it is determined is introduced. Learners have the opportunity to calculate their own personal carbon footprint under a variety of power source options (coal, natural gas, or renewable), and discover what would happen to their personal carbon footprint if they moved toward renewable energies.

How can robots use their motors and sensors to move around in an unstructured environment? You will understand how to design robot bodies and behaviors that recruit limbs and more general appendages to apply physical forces that confer reliable mobility in a complex and dynamic world. We develop an approach to composing simple dynamical abstractions that partially automate the generation of complicated sensorimotor programs. Specific topics that will be covered include: mobility in animals and robots, kinematics and dynamics of legged machines, and design of dynamical behavior via energy landscapes.

This course can also be taken for academic credit as ECEA 5631, part of CU Boulder’s Master of Science in Electrical Engineering degree. This course presents in-depth discussion and analysis of pn junction and metal-semiconductor contacts including equilibrium behavior, current and capacitance responses under bias, breakdown, non-rectifying behavior, and surface effect. You'll work through sophisticated analysis and application to electronic devices. At the end of this course learners will be able to: 1. Analyze pn junction at equilibrium and under bias, capacitance and current characteristics, and breakdown behavior 2. Analyze metal-semiconductor contact at equilibrium and under bias, capacitance and current characteristics, non-rectifying contact and surface effects

This is an Exploratorium teacher professional development course taught by Teacher Institute staff, open to any science teacher (particularly middle or high school level) and science enthusiast. This is a hands-on workshop that explores topics and strategies teachers can use to help their students become active investigators of light. Watch a preview video (copy and paste this link into your browser): https://youtu.be/fPvT_quBVIw There are four weeks of course content, which require 2-4 hours per week. Each module builds upon the previous one, so we strongly suggest you follow the sequence we've outlined rather than skip ahead or do the course in less time. The course is designed to give you an opportunity to learn and share with others, not test what you know. There are weekly activity and reflection assignments, but these will not be graded. To receive credit for this course, you will need to complete the peer-reviewed final assignment. As a participant, you will: - Watch videos that demonstrate natural phenomena and the Exploratorium's approach to teaching and learning - Conduct personal investigations by engaging in hands-on activities based in those phenomena - Reflect and share your experience doing activities - Discuss and identify challenges and opportunities for teaching - Devise a lesson of your own based on one or more of the activities Each week, we'll look at a different light-related topic: We will start by examining human visual perception, then take a brief historical tour of our evolving scientific understanding. We’ll also look at optics and optical instruments and finish by looking at the wave nature of light. To get the most out of this experience, you'll have to try out some activities! In return, you'll get lots of valuable teaching resources, an in-depth understanding of the subject matter, and useful tips and techniques for the classroom. NOTE: This is a hands-on workshop, so you will need to buy or find materials. All of the materials required are inexpensive and should be easy to obtain, and we welcome substitutions! A separate list of materials is available for each activity.

This course serves as an introduction to the physics of electricity and magnetism. Upon completion, learners will have an understanding of how the forces between electric charges are described by fields, and how these fields are related to electrical circuits. They will gain experience in solving physics problems with tools such as graphical analysis, algebra, vector analysis, and calculus. The course follows the typical progression of topics of a first-semester university physics course: charges, electric forces, electric fields potential, magnetic fields, currents, magnetic moments, electromagnetic induction, and circuits. Each module contains reading links to a free textbook, complete video lectures, conceptual quizzes, and a set of homework problems. Once the modules are completed, the course ends with an exam. This comprehensive course series is similar in detail and rigor to what is taught on-campus. It will thoroughly prepare learners for their upcoming introductory physics courses, or more advanced courses in physics.

This course is the second part of a course dedicated to the theoretical and practical bases of Geographic Information Systems (GIS). It offers an introduction to GIS that does not require prior computer skills. It gives the opportunity to quickly acquire the basics that allow you to create spatial databases and produce geographic maps. This is a practical course that relies on the use of free Open Source software (QGIS, Geoda). In the first part of the course (Geographical Information Systems - Part 1), you explored the basics of land digitization and geodata storage. In particular, you learned how to: - Characterize spatial objects and phenomena (spatial modeling) from the point of view of their positioning in space (coordinate systems and projections, spatial relationships) and according to their intrinsic nature (object or vector mode vs. image or raster mode); - Use various data acquisition methods (direct measurement, georeferencing of images, digitization, existing data source, etc.); - Use various geodata storage methods (simple files and relational databases); - Use data modeling tools to describe and implement a database; - Create queries in a query language and data manipulation. The second part of the course deals with spatial analysis methods and georeferenced information representation techniques. In particular, you will learn how to: - Analyze the spatial properties of discrete variables, for example by quantifying spatial autocorrelation; - Work with continuous variables (sampling, interpolation and construction of isolines) - Use digital elevation models (DEMs) and their derivatives (slope, orientation, etc.); - Use geodata superposition techniques; - Produce cartographic documents according to the rules of the semiology of graphics; - Explore other forms of spatial representation (interactive cartography on the internet, 3D representations, and augmented reality). The page https://www.facebook.com/moocsig provides an interactive forum for participants in this course.

Decision-makers often turn to scientists and engineers to assist them to navigate through complex environmental, health and societal challenges pervaded by systemic uncertainty, ambiguity and ethical implications. This course prepares you to meet the requests and demands of current and future decision-makers and in this course, you will analyze ethical challenges associated with environmental dilemmas and apply different decision making tools relevant to environmental management and regulation.

This course is an introduction to 3D scientific data visualization, with an emphasis on science communication and cinematic design for appealing to broad audiences. You will develop visualization literacy, through being able to interpret/analyze (read) visualizations and create (write) your own visualizations. By the end of this course, you will: -Develop visualization literacy. -Learn the practicality of working with spatial data. -Understand what makes a scientific visualization meaningful. -Learn how to create educational visualizations that maintain scientific accuracy. -Understand what makes a scientific visualization cinematic. -Learn how to create visualizations that appeal to broad audiences. -Learn how to work with image-making software. (for those completing the Honors track)

How can we live a good life on one planet with over seven billion people? This course will explore greening the economy on four levels – individual, business, city, and nation. We will look at the relationships between these levels and give many practical examples of the complexities and solutions across the levels. Scandinavia, a pioneering place advancing sustainability and combating climate change, is a unique starting point for learning about greening the economy. We will learn from many initiatives attempted in Scandinavia since the 1970s, which are all potentially helpful and useful for other countries and contexts. The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University is an international centre of excellence on strategies for sustainable solutions. The IIIEE is ideally suited to understand and explain the interdisciplinary issues in green economies utilising the diverse disciplinary backgrounds of its international staff. The IIIEE has been researching and teaching on sustainability and greener economies since the 1990s and it has extensive international networks connecting with a variety of organizations.

If you have ever encountered rusty car bodies, leaking pipes, tarnished silverware or the green patina of a copper roof then you have experienced corrosion in action. This course, from the Corrosion@Manchester team in collaboration with AkzoNobel, will teach you why metals corrode, what the environmental consequences are, how much corrosion costs and how corrosion can be controlled. It is designed for students, householders, teachers, professionals and anyone in-between. The aim of the course is to introduce the complex world of corrosion and corrosion control. While a full appreciation of corrosion science involves elements of materials science, electrochemistry and physics while corrosion engineering requires a practical knowledge of corrosion failures and engineering design this course does not need an extensive background knowledge. The course mirrors elements of the Corrosion Control Engineering teaching programme at The University of Manchester for final-year undergraduates and masters-level postgraduates and is used as a supplementary learning resource by our students.