Each year, Earth Day serves as a moment the world can join together for a common cause. We are taught from a young age to respect the natural world around us. However, oftentimes the key resources are not made available that empower and inspire change. In the latest digital update of Achieve for Scientific American Environmental Science for a Changing World, Susan Karr showcases the importance of understanding how we live amongst nature. This new update offers resources and enhanced features such as: new stories, decision point activities, videos, and visualizations, thus enabling students to take control and make decisions that can better support their communities and advocate for positive change. Karr's Environmental Science for a Changing World focuses on using stories from real people. In partnership with Scientific American, students learn through a journalistic approach and are provided with real life examples that they can bring back to their communities and be empowered to make a difference.  Though Karr’s work has been updated, the scientific topics stay consistent, and are focused on empowering students with tools and resources to become environmental advocates. The latest digital update provides readers with  unique stories and tools that better prepare them for the real world. Students are provided the opportunity to showcase their skills and understanding of course content. The update has six new stories that engage students with real examples and key visualizations. Also included in this update are all new questions in LearningCurve, new narrated lecture slides from Susan Karr, and some brand new resources.     Teach using Real Stories Real stories are key to teaching the real impact we have on the environment. In this text we take various different concepts and build upon them utilizing real life stories and examples. One new highlight is an all new and refreshed update for  Chapter 3. In this chapter we have added updates and new stories. In Module 3.1 a new case study is woven into the text showcasing A Wetland Murder Mystery. This module captures the attention of students by challenging them regarding wetlands. This highlights the fact that mammals are disappearing from the Florida Everglades, and why this is occurring. Written in a Scientific American journal style, it captures the attention of students. Module 3.2 on biodiversity has some of the most significant changes in the text. This module tells the story of how Oil Palm Plantations are threatening Tropical Forests. It goes into detail utilizing the example of Indonesia’s shrinking forests due to the increased demand of palm oil rising. Students learn from real world examples paired with incredibly detailed infographics and adaptive quizzes.   Guide with Decision Point Activities  Decision Point Activities are a key function in Achieve to help students better grasp concepts from their readings. These Decision Point Activities provide students with the tools to observe and understand the deep implications that society and business has on nature. These Decision Point Activities provide students with an engaging video so that they can learn more about a unique topic. Students are prepped for these topics with Pre-Class work that presents information about these topics in a video format, which then students can go on their own academic journey to learn more within the subject. These Decision Point Activities are then paired with in-class slides and post-class assignments to ensure students are retaining key facts and information. Some topics Karr covers in these Decision Point Activities are Overfishing, Feeding Cities, and E-Waste. The newest Decision Activity which has been added in our latest digital update is about the Fast Fashion Industry. In this new Fast Fashion Decision Activity, it takes students on a journey to understand the negative impact that the Fast Fashion Industry has had on nature. The Decision Activity begins describing the textile industry and how it has been negatively impacting the environment through extreme waste. These activities then allow students the necessary tools needed to make a difference. The goal of the activity is to empower them to take these concepts back to their own community.    How to Empower Students The text Scientific American Environmental Science for a Changing World has the goal to inspire and empower students to make the right choices at home. It highlights the key issues facing our world today, and how we can take the right steps in making a difference. In this text Author Susan Karr adds a “Bring It Home” section, where she provides students with information to help their communities. It brings about discussion topics for key problems, and how students can make a difference on their own at home. This section is unique to the module being taught, and provides resources and information needed to help students reflect on what they have learned. Students from this course should be empowered to take the next steps and think critically about the natural world around them. Faculty can provide several actions that can empower students to take charge and make a significant difference in their communities for Earth Day: 1. Organize Community Clean-Up Events: Encourage students to plan and participate in local clean-up efforts, such as clearing litter from parks, beaches, or school grounds. 2. Initiate Recycling Programs: Students can lead by example by initiating or enhancing recycling programs within their schools or neighborhoods, educating others on the importance of recycling to reduce waste. 3. Conduct Environmental Education Workshops: Utilize the educational resources and stories from the updated curriculum to conduct workshops that educate community members about environmental issues and sustainable practices. 4. Innovate Sustainable Solutions: Students should encourage themselves and others to focus on inventing new ways to help with sustainability. Through practical action, students can come up with ideas that make a difference within their own communities. Like encouraging the creation of a student garden at school. 5. Advocate for Local Environmental Policies: Empower students to research and advocate for environmental policies at the local level. It is key that students understand that policymakers have a large impact on the environment. As they influence things such as bans on single-use plastics, promoting green spaces, or supporting renewable energy initiatives. Take a Tour of Achieve for Environmental Science for a Changing World 4e ... View more

Earth Day serves as a moment each and every year for people to not only appreciate the natural world around us, but to also reflect on what we can do to better preserve and protect it. Fortunately, much of what many of us learned as children remains tried and true today, and we can continue to focus on behavioral changes that will help reduce our water and energy consumption.   Susan Karr, MS, Carson-Newman College These behavioral changes are the types of lower-impact actions that cost us nothing. For those of us that seek to reduce our impact on the environment to a greater degree, we can invest a little (or a lot) of money to employ new technologies that reduce resource use in our homes. For this year’s Earth Day, we’ve invited Susan Karr, author of Environmental Science for a Changing World—available for the first time with Macmillan Learning’s new online learning tool, Achieve—to share more about a feature in the book called “Bring it Home.”  “With ‘Bring it Home’, we offer students suggestions on ways they can reduce their impact on the environment,” says Karr, such as ways to reduce their water and energy consumption.  “We also share with students the 4 “Rs” when considering their consumer choices: refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle.”    Water Susan encourages us to consider how we use water and to look for ways to reduce that use. “And remember,” she says, “saving water also means saving the energy it took to collect, purify, deliver, and perhaps heat that water.”  Karr suggests that a technology option to consider is a low-flow faucet and a low-flow showerhead. A low-flow faucet can reduce the rate of water flow by 1 to 2 gallons per minute, and a low-flow showerhead can reduce flow rate by 1 to 1.5 gallons per minute, she explained. “It really makes a significant difference knowing that some older kitchen faucets have a flow rate of up to 5 gallons per minute,” Karr says.  If you don’t have the money to install a low-flow faucet or showerhead, Susan suggests some behavioral changes you can make when running water in the kitchen or bathroom: Don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth or shaving. Don’t turn on the water at full speed unless needed. Capture water while waiting for it to heat up and use that collected water to water plants, fill the dog bowl, or other uses.  Time your shower for a few days to determine its average length, and then try to reduce shower time by a few minutes.  Take a “Navy” shower by turning off the water except to rinse.  Other technologies to consider that will reduce your water consumption include a front-loading washing machine or a low-flow toilet, Karr says. An energy and water efficient front-loading washing machine uses nearly half the water as older top-loading models. “Similarly,” Karr says, “installing a low-flow toilet or a model with two buttons—one for liquid waste and one for solids—will also reduce water waste.”  Once again, if you’re unable to purchase and install these water-waste reducing technologies, Karr offers some behavioral changes you can make:  Only wash clothes when needed. Only run the washing machine when it’s full. Don’t flush the toilet to dispose of tissues; dispose of them in the trash.  Energy Karr also reminds us that right now, fossil fuels power modern society, so making choices that use less energy will reduce the use of fossil fuels and, consequently, reduce the negative impact of using those fuels. “Three areas of our lives where we can use less energy include transportation, home, and electricity,” Susan says.  Transportation When possible, Karr encourages people to purchase the most energy efficient vehicle they can afford and that meets their needs. If you’re unable to upgrade your vehicle to one that is more energy efficient, there are still behavioral changes you can make: Carpool, take public transportation, walk, or bike.  Combine trips and plan your route to avoid backtracking if you are out running errands to reduce miles driven. Keep your car tuned up and tires properly inflated to improve the fuel efficiency of your vehicle. Use cruise control when appropriate—maintaining a constant speed improves fuel efficiency. Avoid idling—starting a car back up takes less fuel than idling for more than a few seconds. Home According to Karr, it’s important to make sure that your home has the recommended insulation for your region to reduce energy needed to heat and cool your home. “You can also insulate your hot-water heater,” Susan says. Inexpensive hot-water heater ‘blankets’ are also available and easy to install. Behavioral changes made at home include: Lower your thermostat in the winter by a degree or two; do the same in the summer by turning it up. Set the water heater to no higher than 120 degrees Fahrenheit; turn it off if you will be away from home for at least several days.  Electricity Energy efficient versions of many devices are available. For example,replacing light bulbs with more energy efficient varieties, such as LEDs, can save energy and money. You can also invest in renewable energy, such as solar panels, by installing them in your home, or you can support local renewable energy initiatives with your energy providers. Some key behavioral changes include: Turn off lights and electronics when not in use.  Take advantage of natural light by opening curtains during the day.    The 4 “Rs” when considering consumer choices “Other changes are more related to your consumer choices than to technology or behavioral options,” Karr says. “You can reduce the impact of your consumer choices by considering the resources used to make those consumer goods.” The 4 “Rs” when considering consumer choices are refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle.  Refuse “Don’t buy a product if you can do without it,” Karr says. For example: Drink water from a fountain instead of buying bottled water. Refuse to take a shopping bag from a store—carry your items or bring your own reusable bags.  Opt to buy unpackaged produce rather than bagged or boxed items. Rent or borrow items, when possible, and lend them to others—especially if you will rarely use them.  Reduce Karr says to choose products that require fewer resources to make or that are minimally packaged. For example: Minimize packaging—if you must buy a bottled drink, buy the largest bottle you will use instead of several smaller bottles.  Contact retailers or marketers to reduce receipt of unsolicited mail or visit the Federal Trade Commission for suggestions on ways to reduce promotional mail such as catalogs, credit card and insurance offers.  Reduce your consumption of meat, especially the consumption of beef—the animal-based food with the highest water and carbon footprint.  Reuse “Use products again,” says Karr, “for their intended purpose or another.” For example: Purchase durable products you can use again and again rather than disposable items or those with a short lifespan.  If you must buy a product that comes in a package, consider reuse potential—can you use it for another purpose? Recycle Karr reminds us that we can turn a recyclable item back in to be made into a new product. For example:  Check with your local recycling center or solid waste department to learn about which materials are accepted for recycling in your area. Choose products that can be recycled over items (or packaging) that are not recyclable. Support the recycling industry by choosing products made from recycled materials. Avoid “wish-cycling”—placing items in a recycling bin that are not recyclable in your area; this has the potential to contaminate other recyclables in the bin (forcing recyclers to dispose of the entire bin) and/or increase the time and money needed to sort through the recyclables, decreasing profit and viability of the recycling industry. There are many things that we can all do to reduce our impact on the environment. Perhaps you already do some of the things on this list, or perhaps there are other ways that you decrease your usage of resources such as water and energy. We hope that this Earth Day you try something new and consider your impact on the environment. You can also sign up for a demo of Achieve for Environmental Science for a Changing World: https://go.oncehub.com/ AchieveDemos. ... View more

As winter break approaches and students prepare for final exams and projects, instructors are busy writing and grading those finals and discovering how well students actually understood the material. With the mix of available virtual and in-person courses, the consideration of different types of assessments becomes very complex.  Courses in STEM disciplines often cover a large amount of material that tends to encourage superficial learning instead of the more ideal deep approach to learning. Additionally, STEM courses seem to have a threatening and anxiety-provoking assessment system.  Summative assessment is the assessment of student learning; it is usually an exam, final project or report that provides a score on that student’s performance but rarely offers timely or effective feedback. But these final exams and evaluations are inherently necessary in the framework of our education system. What remains is to learn how to use summative assessment as a learning tool. Consider the ideas in the table below for your own test-taking processes. During the test Collaborative test-taking Pyramid exams Immediate feedback assessment technique Self-corrected exams Prior to return of the test Do-over After the return of the test Highlighting missed material Point-recapture Test analysis   How do you make use of summative assessments? Explore the various types of assessments and strategies for their use in Assessment in the College Classroom.   ... View more

Available for the first time with Macmillan's new online learning tool Achieve, Susan Karr’s Environmental Science for a Changing World 4e uses an engaging, journalistic approach. The resources in Achieve are designed to provide opportunities for students to deepen their Environmental Science knowledge, while instructors gain insight into class performance and comprehension. NEW Decision Point Simulations A short video sets up the activity addressing the dilemma or topic from various perspectives. Students are asked to make a decision based on the information given. Students can see the environmental, economic and social impacts of their decisions. How would you use these tools to encourage active learning in your classroom?   Learn more about Achieve for Environmental Science https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/digital/achieve/environmental-science Request access to Achieve https://go.macmillanlearning.com/achieveaccessrequest.html  ... View more