Climate Toolkit: A Resource Manual for Science and Action – Version 2.0 “Climate Toolkit is a resource manual designed to help the reader navigate the complex and perplexing issue of climate change by providing tools and strategies to explore the underlying science. As such it contains a collection of activities that make use of readily available on-line resources developed by research groups and public agencies.”
Environmental Biology (OpenOregon) “Environmental Biology is a free and open textbook that enables students to develop a nuanced understanding of today’s most pressing environmental issues. This text helps students grasp the scientific foundation of environmental topics so they can better understand the world around them and their impact upon it.”
Introduction to Environmental Sciences and Sustainability This textbook “enables students to develop a nuanced understanding of today’s most pressing environmental issues while also discussing the essentials of sustainability and best practices to incorporate ways we can incorporate socially and environmentally sustainable communities.”
Knowing Home: Braiding Indigenous Science with Western Science
“Book 1 provides an overview of why traditional knowledge and wisdom should be included in the science curriculum, a window into the science and technologies of the Indigenous peoples who live in Northwestern North America, Indigenous worldview, culturally responsive teaching strategies and curriculum models, and evaluative techniques.”
“Book 2 provides supportive research, case studies and commentary that extends and enriches the chapters presented in Book 1.”
Physical Geology – 2nd Edition “Physical Geology is a comprehensive introductory text on the physical aspects of geology, including rocks and minerals, plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes, glaciation, groundwater, streams, coasts, mass wasting, climate change, planetary geology and much more.” Examples from western Canada are emphasized in this book.
The Story of Earth: An Observational Guide This lab manual focuses heavily on “students making observations of geologic data, whether rocks, minerals, fossils, maps, graphs, and other things. [The authors] want students to look at things and wonder why, how, and when. The exercises and examples used in this book are scattered throughout the world.”
Other Open and Zero-cost Resources
The Atmosphere, the Ocean, and Environmental Change (Open Yale) “This course explores the physical processes that control Earth’s atmosphere, ocean, and climate. Quantitative methods for constructing mass and energy budgets. Topics include clouds, rain, severe storms, regional climate, the ozone layer, air pollution, ocean currents and productivity, the seasons, El Niño, the history of Earth’s climate, global warming, energy, and water resources.”
PhET Earth Science Interactive Simulations “PhET provides fun, free, interactive, research-based science and mathematics simulations. We extensively test and evaluate each simulation to ensure educational effectiveness. These tests include student interviews and observation of simulation use in classrooms. The simulations are written in HTML5 (with some legacy simulations in Java or Flash), and can be run online or downloaded to your computer. All simulations are open source.”
