floxsom@trinity.edu

http://www.trinity.edu/~floxsom/

Introduction. I teach a Physics Department general curriculum course, The Earth's Changing Environment. This course is taken by environmental studies minors and by students seeking to satisfy their science requirement. I teach this course every year and I would like to teach it more frequently in the future. During the past year, I have made use of a world wide web site which I am developing for this course. Student response to this website has been very positive. I propose further development of this electronic teaching tool in terms of content and linkages to on-campus and off-campus sites.

The Current Situation. Table 1 illustrates the nature of the course. The course is broad in scope and has many connections to other disciplines within the natural and social sciences.

Topic	Subtopics
Life on Earth	origin of the Solar System, origin of life, natural climate change, ice ages, biodiversity, extinctions
Exponential Population Growth	mathematics of linear and exponential growth, modeling growth, sustainability, population control
Energy Resources and Consumption	world and US fossil fuel resources, depletion of a finite resource, pollution, efficiency, thermodynamics, acid rain
Global Change	global warming, ozone depletion, UV irradiance, smog, urbanization
Future Options	conservation, renewable energy, nuclear energy, mass transportation
Water Resources	US and world water resources, local water resources, water treatment and recycling, desalinization, wetlands
Access to Environmental Information	literature searches in library and on web, citation of references.

The main purpose of the website http://www.trinity.edu/~floxsom/ which I have developed for this course is to present some of the basic course text material and to provide guidance through some of the assigned reading, problem solving, and exam preparation. So, for example, there are a couple of pages describing US and world fossil fuel resources, a page with an example quiz over this topics, and a page with some assigned problems involving unit conversions (e.g. quads of energy to barrels of oil).

Based on the results of surveys which I have conducted in this class, all students access the Web site at least once each week. No student has ever reported difficulties with web access. Student evaluations indicate high regard for this resource.

Suggested Improvements. In spite of the success of the existing website, I think that the site can be greatly improved in several very significant ways. Some of the improvements which I would like to build into this site are listed below.

1. Expand and enhance the text material on the web so that the website can serve as a replacement for most of the slides, overheads, and distributed materials used in the class.
2. Expand and enhance the text material on the web should be better integrated with other materials used in the course, including library texts, library journals, videotapes, and newspaper articles.
3. The graphic material on the web should be improved and should include animations. For example, an animation showing the Chapman Reactions for the creation of the stratospheric ozone layer would be a great improvement over the existing static figures.
4. In a similar way, simulations of some systems should be available through the website. These simulations would include but not be limited to population growth, resource depletion, ozone depletion, and greenhouse warming.

 

5. Links to relevant web resources on the Trinity campus and among other ACS institutions should be made. Some of these links could be to sites in the natural and applied sciences (Physics, Mathematics, Biology, Engineering, Chemistry, Computer Science), while others could be to sites in the social sciences and humanities.
6. Links to a wide range of other world wide websites should be made and maintained. For example, the USEPA maintains a very useful website with a great deal of content relevant to this course. Linkages to appropriate places within this very large website would be useful.
7. Links to community organizations or resources relevant to the course should be made and maintained. For example, some students in this course are earning some course credit by engaging in service learning at the San Antonio Botanical Garden. A link to the website of that group should be incorporated into this web site.
8. Incorporate features into the site which would allow students to submit homework, to engage in on-line interactive discussions of assigned questions or topics, and to provide feedback to the instructor about assignments and resources.
9. While continuing to serve as an electronic text for a specific course, this site should be structured so that it also serves as a useful resource for others who are seeking information on environmental topics.

Timetable. I would like to work on this project for an eight week period during the summer of 1998 (i.e. June and July). Listed below is a tentative schedule of project activities during this period.

Dissemination of Results. The website will be accessible to all ACS faculty, staff, and students. I will discuss this development project at meetings of both the Texas Section of and the national American Association of Physics Teachers this summer and fall. I will also write an article for the Physics Teacher, the magazine of the American Association of Physics Teachers.

Qualifications of Applicant. I have co-taught courses on Web-authoring. I am currently using MS Word 97 to write webpages. I use these pages in my general physics course as well as in the environmental course. My research work is in atmospheric physics. Recently I gave a departmental presentation about this research using as the sole source of AV support a set of web pages which I had developed specifically for this lecture.

The department and the university in general has very good access to computer equipment. For example, my office computer is a Pentium Pro.

I also have good access to the means of disseminating the results of this project. I served as department chair for 10 years, chair of the Trinity University faculty senate, president of the Texas Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers, and SPS advisor.