PSL Researchers Contribute to Free Online Course

CIRES researchers Ben Livneh and Kelly Mahoney of ESRL's Physical Sciences Laboratory are guest lecturers during a free 4½-week online course on Water in the Western United States, which will be offered by the University of Colorado through Coursera. The massive open online course, or MOOC, begins April 1st and will allow students the opportunity to explore the scientific, legal, political and cultural issues impacting water and climate in the Western U.S.

The course will be taught by Anne Gold, CIRES climate literacy and geoscience education specialist, and Eric Gordon, program manager of the Western Water Assessment (WWA). WWA is part of CIRES, and is one of NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) programs. Gordon and Gold worked with more than a dozen other experts in water management, policy and research to create a series of short video lectures. Students can watch each week’s videos on their own schedules, and they will participate in various exercises and activities, just as they would if they were in a live classroom. Livneh will speak on Groundwater Resources in the Western U.S. (Module 2, Lecture #3), and Mahoney will speak on River and Flash flooding (Module 2, Lecture #5).

Coursera is an educational platform that partners with universities and institutions worldwide to offer free online courses. The course has been recognized by the White House Office of Science and Technology as a project that supports the President’s Climate Education and Literacy Initiative.

CIRES is a partnership of NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder.

Posted: March 31, 2015