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Understanding the global water cycle is fundamental to Earth systems literacy and fostering an informed citizenry; however, students often struggle with terminology, the role of key processes, and estimating the physical and temporal scales, leaving knowledge gaps that impair comprehension. The Hydrologic Cycle Game is a pedagogical tool for teaching students about the global water cycle through game-based learning. It familiarizes students with terminology related to transport, fluxes, and storage, using box models to understand complex cycles and visualize invisible processes, and introduces students to the concept of residence time. It was developed for university undergraduates but could be used in other educational settings. When deploying this activity in-class, it is helpful to introduce students to the vocabulary and the concept of box models prior to game play; a short lecture or prerecorded video was sufficient. One game typically takes 5-10 min to play, and, in the author's experience, engagement increases when students have the opportunity to play multiple times. Student comprehension of terminology, connections, and directions of flow was assessed using pre and posttests. Scores increased significantly (p < 0.05) after gameplay with a large effect size (d > 0.8), and learning gains persisted through mid-semester evaluations. The data collected indicate that the Hydrologic Cycle Game is an effective tool for teaching the global water cycle.

A clear understanding of climate change and its impacts on society is an integral component of scientific literacy today. However, college students in introductory and lower division science courses often struggle to connect with this material in a meaningful way when they do not see how it is relevant to their daily lives. To address this challenge, we have developed a role-playing game in which students act out a fictitious meeting of the Seattle City Council in which they select an action plan in response to impending sea-level rise. They are given roles and form factions to develop proposals, lobbying for either climate change prevention, mitigation, or adaptation. Students focus on using scientific literature and evidence to support their arguments and work as teams to get their action plans approved by the city council. The game takes approximately two class periods, during which the teams research and prepare action plans, the council hears proposals and questions the lobbying citizens, and an action plan is selected. Quantitative and qualitative data from introductory Earth and atmospheric science courses demonstrate improved learning outcomes for game-relevant course content and student perceptions of increased learning.

Evapotranspiration (ET) can cause diel fluctuations in the elevation of the water table and the stage in adjacent streams. The diel fluctuations of water levels change head gradients throughout the day, causing specific discharge through near-stream sediment to fluctuate at the same time scale. In a previous study, we showed that specific discharge controls the residence time of groundwater in streambed sediment that, in turn, exerted the primary control on [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations of 2 groups of dams and their litters were made every 3 hr around the clock on Days 1-20 postpartum. The dams were fed either an 8% or a 25% casein diet for 5 weeks before mating and during gestation and lactation. Dams on the low protein diet spent more time in the nest actively nursing their young than did high protein dams, and they exhibited no deficits in other maternal behaviors. Five of 11 kinds of behavior developed more slowly in the undernourished pups than in the well-nourished ones, but the developmental delays were no longer than a few days. Circadian fluctuations were apparent in all of the pups' activities during the 3rd postnatal week as well as in grooming and horizontal movement, 2 behaviors that were present earlier, by 6-10 days of age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]