Introducing Encyclopedia of Earth: An online resource for teaching environmental chemistry

1. Introducing Encyclopedia of Earth: An online resource for teaching environmental chemistry By Andy Jorgensen, andy.jorgensen@utoledo.edu, Department of Chemistry - MS #602, U of Toledo & National Council for Science and the Environment, Toledo, OH 43606 and Cynthia Barakatt, barakatt@bu.edu, Encyclopedia of Earth, Boston University, 675 Commonwealth Ave., Room 457, Boston, MA 02215. With help from Managing Editor of the Encyclopedia of Earth Maggie Surface • How it works • Our quality control involves: • The EoE Editorial Advisory Board reviews and approves the CVs of all potential contributors before allowing access to the authoring wiki. • All contributors work under their real name. • Before publication all new and updated articles are reviewed by an expert in the relevant subject area. More than an encyclopedia! In addition to the multitude of encyclopedia articles, the EoE also includes: Topical Collections Regional Collections exploring Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean E-books covering a number of topics and levels Online textbooks. ontopics from climate literacy to ecology for teachers, and an AP Environmental Science course to prepare students for the College Board’s test. About the EoE The Encyclopedia of Earth (EoE) is a web-based tool that provides easy access to high-quality information about environmental topics. It includes almost 5,000 articles covering 136 subjects, plus e-books, special collections and environmental classics. Each article includes hyperlinks to related topics within the EoE and additional resources about the subject. More than 1,200 scientists and other experts participate as authors and editors. Links to the biographies of the author(s) and topic editor for each article gives the reader instant background on the source of the information. • Environmental chemistry • Climate change • Ecology • Biodiversity • Coral reefs • Economics • Energy • World ecoregions About us The Environmental Information Coalition (EIC) is a partnership of diverse environmental scientists, educators, professionals, and organizations. The National Council for Science and the Environment, in partnership with faculty and staff at Boston University, serves as Secretariat of the EIC. Authors and editors hail from 60 countries across the globe (see map above). 62 organizations, from the American Institute of Physics to the World Wildlife Fund have contributed entries as EoEcontent partners. • A tool for education • The EoEis dedicated to expanding and enhancing opportunities for education on environmental topics. • EoE in the Classroom. A number of undergraduate and graduate courses from 6 institutions have used EoE content as a main text or as supplemental reading. • The Student Science Communication Project is a faculty-supervised science writing initiative in which students develop writing skills through the preparation of articles for publication in the EoE. Writing projects can take different forms, but they all have these essential features: • A faculty member identifies a specific set of topic(s) for students to write about, and then recruits a manageable number of qualified students. • Students write a research-based review paper or article under close supervision of the faculty member. • Papers are reviewed via the normal EoE review process, with qualified papers being published in the EoE. Growing in popularity The EoE has seen steady growth in the number of visitors to the website per month: