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SOLVE: Problems in Environmental Science

Kathleen Purvis-Roberts Claremont McKenna, Pitzer and Scripps Colleges
Thomas G. Spiro University of Washington

Foreword by Bill McKibben

Newly Released

"Numbers matter. Incorrect ones cause damage, while realistic ones open doorways to finding solutions to many of the problems that afflict humanity. This environmental problem-solving text will help your students be better equipped to recognize and shun misleading numbers and to calculate better ones.”
-John Harte, UC Berkeley

SOLVE: Problems in Environmental Science delivers up a robust set of engaging quantitative problems geared toward students in guided problem-solving groups and Environmental Science courses.

ISBN 978-1-940380-10-0, US $69
eISBN 978-1-940380-11-7, US $52 to own, US $39 to lease
Publish date: 2022
Soft Cover

Summary

In response to repeated requests for more problems in environmental science, Katie Purvis-Roberts (Claremont McKenna, Pitzer and Scripps Colleges) and Tom Spiro (University of Washington), authors of Chemistry of the Environment, with a team of experienced environmental science teachers, have developed SOLVE: Problems in Environmental Science. This sleek and affordable stand-alone “problems” book serves up a broad array of quantitative problems addressing real-world issues in an approachable fashion. Requiring only algebra and a basic understanding of general chemistry, SOLVE is designed for use in traditional Environmental Science courses, as well as in student-centered guided problem-solving courses. Worked problems are followed by practice problems, with brief answers that allow students to check their work. With this text, your students will use their reasoning ability to tackle and solve problems ranging from global warming to GMOs. An Instructor’s Manual with detailed solutions is also available to adopting professors.

Resources

Chapter 2 sample

Table of Contents

Preface

 

Part I. Introduction

Chapter 1. Introduction

 

Part II. Energy and Materials

Chapter 2. Energy Flows and Supplies

Chapter 3. Energy Utilization

Chapter 4. Renewable Energy

Chapter 5. Fossil Fuels

Chapter 6. Nuclear Energy

 

Part III. Atmosphere

Chapter 7. Climate Change

Chapter 8. Free Radical Chemistry – Nitrogen Oxide, Ozone, and Combusion

Chapter 9. Air Pollution

Chapter 10. Stratospheric Ozone Shield

 

Part IV. Hydrosphere and Lithosphere

Chapter 11. Water Resources

Chapter 12. Water as Solvents: Acids and Bases

Chapter 13. Water and the Lithosphere

Chapter 14. Oxygen and Life

Chapter 15. Water Pollution and Water Treatment

 

Part V. Biosphere

Chapter 16. Nitrogen and Food Production

Chapter 17. Pest Control

Chapter 18. Toxicity of Chemicals

 

Appendixes

Appendix A. Organic Structures

Appendix B. Mathematical Fundamentals

Appendix C. Answers to the Starred Questions

Reviews

“Numbers matter. Incorrect ones cause damage, while realistic ones open doorways to finding solutions to many of the problems that afflict humanity. This environmental problem-solving text will help your students be better equipped to recognize and shun misleading numbers and to calculate better ones.”
-John Harte, UC Berkeley

Kathleen Purvis-Roberts

Kathleen Purvis-Roberts Claremont McKenna, Pitzer and Scripps Colleges

Kathleen Purvis-Roberts is a Professor of Chemistry at the W.M. Keck Science Department of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges. She earned her B.S. from Westmont College and her Ph.D. from Princeton University, where she worked with Steven Bernasek. From there, she did her postdoctoral work at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. She joined the faculty of Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges in 2001. She is the recipient of the Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award (2013) and the Jefferson Science Fellowship (2016–2017).

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Thomas G. Spiro

Thomas G. Spiro University of Washington

Thomas G. Spiro is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington. He received the B. S. from UCLA and the Ph.D. from MIT, and did postdoctoral work in Copenhagen. He joined the faculty of Princeton University in 1963, and served as chair of the chemistry department from 1980 to 1989, relocating to the University of Washington in 2007. He is the recipient of the ICPP Eraldo Antonini Lifetime Achievment Award (2010), the ACS Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Inorganic Chemistry (2004), Biophysical Society Founders Award (2004), the Wellcome Visiting Professorship in the Basic Medical Sciences, at the University of British Columbia (1999) in1999, and the Bomem-Michelson Award in Molecular Spectroscopy (1986).

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