Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories, 6th Edition

Highlights of the DIGITAL UPDATE for Pearson eText (available for Fall 2021 classes)

Pearson eText is an easy-to-use digital textbook that students can purchase on their own or you can assign for your course. It lets students read, highlight, take notes, and review key vocabulary all in one place. Seamlessly integrated videos and other rich media engage students and give them access to the help they need, when they need it. The mobile app lets students learn on the go, online or offline. Creating a course allows you to schedule readings, view reading analytics, and share your own notes with students so they see the connection between their eText and what they learn in class, motivating them to keep reading, and keep learning. Learn more about Pearson eText.

• NEW - Analytics Dashboard. Use the dashboard to gain insight into how students are working in their eText to plan more effective instruction in and out of class.
• NEW - Every chapter of the eText is updated for currency with the latest data and developments.
• Engage learners with compelling media. Videos and animations bring key concepts to life, helping students place what they are reading into context.
• NEW - DataGraphics are Infographic-style illustrations that enable students to see the data behind complex issues and understand how to tie it all together. Topics include:
• Can We Save the Worlds Biodiversity?
• How Can We Stop Global Warming?
• Will Ocean Plastic Pollution Get Worse?

Highlights of the DIGITAL UPDATE for Mastering (available for Fall 2021 classes)

• NEW - BIAS Test guides students as they face countless messages in the media and shows them how to evaluate sources based on four criteria: Backed Up, Intent, Authority, and Source. Students read an article, and BIAS Test questions guide them in assessing the source regarding the articles authority, motivation and reliability. Article topics include COVID-19, vaccines, ocean garbage patches, and more. These are assignable in Mastering Biology.
• NEW - DataGraphics are assignable as Coaching Activities in the Mastering item library.
• NEW - Analytics Dashboard. Use the dashboard to gain insight into how students are working in their eText to plan more effective instruction in and out of class.

Hallmark features of Essential Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

Engage students with real people, real places, and real data

• Success Story features in each chapter highlight successful efforts to address local, national, and global environmental problems. Success Stories encourage students by showing them that sustainable solutions are within reach. Students can explore the data behind these solutions with new Success Story Coaching Activities in Mastering Environmental Science.
• Integrated Central Case Studies begin and are woven throughout each chapter, highlighting the real people, real places, and real data behind environmental issues. Revised throughout and updated with current stories, the Central Case Studies draw students in, providing a contextual framework to make science memorable and engaging. New topics include:
• Chapter 4: Leaping Fish, Backwards River: Asian Carp Threaten the Great Lakes
• Chapter 9: Saving the Worlds Greatest Rainforest
• Chapter 14: Rising Seas Threaten South Florida
• Closing the Loop feature brings Central Case Studies full circle by revisiting the Case Study from the start of the chapter at the end of every chapter. This new feature encourages students to think critically about the issue laid out within the chapter and summarize the relationship between concepts in the chapter and the case study itself.
• The chapter opener design readily engages students in the contents of the course and helps them to better visualize the global nature of environmental issues with a new approach to each map.

Get students hands-on with data

• Data Qs accompany figures in each chapter and challenge students to practice quantitative skills of interpretation and analysis. Students can check their answers using the answer key at the end of the text, or complete a similar activity in Mastering Environmental Science and receive personalized feedback for wrong answers.
• Coverage of topical issues incorporates the most recent data available and enhances discussion of emerging issues. As climate change and energy concerns play ever-larger roles in todays world, our coverage keeps pace. Updates include the latest on renewable energy, sea level rise in Florida, honeybee colony collapse, endocrine disruptors in fast food, Amazon deforestation, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and more.

Develop students' scientific literacy skills

• Science Behind the Story essays provide a current and fascinating selection of examples of real research that delves into environmental issues. Each essay highlights how scientists develop hypotheses, test predictions, and analyze and interpret data, helping students understand how we know what we know about environmental issues. Of the 18 total, nine are new to this edition.
• Weighing the Issues questions help develop the critical-thinking skills students need to navigate multifaceted issues at the juncture of science, policy, and ethics. They serve as stopping points for students to reflect on what they have read, wrestle with complex dilemmas, and engage in spirited classroom discussion.
• Calculating Ecological Footprint activities at the end of every chapter enable students to quantify the impacts of their choices and measure how individual impacts scale up to the societal level.
• Case Study Connection questions at the end of every chapter allow instructors to assign questions specific to the case study example that prompt students to think about both the problems and solutions to the environmental issue explored in the chapter.
• FAQs highlight questions frequently posed by students, helping to address widely held misconceptions about environmental issues.

Hallmark features of Mastering Environmental Science

Teach your course your way

• Dynamic Study Modules are assignable modules that pose a series of question sets about a course topic. Questions adapt to each students performance and offer personalized, targeted feedback to help them master key concepts. Students can use their computer or the MyLab and Mastering app to access Dynamic Study Modules.
• Ready-to-Go Teaching Modules, created by and for instructors, make use of teaching tools for before, during, and after class, including new ideas for in-class activities. The modules incorporate the best that the text, Mastering Environmental Science, and Learning Catalytics have to offer and can be accessed through the Instructor Resources area of Mastering. Learn more here.

Deliver trusted content

• Everyday Environmental Science video activities connect environmental science course topics with current stories in the news. Produced by the BBC, these high-quality videos can be assigned for pre- and post-lecture homework, or can be shown in class to engage students in the topic at hand.
• Process of Science coaching activities help students think critically about environmental research presented in the in-text Science Behind the Stories. There are fifteen Process of Science activities created by coauthor Matt Laposata that will help students think like a scientist and understand basic experimental design skills.

Empower learners

• Success Story Coaching activities pair with the new in-text Success Story feature and give students the opportunity to explore the data behind each sustainable solution.
• Video Field Trip activities give students fascinating behind-the-scenes tours of real environmental concerns and the strategies and solutions employed to address them. These popular, short videos engage students as they explore a coal-fired power plant, a wastewater treatment facility, a wind farm, and more. New video field trip activities discuss bee colony collapse and take students on a tour of a water desalination plant.
• Case Study Video Tours use Google Earthand striking images delivered in highly engaging videos to bring each chapter-opening Case Study to life.The video tours are embedded in the Pearson eText to encourage students to immerse themselves in the theme of each chapter. They are also available in Mastering Environmental Science, allowing instructors to assign the experience.
• GraphIt! Coaching activities help students read, interpret, and create graphs that explore real environmental issues using real data. Activities explore current topics such as the carbon footprint of food, water availability, and ocean acidification in an entirely new mobile experience with accessible design.