Back to Energy, Environment, and Everyday Life
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Energy, Environment, and Everyday Life

For a sample of what this course will include, see the video "Energy, Environment, and Everyday Life MOOC with University of Illinois Professor David Ruzic" - http://go.citl.illinois.edu/Energy-MOOC This course teaches you everything you need to know about energy, the environment, and at least a number of things in everyday life. It starts by talking about energy itself and where it comes from. This includes how much we have, who has it, who uses it, and what that all means. The video clips are produced in a fast-paced multimedia format during which Professor Ruzic throws in fun and demonstrations. There are multiple-choice questions to check your understanding and some more in-depth exercises to guide you deeper into the subject. After explaining the main things we use energy for – our cars and electronics! – fossil fuels are examined in detail. Want to really learn about fracking or pipelines? Watch these segments. The environmental effects of fossil fuels are taught as well. Global warming, acid rain, and geoengineering all are in this part of the course. Part of their solution is too. Renewables follow, with clips on solar, wind, hydro, geothermal, biofuels, etc. You’ll even see Professor Ruzic in a corn field and in the middle of a stream showing how you could dam it up. Finally, nuclear power is taught in detail – how it really works and what happens when it doesn’t work, as in Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, as well as how we are making it today, which is shown here without political preconceptions. In this course, economics takes center stage. People will ultimately do whatever costs the least, so energy policy is most effective when it is targeted at the user’s wallet. Throughout the course there are 24 segments on “How Things Work." These guides to everyday life are tremendously varied, covering everything from fireworks to making beer to what happens backstage at a theater. The course is designed to be enjoyable as well as informative. We hope you will take a look!

Status: Electrical Power
Status: Chemistry
BeginnerCourse48 hours

Featured reviews

AM

5.0Reviewed Feb 2, 2021

The course was conducted with a lot of passion, which is admirable. Sometimes, the videos can get a little lengthy. However, they are made enjoyable by how enthusiastically the content was taught!

NG

5.0Reviewed Sep 1, 2020

amazing course, learned a vast amount about nuclear energy and sparked my interest to further my knowledge in the subject! thank you!

DS

5.0Reviewed Aug 16, 2020

The course is excellent. Teaching / explanations from Prof. Ruzic is best.

NH

5.0Reviewed Mar 26, 2020

Thanks for given me opportunity to learnt the course

TK

5.0Reviewed Aug 15, 2018

Great course by Prof. Ruzic. Very well explained, fun assignments as well.

LR

5.0Reviewed Oct 29, 2020

for those who are looking for knowledge regarding Energy and environmental issues, this is one of the best

VA

5.0Reviewed Jun 18, 2020

Brilliant course ,assignment done with great enthusiasm..

MR

5.0Reviewed Jun 29, 2020

Just love to learn.. Professor was very interesting person with great attitude .

DS

5.0Reviewed Jul 12, 2021

Amazing course, Not only with theory studies it gave a practical exposure to us.

YC

5.0Reviewed Jun 26, 2020

The best thing about this course is Prof. Ruzic. Thanks to him, I felt no problem in understanding concepts and the practical approach has helped me memorize lot of stuff.

GC

5.0Reviewed Aug 7, 2021

Very educational course ! interesting and fascinating

BB

5.0Reviewed Nov 22, 2021

O​ne of the best courses I took. The content is really great and the teacher is one of the greatest I have

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