Curriculum:  For the full IESO curriculum, please visit the syllabus at the IESO site.

The content is divided between Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, and our Planetary System.  The focus is on Earth Systems and how they interact. 

 

Training:  The camp will provide an overview and deeper focus into the curriculum.  Students will be expected to study before camp.  One way to do this is to have each student create their own Google Doc.  and add their research from the web related to the syllabus to the document.  There is no one text book at either a high school or university level that covers the content.

Because of this the web is the best source of information for the students to study.  If the students are selected to attend the camp, they should have started their own google doc for this purpose.

 

Practice Problem.  In Brazil the International Team Field Investigation was based on this question.  Explain the "El Niño" in terms of interactions between the Earth systems of all of the spheres: Geosphere, Hydrosphere, Atmosphere, Biosphere, and the Human Sphere.  This is a good practice problem for students to work on.  The students should make a poster showing the relationships  between these systems.  

 

One example of a relation is that during the "El Niño" there are changes to the precipitation patterns.  Drought followed by floods cause the loss of plant material holding soils together.  Thus when flooding occurs there is increased erosion.  The increased erosion leads to increased sediment load in the rivers and estuaries causing increased die offs of complex life forms.  The increased nutrient load can cause algae blooms resulting in increased oxygen demand and further die offs.  

 

Another example is that as tectonic uplift raises mountains along the coast of the Pacific ocean, increased precipitation will lead to increased snow pack, and more consistent runoff from the snow pack.