The online educational module “Why Does a Light Bulb Burn Out?” is an inquiry-based introduction to the concepts of materials and material properties through the interactive exploration of the life of the incandescent light bulb that students use every day. The module offers an exploration of the history of the light bulb, its components, and important filament properties. Students discover the relationship between temperature and incandescence, along with electrical power and resistance through interactive Java applets. Then students “invent” their own filaments through virtual temperature, performance and longevity tests of a variety of candidate materials. Next, students follow the filament aging process using scanning-electron/atomic-force microscopy images. The module culminates in students designing their own materials experiments using SPM Live! online at http://invsee.asu.edu. Student evaluations indicate students both enjoy and learn effectively using the module.

The Interactive Nano-Visualization for Science and Engineering Education (IN-VSEE) project at Arizona State University (ASU) has developed a remotely operable scanning probe microscope (SPM), a visualization gallery of images, and a number of educational modules with materials themes. It exploits the incredible potential of materials science for teaching at the high school and college level about fundamental concepts that cross traditionally separated disciplines. The packing of spheres is a topic that is ideal for linking together the different science and engineering disciplines because of the ubiquity and relevance of spheres in the materials world and the universality of the rules that govern their packing over a large range of sizes. Students can perform a number of discovery-based learning activities, over the web by simultaneously using IN-VSEE’s web-accessible module (e.g., The Music of Spheres) and by accessing the remotely-operable SPM for experimenting with nanosphere samples that they prepare. With these resources students can pose materials questions and are empowered to design their experiments to increase their understanding of real materials. The fundamental concepts (e.g., packing geometry, density, surface composition, long-range/short-range ordering, intermolecular forces, etc.) they learn through these materials science experiments are applicable to many other curricular, research, and technology areas.

The more directly dependent a population is on the natural resource base, the greater their vulnerability to a disruption in the productivity of that natural resource base. This scenario is particularly true of drylands, which are occupied by some of the most ecologically and politically marginalized populations on the globe. In the drylands, the most limiting natural resource is water, and therefore an extended disruption in rainfall can trigger a crisis, and sometimes even famine on a catastrophic scale, as in the early 1970s and 80s in Africa. Drought is a normal part of climate and is characteristic of the drier areas of the globe occupied by some 40 per cent of the world's population. It can be thought of as an 'extreme' climatic event, an extended period of unusually low rainfall. Climate modelling exercises indicate that the average level of rainfall in many dry areas will decrease even further. Drought is the single greatest natural hazard around the globe, on the criteria of mortality rate alone. However, death is simply the most severe consequence of drought. Other less visible but insidious effects such as erosion and loss of livestock can undermine the capacity of a population to recover from a disaster, increasing their vulnerability to subsequent droughts. The degree to which a population will be impacted by a natural hazard depends on their response options or their degree of vulnerability, which in turn can be decreased by prudent pre-drought planning and mitigation of effects during the event or the lack thereof. Vulnerability to drought is complex, and yet essential to understand in order to design drought preparedness and mitigation strategies and relief policies and programmes. In general, the less prosperous a household or a society, the fewer options it can afford in terms of response. Poverty, however, is not the same as vulnerability. Two households or societies may have similar levels of poverty but different levels of vulnerability. For example, one household or society may be primarily dependent on just one or two forms of income generation, such as monocropping for export, while another may depend on diversified livelihoods. Both groups can have the same level of income, yet when they are both exposed to a shock such as drought, the former will likely become poorer than the latter because there is a greater exposure to risk and/or because they have less response options. The key to designing successful strategies for drought preparedness and mitigation (DPM), therefore, is to understand who is vulnerable and why. Such examination can point to structural, socio-economic issues which present societies with difficult choices between consumption today or investment in crisis prevention for tomorrow. It also raises dilemmas about the redistribution of resources between groups, regions or sectors. These analyses are locally specific and therefore any DPM strategy - at any scale - must be