Top Ten Free Online Courses in Earth Sciences with Certificates in 2022

Looking for courses on Earth Sciences? Here are the top 10 free online courses in Earth Sciences with certificates in 2022.

In this article, you will find the best courses in Earth Sciences to go for regardless of whether you are a beginner or an advanced learner.

So, let’s get to it!

Free Online Courses in Earth Sciences with Certificates in 2022

Find below a carefully researched list of some of the top free online courses in Earth Sciences with certificates you can go for. Also, you can take as many courses as you deem fit.

Now, let’s get right in!

1. Our Earth’s Future

This is one of the best free online courses in Earth Sciences with certificates. It is offered by the American Museum of Natural History, one of the most prestigious scientific, educational and cultural institutions in the world.

The course aims at exploring the science of climate change and how to take about it. It is taught y experts in the fields of Oceanography, Climatography, Anthropology, and Earth Science.

Basically, the course teaches how climate change affects humans, populations, and ways of life. By the end of the course, participants would be able to understand the key scientific principles, to identify as well address misconceptions. Also, they will be able to contribute to conversations about climate change.

Course Syllabus

• Climate change is happening: see it
• It all comes down to the ocean
• Climate change is happening: Model it
• Living with climate change
• Mitigate, adapt or suffer?

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 8 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

While you’re here, you may want to check out: Boston University Free Online Courses

2. Our Earth: Its Climate, History, and Processes

Another one of the best free online courses in Earth Sciences with certificates. It is offered by the University of Manchester, a university home to approximately 40,000 students, and is devoted to understanding world-class research, delivering outstanding learning and student experience as well as being socially responsible.

The course aims to teach participants how to develop a greater appreciation for how the air, land, water, and life formed and how they have interacted over the last 4.5 million years.

Course Syllabus:

• Building Blocks of Earth’s Climate System
• Formation, evolution, and processes of the solid Earth
• Water in Earth’s Climate System: Oceans, Atmosphere, and Cryosphere
• Life, and its Effect on Earth’s Climate System
• Build Your Own Earth and Conclusion

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 14 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Free

3. Biosphere 2 Science for the Future of Our Planet

This course is offered by the University of Arizona, one of the world’s premier public research universities that have since been producing graduates who are global citizens, fueled individuals, and engaged leaders.

The course aims to explore the journey around the planet earth and beyond. It focuses on the world of innovative science and is best designed for learners looking for an exciting opportunity to learn about science and earth stewardship.

Course Syllabus

• Biosphere 2, an Icon of Possibilities
• Climate Disruption
• The Science of Water Availability
• Desert Plants, Climate, and Changing Landscapes
• Rainforests in an Altered World
• Sea Changes in our Marine Environment
• Soil Science – Foundations & Implications
• Feeding the Future
• Life and Resources in Space – Should We Go There?

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 29 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

4. Planet Earth…and You!

This course is offered by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a world-leading university in research, teaching, and public engagement and best known for its programs, broad academic excellence, and internationally renowned faculty and alumni.

This course presents an overview of several aspects of our homes from a geological perspective. It begins with earthquakes, what they are, their causes, the effects they have, and what can be done about them

Also, the course delves into the processes that produce energy and mineral resources that modern society is dependent on, to best help the learners understand the context of the environment as well as sustainability challenges that humans will face in the future.

Course Syllabus

• Orientation
• Week 1: Earthquakes!
• Week 2: Plate Tectonics
• Week 3: Volcanoes!
• Week 4: Rocks and Mineral Resources
• Week 5: Energy Resources

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 42 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

5. Origins – Formation of the Universe, Solar System, Earth, and Life

This course is offered by the University of Copenhagen, the oldest University in Denmark, and well known for its purpose of conducting research and providing education to the highest academic level.

The course aims to track all things – ranging from the Big Bang to the origin of the solar system as well as the earth. Also, it follows the trajectory of the evolution of life on the planet earth through geological time to present life forms.

Course Syllabus

• Origin of the Elements, the Solar System and the Planets
• The early Earth and the origin of life
• Origin of the microbial world / The Cambrian Explosion and Exceptional Preservation
• The transition from Microbial to Microbial Life: Snowball Earth and the Ediacara Biota / Eukaryotic Evolution and the Phylogeny of All Life
• Origin of the marine Cambrian and Palaeozoic Evolutionary Faunas / Diversity in deep time / Origin of predation and the Mesozoic Arms race
• Oxygenation and Animals
• Origins and Early Development of Plants / The Origin and Diversification of Flowering Plants
• The Evolution of Insects and their Role in Terrestrial Ecosystems
• Colonization of the continents and the Origin of the Dinosaurs and Birds/Mass Extinction Events and Their Causes
• Origin of Recent Climate Change / The Molecular Clock
• Primate Origins and Evolution / Human Origins and Evolution
• Modern Diversity

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 24 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

6. Deep Time: Discovering an Ancient Earth

This course is offered by the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), a dynamic community of learners and scholars with a proud tradition of academic excellence.

This course aims at exploring the origins of science and geology as well as our planet’s oceans, atmosphere, and crust. Also, it focuses on finding out how geologists have probed the rise and fall of the Rocky Mountains.

The course aims to end with exploring the power of science as well as its inherent price and responsibility and acknowledging them.

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Syllabus

• Science and Geology in Search of Deep Time
• Origins: Stars to Planets, Continents, Oceans, and Atmospheres
• Seas and Ancient Mountains of North America
• The Rise of the Modern Rocky Mountains

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 10 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

Also, check out: Top Ten Free Online Courses in Astronomy With Certificates in 2022

7. Imagining Other Earths

This course is offered by Princeton University, a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey, the United States known as one of the eight universities in the Ivy League as well as one of the nine Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution.

This course aims to introduce more concepts in biology, astronomy, as well as planetary science that allows the learners to scientifically speculate about the profound question of “Are we alone?”

Course Syllabus

• Introduction
• The Universe is Big!
• What is Life?
• Why is Mercury Hot?
• Snowball Earth
• Planetary Atmospheres
• Mercury and Venus
• Mars
• The Moon
• Small Bodies of the Solar System
• Kepler’s Law and Search for Extrasolar Planets
• Kepler and Transits
• Einstein and the Search for Planets
• Properties of Stars
• Stellar Evolution
• Quantum Mechanics and Fingerprinting Planets
• Optics and Imaging Planets
• Formation of the Earth and the Origin of Water
• Biochemistry of Life
• Is Earth Special? Origin of Life
• Evolution of Life
• Extremophiles
• Extinctions
• What makes a Habitable Planet?
• Habitable Zone, Fermi Paradox & SETI

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 26 ours

Cost: Free

Certificate: No

8. Introduction to GIS Mapping

This course is offered by the University of Toronto, one of the top universities in the world known for its excellence in research, teaching, entrepreneurship, and innovation as well as the impact it has had on economic prosperity as well as the social well-being around the globe.

This course begins with exploring the useful world of Geographic Information System (GIS) – from what GIS is to how to get started with the software, how things in the world can e represented on a map, how locations are recorded using coordinates, to how two-dimensional maps can be made from three-dimensional earth.

In this course, learners will gain a strong foundation in mapping and GIS that will equip them with the in-depth understanding they need to start working with GIS.

By the end of the course, the participants would have been able to create their GIS data by tracing geographic features from a satellite image for a location and the theme of their choice.

Course Syllabus

• What is GIS?
• Introduction to ArcGIS
• Mapping the real world with vector and raster data
• Mapping Locations with Coordinate Systems
• Flattening the Earth with Map Projections
• Project: Creating Your Own Data

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 14 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

9. The Dynamic Earth: A Course for Educators

This course is offered y the American Museum of Natural History, one of the prestigious and preeminent scientific, educational and cultural institutions in the world.

This course provides an overview of the origin as well as the evolution of the earth. It examines geological time scales, radiometric dating as well as how scientists read the rocks.

Also, the course explores the dramatic changes in the earth over the past 4 billion years which include how the evolution of the earth has affected its atmosphere.

Course Syllabus

• Introduction & The Mystery of Geologic Time
• Evolution of the Atmosphere
• Plate Tectonics: Mountain Building
• Plate Tectonics: Earthquakes

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 8 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

10. The Big Stuff: Evolution and Ecology

This course is offered by the University of Colorado Boulder (CU-Boulder), a dynamic community of learners and scholars with a proud tradition of academic excellence.

This course aims to explore how evolution generates new species – the wide variety of life on earth. It also outlines the importance of biodiversity for the overall health of our planet as well as for our well-being as humans.

Also, the course discusses the ecology as well as the interconnectedness of life and it explores conversation – one of the big ecological issues in society today.

Course Syllabus

• The “E” Word
• The Diversity of Life
• The Interconnectedness of Life
• Questions of Conservation: Finding Balance

In addition, this course comes with a shareable certificate awarded to the learners upon course completion.

Course Provider: Coursera

Duration: Approximately 10 hours

Cost: Free

Certificate: Yes

Conclusion

We hope you found these courses useful and the article, easy to navigate through. The courses on our list are completely free and over 90% of them come with a shareable certificate that the participants receive upon course completion. Also, you can take as many courses as you want to.

We wish you all the best.

FAQs Free Online Courses in Earth Sciences with Certificates in 2022

References

• Coursera.org

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