Students use climate model output to compare past, present and future climate and consider the impacts of human activity on climate.

In small groups, students make decisions on how to classify seven common objects as either minerals or non-minerals. The objects are: quartz, glass, wood, granite, copper, plastic, and ice. Students receive no prior instruction, and thus need to use their observations and their current conceptions of minerals in order to make and justify their classifications. After small groups have completed their classifications, a full-class discussion ensues, revealing differences among the groups, from which emerges a definition of "mineral".

This is a problem set designed to be used in an introductory or advanced petrology course, either as an exercise in conjunction with a laboratory assignment or as a stand-alone assignment. It could also be easily modified to be suitable for an exam exercise. The problem set uses field data to help teach the determination and balancing mixed-volatile reactions and locating isograds in siliceous dolomites in a contact aureole. Concepts explored in the problem set can be used to establish a framework for later discussions of T-X(CO2) diagrams, fluids in contact aureoles, and thermal gradients in the crust.
Note that mapped assemblages have been somewhat simplified from the field data (Roselle 1997). Where brucite was observed in the aureole it has been mapped as periclase. All of the assemblages are '3-phase' except for the mapped assemblages of Dol+ Qtz+ Cal+ Tr. This assemblage can be the focus of a question regarding crossing tie-lines and the 'quartz-out' isograd. To simplify the exercise the open triangle symbols can be filled, making the assemblage Dol+ Cal+ Tr. Any of the questions below can be made a bit more straightforward by including more guiding text (or the reverse), depending on the preparation of the students.
The Ubehebe aureole is an excellent locality to use to teach metamorphic reactions in siliceous dolomites (Peck, 2003), and has the advantage of the availability of supplementary data for other exercises (mineral textures, Roselle, 1997; Roselle et al., 1997; stable isotopes, Roselle et al., 1999; remote sensing, Kozak et al., 2004). Ubehebe is also a case study discussed in Best's Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology (2003). Winter's (2001) textbook discusses the Alta contact aureole. A similar problem set could be easily made by using data from Alta (Cook and Bowman, 2000).

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Play-Doh model of a sedimentary wedge (yellow), tapering out between two other strata

Provenance: Carol Ormand Ph.D., Carleton College
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.
Students complete several short, in-class exercises related to understanding isopach maps. We use Play-Doh models to illustrate features revealed in the isopach maps and to support student understanding of the relationship between geology, isopach maps, and structure contour maps. I also show several examples of isopach maps of geologically interesting features to illustrate how and why we use them.

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Formative assessment questions using a classroom response system ("clickers") can be used to reveal students' spatial understanding.
Students are shown this diagram and instructed to "Click where the bottom of the lithosphere will be after the mountains have eroded away."

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This investigation explores the basic process of isostasy and its explanatory power for the observed bimodal distribution for global elevations. In Part A, the densities of representative rock samples of granite and basalt are determined experimentally and compared to typical crustal values. In Part B, the concept of isostasy is examined through a continent-to-ocean transect by determining if the hydrostatic pressure at a common asthenosphere depth is approximately equal under four different "columns" of overlying material. In Part C, a dynamic web-based isostasy model is used to predict elevations for lithospheric columns of different crustal thickness and density. In Part D, the bimodal distribution of global elevations is explicitly explored and connected to the fundamental components of isostasy as explored in Parts A, B, and C.

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Students will write a matlab code to calculate crustal thickness of 5 locations. Calculations will use topography (determined by running a matlab script that creates a clickable map) and nominal density values, and the assumption that the crust is in airy isostasy. Students will then run another script (with clickable map) to determine the actual crustal thickness of the locations. If the calculated and actual thicknesses are significantly different, students will discuss possible geodynamic reasons for the non-airy crustal thicknesses.

Separation of hydrographs into event and pre-event fractions based on measurements and data, rather than arbitrary formulae, was a revolutionary technique in watershed hydrology in the 1970s and has continued to be widely used. Hydrograph separation showed that Hortonian overland flow and rapid delivery of "new" event water to streams during storms was not as widely applicable as had been previously thought. Instead, most water in streams during storms in humid, forested watersheds is typically "old", pre-event water. In most cases, hydrograph separations are conducted using the stable isotopes of water, since they are ideal, conservative tracers. In this exercise, we will be conducting a classic isotope hydrograph separation for a forested watershed in northeastern Ohio.

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This assignment offers students several problems that help them understand the basic of mixing models and their use in understanding the controls on water quality in the environment. The purpose of the assignment is to help students integrate across the various topics in environmental chemistry in the context of flow and transport. Students will hopefully learn how reactive and non-reactive tracers can be used in conjunction to fully understand a chemical system.

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The students will use activities to understand atomic mass and isotopes and stable isotopic fractionation in the hydrologic system.

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This assignment is meant to make students stop and think about an environmental issue that gets to them and do some research on what type of solutions would be appropriate. It also challenges them to go out and research the effectiveness of the solutions to that problem and propose other options. An important part of the assignment is to make students realize that sometimes the best way to solve a problem is to do "nothing." Some solutions, especially those arrived at from consensus, may worsen the problem.

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Students do background reading on the possible origins of intraplate seismicity and also read Nuttli's 1973 paper on the 1811-1812 New Madrid sequence. They construct frequency magnitude diagrams using data they acquire themselves from the openly archived University of Memphis catalog, Southern California Earthquake Center catalog, and USGS global catalog. They use these diagrams to estimate a recurrence interval for large magnitude earthquakes at the NMSZ. They then split into teams to read papers detailing campaign GPS surveys, paleoseismic measurements, and heat flow measurements. Each team is responsible for summarizing their set of papers for the other students. The culminating assignment is to update Gomberg and Schweig's 2002 USGS pamphlet "Earthquake hazard in the heart of the homeland" using scientific results that postdate the original pamphlet (including their own analysis). We also end with a "teaching and learning discussion" in which the students, who are usually high school teachers themselves, trade ideas about how they could repurpose parts of the lesson for use in their own classrooms. This activity gives students practice in data analysis and reading scientific papers, it shows them a few resources where they can find openly available data, and it gives them a chance to participate in the practice of science.
Teaching Tips
Adaptations that allow this activity to be successful in an online environment
This lesson was constructed specifically for an online course and didn't exist beforehand. I think it could work in a face-to-face course, too.
Elements of this activity that are most effective
Students,especially ones who are not as literate with software plotting / analysis programs, find the problem set somewhat difficult because the datasets are large and I am asking them to collect the data themselves, then use it to make a second-order plot and analyze that, instead of just plotting "A" vs. "B" and analyzing it.

That being said, I know that students are excited to be able to produce a plot themselves that exactly mimics one they can find in a published paper, and furthermore they are happy to find resources such as the USGS earthquake catalog that contain available real-time data.

The part where they have to compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of each technique used to study the NMSZ (seismology, paleoseismology, GPS, etc) is important because they get a real sense of how different approaches are important to resolve a scientific debate. I know they are learning something when they get frustrated because there isn't an easy answer!
Recommendations for other faculty adapting this activity to their own course:
-Be prepared to help students get through the technical aspects of some of the scientific papers, especially if they are not used to reading scientific papers. When I pick the papers for them to read, I purposely pick ones that aren't too long (Science, Nature, GRL, etc) and I try to pick ones that came with a press release, "news and views" or similar, and then I tell the students to read the press release first and then the paper.

-Be prepared to give students hints about counting and sorting data to make the frequency-magnitude diagrams because you'd rather lead them towards how to make the plots and then let them get on with the analysis as opposed to letting them get so frustrated with their lack of technical skills that they aren't interested in the science anymore. This exercise should be about seismology; it shouldn't be an excel tutorial! I have a little set of screen capture movie how-to hints under a hidden url, and when I can tell that a student is really suffering I reveal them.

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The following topical questions and selected resources are designed to guide you through the current debate on the origin of Yellowstone hotspot: does it originate from processes operating only in the shallow portions of the Earth's mantle, or from a deeper-seated feature, perhaps a mantle plume generated at the core-mantle boundary? The resources linked from this page include an assortment of web- and non-web resources, published papers, abstracts, and graphics. Direct links to web resources are followed by a "more info" link that gives a short description of the web resource. These resources by no means comprise a comprehensive treatment of the literature on the subject, but should at least give you a place to start in your study of the origin of the Yellowstone hotspot.

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The first lab activity for the course is called "Paleontology: Past, Present, and Future". In addition to discussing several documents related to present and future research directions in the field, students review a brief timeline of the historical development of paleontology as a science. Then they get their first opportunity to work directly with fossils.
Students are presented with a set of fossil specimens in boxes (with no identifying labels). Each student selects one fossil of their own. They are asked to make and record very close, detailed observations of the specimen, and to sketch the fossil. Then they are told to "think like it's 1600." Someone has brought this object, taken out of the local rocks, for the student to investigate. The student must write a "proof" that this fossil was obviously once alive, and is not just an interesting mineral or rock formation. They can use their observations, compare the specimen to other objects with which they're familiar, resort to pure logic, or apply any other avenue of argumentation they think will help make their case.

Note:
In the next lab, on fossil preservation and taphonomy, the students revisit their fossil specimen, and determine its mode of preservation. Indeed, the student's "pet fossil" could be used throughout the course to illustrate various components of the course content.

This lab allows students to look at variety of data from the North Anatolian fault in Turkey. Specifically, students have the oportunity to:

interpret seismograms from the Izmit earthquake in 1999 (while accessing some seismograph station information from IRIS)
make and interpret an earthquake focal mechanism solution based on these seismograms
locate the earthquake epicenter
calculate the moment magnitude of the earthquake using published data showing epicenter locations and displacement measurements
intepret historical data from the North Anatolian fault and tectonic-scale plate motion information to see what patterns occur in the regional seismicity.

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1) What are some of the biological effects of dam removal (good and bad)?

2) What are some of the more pressing/compelling reasons to remove a dam? Explain.

3) The Stanley and Doyle (2003) article states that, "dam removal cannot be avoided." Hypothetically, let's say you are placed on a committee to oversee the removal of the Aswan High Dam, since Doyle et al. (2003) states that, "the functional lifespan of most dams is approximately 60-120 years." What scientific studies would you conduct before/during/after dam removal? Why?

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1) What do you think it means for a fossil resource to be "abused"?

2) What's the issue with fossil hunting on federal land (such as National Parks)? Explain what your interpretation of the conflict is.

3) Do you think commercial dealers and scientists can work together? How? Is this a good idea?

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1) How are zircons formed?

2) Which of the following statements describes relative geologic dating?
a) the Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus rex went extinct at the same time
b) dinosaurs came later than horseshoe crabs
c) the southern Atlantic Ocean began forming 20 million years after Pangaea split apart
d) the oldest piece of Atlantic Ocean crust is ~135 million years old, while the oldest piece of Pacific Ocean crust is ~165 million years old
e) orangutans separated from the hominid lineage 14 million years ago

3) Which of the following statements describes absolute geologic dating?
a) the Triceratops evolved after the Stegosaurus
b) the dinosaurs died out 60 million years before humans split from chimps
c) gorillas evolved before chimps
d) the northern Atlantic Ocean formed before the southern Atlantic Ocean
e) the Ice Ages ended 10,000 years ago, before the Cambrian Explosion ~545 million years ago

4) Why are zircons the most reliable timepiece we have for looking at Earth's early history?

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This activity uses an assortment of digital resources relevant to exploring resource development on Native American lands. The activity is based on a website that uses an Earth System approach to help students understand how Native American lands have been impacted by resource development. Students are assigned to investigate different aspects of the same problem or issue. For example, each team might analyze a different but related data set or read an article on different aspects or viewpoints on the same topic. Once each team member thoroughly understands his/her team's aspect of the problem, new groups are formed, with at least one representative from each original team. Each individual then explains her/his team's aspect of the problem to the new group. In this way, every student learns different aspects of the problem. Each group then uses combined information to create a complete summary of the issue. The jigsaw technique is based on work published by Barbara Tewksbury [Tewksbury, 1995] .

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Instructor provides an introduction to the weathering cycle and connection to ocean chemistry. We consider the following question as a group before splitting up for the Jigsaw portion of the exercise:

If we take the chemistry of wollastonite (CaSiO3) to represent continental rocks, what is the chemical equation of weathering with carbonic acid (H2CO3)?

Students conduct research and develop expertise in one aspect of the weathering-CO2 cycle. Each student produces a 1-2 page description of their area of expertise. Students studying the same aspect then meet to deepen understanding and identify and clear up any misconceptions. Groups check in with instructor or teaching assistant.

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