Students gesture the orientations of linear and planar features. In the first part of the exercise, students can only see one surface of a wooden block, and are asked to speculate about how planar features penetrate through the interior. Later, they uncover the other faces of the block and gesture the actual orientations.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This activity is done after students have completed or are in the process of completing reading and lectures on ground water flow, earthquakes, and geologic hazards. In class, students receive all the materials necessary to complete the activity, along with worksheets that contain instructions and questions that need to be answered. Their task is to make predictions, execute the activities, and comment on what the outcomes.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

To prepare for this writing assignment, students do a series of discussion section and homework assignments designed to familiarize them with scientific literature, literature reviews and the reading and interpretation of scientific papers and figures. In class students received a lecture on the example literature review providing continuity of topical content, in more depth than class lecture. The condensed literature review exercise serves as preparation for their term project, which includes a term paper and a presentation on a climate related topic of their choice. The topic content could be exchanged for any other for this writing exercise.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Students learn about the weighted mean by building spreadsheets that apply this concept to the average density of the oceanic lithosphere.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Many introductory environmental studies courses begin with climate change, perhaps because it is the environmental issue with which students have the most familiarity and concern, and because climate change impacts virtually all of Earth's socio-ecological systems. Pedagogically, this presents a challenge. Understanding climate science requires complex systems thinking that challenges students intellectually. Learning about climate change also presents a psychological and emotional challenge as it forces students and instructors to confront the reality of an uncertain future.
This activity introduces students to climate change in a new way �� by beginning not with the science of climate change, nor with the data and figures depicting climate change projections, but instead with people's lived experiences of climate change. At its core, this three-day class activity relies on a set of narratives to teach students about the effects of climate change. These narratives include videos, radio interviews, and news articles in which people already living through the effects of climate change -- displacement, drought, food insecurity, etc. -- describe their experiences. In some ways, this de-centering of climate science in favor of the voices of those on the front lines of climate change is a radical approach. And yet, I find that introducing climate change this way makes the science feel more relevant, meaningful and accessible, especially for those students fearful of or disinterested in science. I hope that by starting with these narratives, we might humanize climate change and tap into students' empathy to make them more open for looking at opportunities for agency and change-making around climate change.
I am grateful to the Association for Environmental Studies and Sciences members for providing suggestions for many of the climate change narratives included in this teaching activity.

Freshmen enrolled in the Spaceship Earth Living Learning Community conduct research on a real project that is formulated and conducted during a 2-semester academic year.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Students are given a brief scenario based on an actual event, designed to illustrate specific ethical issues associated with science. After reading the scenario students, will individually and in cooperative learning groups, respond to questions designed to probe their ethics and values. In this scenario, sinkhole development and the relationship between groundwater levels and karst geology are examined. Knowledge is then applied to a lawsuit filed by a family who lost a member in a sinkhole accident.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This activity introduces students to the interdisciplinary field of geoarchaeology through a case study of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. It combines short lectures with questions requiring analyses of a variety of data sets relating to volcanic hazards. It requires no background in geoscience or archaeology and is aimed at students from both the physical sciences and the humanities, from high school through freshman year.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This is a role-playing activity about the dioxin debate between Dr. Barry Commoner and Dr. Robert Brown about the resource recovery plant in Ames, Iowa, and the Nunavut Inuit. It addresses issues of environmental justice, risk assessment, and ideology in relation to the management of solid waste.

The goal of this exercise is to illustrate how each municipality needs to have a energy portfolio that is specific to their needs.

The students analyze a spreadsheet that links % of energy types to 6 output categories; cost, environmental impact, NIMBY, and three types of industrial emissions. As the students input % values for each energy type the overall value of each output category is calculated.

The challenge is for the students to come up with energy plans for multiple cities. Each of these cities would have different limits on either the maximum % of an energy type or one of the specific categories.

Example: Detroit, Michigan would use a low cap on the cost category so their energy plan would need to be very affordable. Seattle, Washington would only allow for 2-3% solar because climactic conditions don't favor solar energy.

For the last portion of the activity the students would come up with a plan for their own town and then be able to look up the current plan at https://www.epa.gov/egrid/power-profiler#/. They could then discuss how their plan and the currently implemented plan compare.

Students use field lab periods to construct a composite stratigraphic section of the area surrounding their campus.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Your objective is to locate an earthquake and measure its Richter magnitude using real data recorded by seismographs.

Step one: Point your web browser to Virtual Earthquake to start
Step two: Read the instructions on that page, select an earthquake, and click on Submit Choice.
Step three: View the seismograms, measure S-P intervals, convert them, determine the distances from the earthquake to the 3 stations using a chart provided on the page, and compare your results with the real epicenter. If you get an "Ooops" or "you are close". you have to re-measure the S-P intervals and the distances.
Step four: After the earthquake is located, go on to determine its Richter magnitude.
Step five: Get yourself certificated as a "Virtual Seismologist". Print out the page which contains the Certificate and the Final Data Summary that shows what you have entered. Turn in this page with your name and ID at the top to receiver credit.

Uses online and/or real-time data
Has minimal/no quantitative component

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Students analyze data on temperature and precipitation collected from 26 different Long Term Ecological Research sites and compare them with annual net primary productivity. The students then form an ecological rule to explain their results.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

The goal of long-term laboratory projects is to allow students to apply newly learned concepts and methods to real-world problems and thereby add value to the laboratory learning experience. Effective projects are those that are carefully planned, have clearly defined learning objectives and reasonable workload and final product expectations. Exercises vary in length and content depending upon learning goals, class size, available resources, methodology and scheduling concerns (e.g. beginning or end of course, available class time or time of year). Each project begins with an introduction in which a geological question is posed and students are presented with background information, published reference material and guidelines for effective scientific writing.

The introductory presentations are followed by group discussions to formulate the hypothesis(es) to be tested and determine the experimental design, with due consideration to the constraints listed above. It is important that students understand their individual responsibilities and their role in the larger group effort. In the following weeks, students are provided with the materials and methods they need to conduct each phase of the project. Students collect and process their own data whenever possible. Preferably this phase involves field description and collection of samples for later lab analysis but previously collected sediment or rock cores or samples may also be used. Data analysis is a class-wide effort with each student or student team contributing a component to a larger class-wide database. Workload expectations must be clearly defined and students must conform to a tight timeframe during the analysis portion of the exercise so that the final database is complete and available on schedule. Interim deadlines for data components generally help students stay on schedule during this phase. Data synthesis and final report preparation are individual efforts. Students are encouraged to be creative in the interpretation and presentation of their results but are warned not to draw conclusions that cannot be supported by their data.

Examples of long-term projects that have been used for sedimentology at SUNY Plattsburgh include:
Particle shape analysis of beach and fluvial gravel in the Champlain Valley
Provenance of glacial till in the Champlain Valley and northeastern Adirondack Mountain region
Sedimentology, stratigraphy and landslide susceptibility of proglacial lake and marine deposits on the Lake Champlain lakeshore in Plattsburgh, NY
Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Potsdam Sandstone in the Champlain Valley
Sedimentological evidence for breakout floods in proglacial lake and marine deposits in the Champlain Valley

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Students research an organism/commodity in the colonial period of American history, and write a first-person narrative/autobiography of its history as European settlers reshaped the environment (mental and physical) of North America.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Students will receive a written material describing how various well logs can be used in a synergistic way to yield more useful information about possible gas presence in sedimentary layers.

A detailed description of the method is done by the instructor and an example is fully worked in class. Then, either all students receive Figure 3 as a homework or (if possible) each student will receive an individual set of logs. For the latter situation, the student will then make an oral presentation of his/her findings and a class discussion will follow under instructor's guidance. Uses online and/or real-time data Addresses student fear of quantitative aspect and/or inadequate quantitative skills Uses geophysics to solve problems in other fields

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

College-level adaptation of the Earth Exploration Toolbook chapter. Students work with a free GIS program, ArcVoyager SE, to explore earthquake data and plate tectonics.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

Preparation for this activity involves background lectures, readings, and prior exercises related to latitude, longitude, the relationship between longitude and time, seasons and solar declination, global atmospheric circulation, and global currents. In class, students work in small groups to complete a "voyage" around the North Atlantic Ocean using their prior knowledge, maps of winds and currents from their text, their notes, and a globe. This activity gives students practice using maps, discerning latitude and longitude using time and seasonal information, and using characteristics of global winds and currents to find their location.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This is a guided practice activity that uses the "big ideas" of systems thinking and sustainability to introduce Information Literacy Threshold Concepts. The IL threshold concepts in this assignment are "Scholarship as Conversation" and "Research as Inquiry." In groups and then as a class, students map the ideas in an assigned reading and connect those ideas using systems thinking. Students will then use the concept map to direct their research inquiry.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this lab students will explore first hand what sorts of processes occur when scientists and engineers try to identify a landing site for a mission to Mars. This will mimic the process used to select the MER rover landing sites, and what will be used for future missions. First, students briefly become a planetary geologist, engineer or astrobiologist. Second, from the point of view the students feel is appropriate for their new position, and using the same constraints employed by the scientific teams preparing for forthcoming Mars missions, students will identify their top list of candidate landing sites and submit a short report describing them to me by the following class period. Third, in the following class period, all three groups of experts will work together to narrow down the site selection to a top candidate. Where would you send the next lander if the choice was up to you?
Each student group, constituted randomly, is provided with the appropriate role-playing sheet from the lab assignment.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)