This assignment is a 10-hour, out-of-class project where each student
designs and carries out an action plan to enhance sustainability.
Students select from a large suite of alternative actions, most of which
can be quantified for reductions in CO2 and energy consumption, as well
as in dollar savings.

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By far most field trips in structural geology and regional tectonics do NOT take place in large urban centers with a trip focus on mitigation of hazards. What is described here is an example of the instructional and learning opportunities associated with active tectonic examination of large population centers.

ACTIVE TECTONICS, HAZARDS, ACTIVE TECTONICS AND SOCIETY, URBAN GEOLOGY, EARTHQUAKES

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In the minerals and products activity, students match physical products with actual mineral samples, using observable properties as well as the minerals' chemical formulas and some products' ingredient lists.

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The discussion presented here is meant to augment, not replace, the pre-class reading, as well as to provide an introduction to concept maps.

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This short activity (10--15 minutes) for Unit 1 introduces students to the general relationship between economic development and resource use, and, particularly with the follow-up homework, the relationship among growing populations, increasing economic development, and natural resource extraction. The activity is intended to be completed by individuals or small groups but could also be used for a guided class discussion. This activity serves as a transition to Unit 2.

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During Activity 2.2, students download, organize, and analyze geoscience data sets of sea level trends, terrestrial ice sheet trends, and intensity of tropical cyclones as well as forecast models of atmospheric CO2 and temperature trends and sea level rise. Students utilize the methods of geoscience such as systems thinking and using multiple lines of evidence to determine possible relationships and feedbacks among the data sets. Students use this data to construct their argument from evidence for a position paper in Activity 2.3.

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In Activity 2.3, students make an argument from evidence to address the problem: "To what extent should we build or rebuild coastal communities?" Students work as a team to complete a graphic organizer. This task helps them organize an evidence-based position paper. Each student writes his or her own position paper.

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This activity is intended to fill the first part of a class period on mining and mining impacts. It is a hands-on activity in which students, in small groups, "mine" the blueberries or chocolate chips out of a muffin. This activity helps to review the reading materials and facilitate discussion about mining and mining methods, waste, beneficiation, landscape destruction, reclamation methods, and more.

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This activity focuses on the interrelationships of ore grades, economics, mining impacts/decisions, and other factors. It is intended as a small-group activity, where different groups of students work on one of three different parts, with classroom discussion as a follow-up.

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Even though students will read about sedimentary processes and the mineral resources thus formed, they will need some practice in order to truly grasp the concepts.

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Students will analyze data and answer questions regarding the weathering, erosion, and deposition responsible for concentrating shoreline titanium placer deposits in Florida.

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Students will research two types of salt deposits: solar salt (e.g., facilities in Bahamas) and rock salt (e.g., Heber City, Utah). Students will be able to compare and contrast the two types of salt deposits by creating a concept map.

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Reflective writing is be a valuable communication tool between instructor and student that fosters critical thinking. When combined with a better model of the scientific method (the AMI) than the "standard" linear model, learners gain a better understanding of the process of science.

Changes in rechargeable battery technology have dictated the supply and demand of commodities such as lithium, cobalt, cadmium, nickel, and lead. Students will study the changing technologies and other societal factors (such as human health) to see their impacts on mineral extraction and processing.

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This activity is based on the global supply and demand relationships of rare earth elements (REE). Students will work in small groups to analyze China's role in global REE production and supply, and how REE production, supply, and demand control REE price.

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Mined phosphorus is considered essential for agriculture, especially with the need to feed the ever growing population. However, there are consequences of phosphate mining and use, including pollution at mine sites and fertilizer processing plants, heavy metal accumulation in soil where fertilizers are used, national security issues intertwined with Morocco's dominance of the world supply, and eutrophication that comes with alteration of the phosphorus cycle. Students will consider these issues, their own roles in the problem, and possible solutions in this jigsaw activity.

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This activity asks students to investigate different aspects of gold mining and think critically about the perceived and real needs for this mineral resource as well as the impacts (both positive and negative) that both gold mining and recycling can have. It integrates concepts and terminology from earlier in the course into real-world situations and personal decision making.
This exercise is set up as a small-group jigsaw activity.

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This is an in-depth assignment to explore and write about the history of life as represented at the Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, New York. Students will examine several facets of paleontology: paleoecology, paleoclimate, geologic time, and mass extinctions.

This role-playing exercise introduces students to geology by having them examine rocks from the perspective of a child, a sculptor, a geologist or someone from another walk of life.

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At the beginning of the course, each student is assigned a unique blob - or a piece of material of a particular shape with specific material properties (density, bulk modulus, composition, viscosity, volatile content, etc) that is residing within the mantle at a specific environment (depth, pressure, temperature). Then as the semester continues as a topic is covered the student must assess (either quantitatively or qualitatively) what observable would be associated with their blob (for example, gravity anomalies, geoid anomalies, surface expressions, seismic tomography, phase transition topography). The student then develops a portfolio of their blob and its observables to then present at the end of the course with an explanation/interpretation for the source of the blob culiminating at building a geo-story around their anomaly.

Some blobs could be amorphous anomalies whereas other could have physical significance (though best not to tell the students ahead of time so they can make their own discovery as to what the blob is or isn't) such as subducted slabs at the CMB (or 660 km), plumes, lithospheric drip, lithospheric root, or a boring typical piece of the mantle.

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