This activity is part of a larger module that introduces students to two different ways to model chemical diffusion in minerals: 1) 1D diffusion in Excel using finite differences and 2) 1D diffusion in MATLAB using the same equations. It is designed to help students apply diffusion equations derived previously in class to understand natural zonation of elements in minerals. The students build the model first in Excel, and then in MATLAB to obtain the timescales of diffusive re-equilibration related to magma storage and transport at K����lauea Volcano, Hawai'i. The major goals are to help students transition from visual platforms (e.g., Excel) to writing computer code (e.g., in MATLAB), implementing for loops for iterative calculations, and thinking about how the geologic parameters (temperature, pressure, fO2) affect the model results.

This module introduces students to the basics behind translation of a messenger RNA sequence into protein. In addition to text and movies, there are interactive shockwave animations that allow students to move ribosomes and tRNAs to perform translation.

Lectures and previous brief assignments dealt with plate tectonics, earthquakes, volcanoes and tsunamis. For the assignment, students read several articles describing potential sources for tsunamis on the east coast, including volcanic eruptions on the Canary Islands, underwater landslides off the shelf, and earthquakes. Their task is to summarize these potential sources, evaluate the risk of a tsunami on the east coast, and compare them with previously discussed risks for the west coast and Hawaii.

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Tá Falado includes 46 podcast lessons on the pronunciation and grammar of Portuguese, specifically designed to help those who already speak Spanish. The lessons are built around Portuguese dialogs that are repeated in Spanish, providing a direct comparison of the two languages. All lessons include downloadable PDF files with the transcripts and notes, mp3 audio files, and blog discussions. Additionally all of the dialogs present cultural scenarios that illustrate differences between North American and Brazilian culture.

Understanding Biodiversity presents an overview of biodiversity, its importance and relevance to humans, all living things, and the Earth. It includes species pages and a template to engage and involve students in real-life data collection.

This activity will show why our present ultra consumption way of life is not sustainable and must be changed if the human race is to survive long term. The Story of Stuff is shocking but very informative. Its purpose is to wake people up to the perilous situation we are in and take action individually or collective to make the necessary and difficult changes needed.

A jigsaw approach encourages collaboration, co-operation, and avoids a lecture-based approach to delivering content. Each student becomes an expert and also must rely on others to complete their understanding. Students recognize the importance of each individual process, and how each process fits into the rather complex integrated carbon cycle. Additional processes can be added for advanced classes including long-term processes such as sedimentation and burial in rocks.

Nuts and Bolts;
There are five fundamental processes involved in the short-term terrestrial organic carbon cycle: photosynthesis, respiration, feeding, death, and decomposition. The objective of this exercise is to have each student become an expert in one of these five processes, and then explain to others in their small group the essentials of this process.

Before class, each student is asked to research and fully understand one aspect of the carbon cycle. They write one to two pages fully describing this process, including answering the following questions:

- Where does this process occur in the biosphere and geosphere?
- What is the correct chemical equation to describe the process?
- What is the rate of the process, with correct units?
- What is the residence time of carbon in the reservoir that leads to this process?
- How does this process affect or control atmospheric CO2?

In class, the now expert students first consult with other classmates who have studied the same process to strengthen and deepen their understanding. They then form teams of five students and explain to other students their particular process. In exchange, other students explain additional aspects of the carbon cycle. Finally, one or two groups presents to the entire class, with class discussion. At the end, all students develop a comprehensive understanding of the integrated organic C cycle.

In a hands-on exploration, students will learn to describe and quantify the porosity and permeability of soil models representative of both agricultural and natural environments. Students will use this information to relate the effects of various agricultural methods on soil porosity and permeability in an exercise that requires modeling the role of a soil assessment expert. Instructors are provided with directions for collecting or assembling simple soil models.

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To prepare for this reflection, students are assigned to do background reading on the organization they will/wish to work with for the Service Learning component of the course. Students then are guided into a reflection with the following questions:

Why should you know about the people or organization with whom you'll be working?
Why do you think this partner was chosen?
After reading about the partner organization, how would you like to contribute to their work, (what kind of support would you give and/or project would you do?) How does it your idea/project relate to the content of the course and the organization mission and goals?
What are you hoping to learn from the collaboration/ project?
What do you hope to have gained from this project and
What do you think your service-learning partner hopes to have gained after completion of this project?

The assignment also gives students practice in eliciting their own thoughts and reflections when approaching a new experience

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Several times over the past 80 years, the Egyptians have considered developing a power generating station tens of meters below sea level in the Qattara Depression using the difference in head between sea level and the Qattara Depression to generate electrical power. The key to the longevity of the system is the fact that evaporation could balance influx so that the resulting lake in the Depression could be stabilized at a constant level. The last time the study was done, GIS computer software and satellite imaging and elevation data weren't available.

The story line for the students is that the Egyptian government has just hired them to use modern GIS technology to reassess the viability of the project. They want them to 1) provide accurate projections for how much water could be piped from the Med and balanced by lake evaporation at various configurations, 2) estimate how much power could be generated, 3) recommend an optimum configuration for lake level, power station location, holding pond location, and channel/tunnel location, and 4) recommend whether the government should proceed with bidding out a cost estimate for the system.

The four documents posted for downloading consist of a the main project assignment, a preparatory assignment, and several in-class activities that students worked on together. Overall, though, this is not a group project - students work individually.

You can also download a GIS Primer (Acrobat (PDF) PRIVATE FILE 1.2MB Mar30 10) that we have written, which is a simple GIS "how-to" manual for tasks including those used in this exercise.

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In this exercise, students use DEMS of the Nile valley plus georeferenced geologic maps to make observations first about the changes in floodplain width from Khartoum northward to the Mediterranean and then about correlations between floodplain width and bedrock geology. They write an analysis paragraph offering an explanation for their observations about the correlations they observed and summarizing what they have concluded about the influence of bedrock geology on the development and location of Ancient Egypt. They each create an ArcMap to illustrate their observations and interpretations.

You can also download a GIS Primer (Acrobat (PDF) PRIVATE FILE 1.2MB Mar30 10) that we have written, which is a simple GIS "how-to" manual for tasks including those used in this exercise.

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In 1978, the Egyptians constructed a canal known as the Toshka Spillway from Lake Nasser into a low area to the west to allow spillover of Lake Nasser water. Despite the fact that the spillway was created in 1978, it wasn't until the late 1990s that Lake Nasser actually filled up to the level of the spillway canal and the overflow lakes began to form. In November of 1998, US astronauts orbiting in the Space Shuttle noticed the lakes filling for the first time, and they have had water in them ever since.

Egypt has embarked on a long-term and far-reaching irrigation plan to create habitable land away from the Nile River Valley. The Toshka Lakes are not, however, a formal part of the project. One of the main points of the exercise is to have students use both their knowledge of Saharan hydrogeology and GIS analyses to evaluate whether the Egyptians are wise not to use the lakes as part of the proposed system of water distribution.

In this exercise, students download and prepare their own SRTM DEMs and learn how to determine areas and volumes using ArcGIS. They can then ask questions and use ArcGIS to determine the answers. How much water is in the Toshka Lakes? What happens if Lake Nasser rises and more water flows down the canal? Will more lakes form, or will the lakes that are there just get bigger? How much water might be evaporating from the lake surfaces? How much water has to flow down the canal to keep the lakes at a particular level? What might happen as the annual Nile flood fluctuates from year to year?

The document posted for downloading contains two homework assignments, two in-class activities, and a wrap-up assignment.
You can also download a GIS Primer (Acrobat (PDF) PRIVATE FILE 1.2MB Mar30 10) that we have written, which is a simple GIS "how-to" manual for tasks including those used in this exercise.

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These assignments are adaptations of field labs to incorporate writing. For each field lab, students write a partial geologic report, consisting of a description (or "Structural Data") section, an interpretation section, and appropriate supporting figures (potentially including stereonets, field sketches, maps, cross-sections, etc.).
Handouts given at the beginning of lab list: the goals to be accomplished in the field (measurement of foliations and lineations, measurement of bedding around a fold, description of structures, field sketches, etc.),
the figures expected in the write-up (stereonets, field sketches, etc.),
a list of information to include in the description section, and a list of questions to address in the interpretation section. Depending on the field area, students may be given two or more competing models to test in the field or may be asked to relate descriptive analysis to kinematic or mechanical analysis. This adaptation can be used for field labs at all levels, from labs designed to review field techniques and identify basic types of secondary structures to labs that simulate research experience. This type of write-up improves student writing by giving students practice using terminology and describing spatial relationships, and improves critical thinking skills by requiring written interpretation of structural data.

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Below is just one example of the field based problems that my class has undertaken. We undertake a number of other projects that are described briefly in the attached document. I provide students similar documentation for the other projects.

Attached are the following documents:
1) Project proposal (containing: over of potential types of projects, proposal requirements, survey design considerations, project background material and outline of project)
2) Conducting the field surveys
3) Final project (and possible variations)

Students conduct a field geophysical study on the Lake Superior State University campus that was a U.S. military camp in the 1950's and 1960's. There are concerns as to whether the military left anything buried behind such as underground storage tanks, unexploded ordinances, buried drums, etc. The study area is the likely location of the next campus housing building. After undertaking this study we were contacted by the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality to see our results which students presented to them. The US Army Corps of Engineers and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality are now using our results as they examine what might have been left behind at the facility. Students were excited about undertaking a "real study" answering an important question where the results were unknown to anyone a head of time.

Overview of project design

1) a. Students design the geophysical survey (written and oral presentation) including which instruments to use and why, what are the survey characteristics (I provide guidelines for survey time constraints)
b. Students must create models of expected anomalies for each of the different instruments proposed
c. Students discuss and debate the merits of the various proposed geophysical techniques and survey characteristics
2) Students carry out the field geophysical survey as teams
3) Students use computers to process, display, model and interpret the geophysical data they collect
4) Students present results of the study both orally and in a written form (e.g., technical report, scientific paper, scientific poster, etc. depending on year and other projects)

Addresses student fear of quantitative aspect and/or inadequate quantitative skills

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Southwest Utah straddles the transition from the Colorado Plateau to the Basin and Range physiographic province. This transition also coincides with the leading edge of the Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary Sevier orogeny. A 3-D Geologic Map of the St. George 30x60 Quadrangle is used in Google to analyze overprinted compressional and extensional structures within an important geologic transition.

Outcomes:
Increase student ability to
1. describe the occurrence and geometric characteristics of structures.
2. gain experience reading geologic maps.
3. collect, analyze, and display quantitative structural data.
4. gather regional kinematic and dynamic information from structures.
5. Summarize findings in a scientific analysis
6. work with others to organize data, analyses, figures, and conclusions into a scientific report.

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Introduces the ethical dimension of finding, using, and sharing images in the context of the undergraduate research assignment. Students will understand the ethical aspects of finding, using, and sharing images; will engage with copyright issues and concepts of intellectual property; and will find and analyze specific images as examples.

Each group of three students must use topographic maps to try to answer three local geologic problems involving alluvial fans, alpine glaciers and coastal landscapes. The students must read background information, develop hypotheses, make measurements using topographic maps to test the hypotheses.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Addresses student fear of quantitative aspect and/or inadequate quantitative skills

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This lab uses a guided GIS worksheet to help new Geomorph students to investigate a basic problem about rivers: how do channels migrate.

This activity asks students who are soon to enter an introductory geology course at the college level to collect a local rock from their home, vacation locale, or elsewhere prior to the course start date and do a ROCKD local query (or MacroStrat search) on the bedrock unit description. Both the rock and the description from the mobile and web applications will be re-visited throughout the semester's course. Formal components of the activity will be an initial observation and writing assignment at the course's start, and then a more extensive writing and ROCKD and MacroStrat research assignment at the course's end.

Activity outcomes include:
Fluency in general rock descriptive terminology
Ability to read and use geologic maps
Ability to interpret geological sample details toward understanding earth history
Ability to identify geological sample details toward understanding economic value of rock types
Ability to identify geological sample details toward understanding surface landscape characteristics and local environmental issues

About every two weeks I ask each student in my introductory course to
write brief responses to questions I pose to them. They write these in
an e-Journal, a part of the blog function of BlackBoard. My laboratory
instructor and I use their responses to learn about the background and
interests of students in the class, to assess how well they are
learning, to determine if group work is going well, and to give us
ideas for improving the course.

The following two eJournal question sets are part of a course, Marine Environmental
Geology, a non-majors science course that has a significant service
learning component. The semester long service learning projects that
accompany this course require constant monitoring.

Assessing Service Learning Project Work The set of questions just below
is designed to have students think outside the group context about what
concrete steps need to be done to finish the work of their service
learning project. We read these and respond very quickly, supporting
good ideas. During the following week we encourage each group to come
together and share what they have written in Part 1. Writing their
thoughts down and having them supported by faculty helps some students
who normally don't express their ideas in a group to try out their
ideas with their peers.

The second question asks the student to reflect upon their own work and
work effort and helps us learn if there are any potential problems
within groups.

This week's e-journal is a follow-up to the presentations & lab we
did this week. The first part, goals & help needed, should be
written as a bulleted list with concrete objectives. The second part
should be answered in brief paragraph format.

The data collection phase of the projects is complete, or for some
groups, almost complete. While project work will carry on independently
through the end of the semester, we only have one more week in lab
devoted to it.

Part 1

After reviewing where you stood at the time of your presentation and
what you accomplished in lab this week, what do you intend to do with
the remaining lab period? What analyses do you hope to complete before
you present your results to the class in November? What help do you
need to meet these objectives?

Part 2

How do you feel about your project at this point? What do you feel you
did well? Are there any places you think you could have done better,
either personally or as a team?

Assessing Mastery of Content and Concepts

Last year I used this question to learn what specific problems students
were having with course material before an exam. By asking them to use
"use textbook vocabulary and to use it precisely" I am forcing them to
dig into material and be very specific about what they don't
understand. Sometimes students will write a very careful paragraph and
at the end say, "I understand it now." That doesn't always happen, so
for the most part I see what gets voted for most frequently and weave
that into the next lecture.

Critical Concepts Question

Thus far I have covered topics in my lectures which depend on the
following Critical Concepts sections in your textbook

CC1 Density

CC4 Particle size/sinking

CC6 Salinity, temp, etc

Read through these sections and write about the one that you had the
greatest difficulty understanding. Be specific about what you don't
understand. Be very careful to use textbook vocabulary and to use it
precisely. Write no more than three paragraphs

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