This page presents a strategy for addressing a common climate misconception in the classroom, derived from The Debunking Handbook, by John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky. This material was created by faculty as part of the CLEAN Climate Communications Workshop, held in April, 2012.

Individual students have different ethical "lines." This class discussion proceeds with a series of prompts that presents a set of scenarios that explores ethical boundaries. Students discuss right and wrong actions with respect to a river and discuss why those actions are "right" or "wrong" as well as how their ethical viewpoints vary.

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Students will use the IRIS Earthquake Browser to assess the pattern of earthquakes in Arkansas before, during and after (>2011) fracking related wastewater injection. Students will use critical thinking skills to determine if earthquakes are related to fracking related activities.

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A workshop for enabling students to sit quietly and observantly in the natural world.

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Students will learn field sampling and laboratory techniques to utilize environmental DNA (eDNA) as an early detection tool for invasive or rare species, with a focus on zebra mussels.

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This page presents a strategy for addressing a common climate misconception in the classroom, derived from The Debunking Handbook, by John Cook and Stephan Lewandowsky. This material was created by faculty as part of the CLEAN Climate Communications Workshop, held in April, 2012.

Earth Scientists often work independently in laboratory or field situations, and may be confronted with ethical challenges at times when their is no external scrutiny of one's conduct. How can we best train students to "do the right thing" in accordance with professional ethical standards? A number of scenarios are presented so that students must consider the context, conduct, and consequences of their actions.

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The USGS Earthquake Hazards Program web site allows you to download earthquake data as an Excel spreadsheet from any area in the world over a specific time period and magnitude range. This is a fantastic resource that makes it possible to study any area you want and not be limited to canned data sets. It's also very easy to save the Excel files in a way that can be imported directly into ArcMap and then into ArcScene.

In this in-class activity, students download earthquake data from the Sumatra area and examine it first in Excel. They quickly observe that, even when they sort the spreadsheet in various ways, they can develop only a limited picture of the data. In the second part of the activity, students bring the data into ArcMap to portray it spatially, and they change the symbols to portray various attributes of the earthquakes. In the final part of the activity, students display the data in three dimensions in ArcScene. This latter is particularly powerful, because students can interactively rotate the ArcScene, which helps immensely in their abilities to visualize the depth distribution of quakes.

Although the activity focuses on Sumatra, the activity could easily be done for any area of the world. Later in the semester in this course, students download earthquake data from other areas in the world when they evaluate earthquake hazards in other regions.

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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This lab exercise utilizes a small (and relatively easy to make) wind tunnel with a fog tracer that helps students visualize the flow dynamics around obstacles. In this exercise the use of cylinders perpendicular to the flow allows for estimations of drag coefficients and visualization of different Reynolds number flow patterns. Wind tunnel instructions are included.

The goal of this activity is for to students to observe and quantify the inherent organization within the channel network of a single drainage basin (a la Horton, 1945). The students will use the contour-crenulation method to flesh out the channel network within a selected drainage basin. They will then use the Strahler system to deterime the stream order of each channel segment. They then measure and average various attributes (slope, length, etc.) of the channel segments, by stream order. These data will then be plotted on semi-log graph paper to illustrate the matematical relationships between channel attributes and stream order. This activity gives students practice in delineating drainage divides and channel networks on topographic maps, using map scales to measure distances on topographic maps, and graphing data using a semi-log format. In addition, they are asked to compare their "real-world" results against the classic "laws" of basin morphometry presented in their textbook. This permits a discussion of sample size and measurement error versus theoretical relationships presented in a textbook.
Designed for a geomorphology course

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This exercise begins with a field trip to the San Gabriel Mountain foothills near our campus. Students are given a set of topographic maps and asked to follow our progress as we hike into a small drainage basin in the Claremont Wilderness Park. Through interactive discussion, we explore regional landscape and the geomorphic form, function, and processes of a drainage basin system. Students are expected to complete their assignment on drainage basin analysis during the following week, working from the maps provided. Students are asked to identify the basic landscape units in the San Gabriel Mountain foothill region, delineate a set of drainage basins, and analyze the geomorphic characteristics of these basins using longitudinal profiles and morphometric indices. From this information, they are expected to draw basic conclusions about the geomorphic processes affecting this landscape system, and its relative state of equilibrium.
Designed for a geomorphology course

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This exercise is typically integrated with lecture during the first two days of a chapter on fluvial geomorphology.

Day 1:
The first day of class begins with a discussion of the components of a drainage basin and typical drainage basin patterns, including dendritic, parallel, trellis, rectangular, radial, annular, and multibasinal. After viewing the typical textbook diagrams of these drainage basin patterns, each student is given his/her own topographic map and a geologic map from the same region. The students are given the following instructions:

1.Write a one paragraph description of your study area, and include the following information:

Quad. name
Drainage basin pattern(s) -- in bold
Geological influence

2.Email the paragraph to me as an MS Word document by 9:00AM on [date -- next day]. I will read the paragraph, but I will not modify any wording, so make sure it is accurate and well-written.

The maps are usually distributed in the last 10 minutes of a 50-minute class period, so that the students have some time to get familiar with the maps and ask any questions that arise immediately. Recommended 7.5 minute quad.s for the exercise include:

dendritic: Effingham, IL; Alma, WI-MN
parallel: Ithaca West, NY; Antelope Peak, AZ
trellis: Waldron, AR
rectangular: Hillsboro, KY; Cumberland MD-PA-WV
radial: Mt. Rainer, WA
annular: Maverick Spring, WY
multibasinal: Whitwell, TN; Oolitic, IN

The Website http://rockyweb.cr.usgs.gov/outreach/featureindex.html is also a useful reference for other topographic maps.

Day 2:
On the second day of class, we discuss the initiation of channels and basin morphometry. After lecturing on topics like tractive force, micropiracy, cross-grading, and bifurcation, we discuss typical stream courses (i.e., insequent, consequent, subsequent, obsequent, and resequent). In the last 5 minutes of class, the paragraphs from the previous day are redistributed in such a way that every student has a paragraph written by one of their peers and a new set of maps. The students are given the following instructions:

1.Rewrite/edit what you have been given, if necessary, to emphasize the bolded drainage pattern.
2.Decide whether the stream patterns are representative of consequent, insequent, or subsequent stream courses.
3.Explain your reasoning using the geologic map.

Discuss the influence of the resistance of geologic materials on the stream course.
Discuss the influence of slope on the development of the stream course.

4.Email the paragraph to me as an MS Word document by 9:00AM on [date -- next day].

Once final paragraphs are submitted, they are redistributed to the entire class so that all students have a complete set of paragraphs describing a variety of drainage basin patterns and stream courses from a variety of geologic settings. Maps remain in the classroom for the duration of the term so that students can reference them if they choose to.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Has minimal/no quantitative component

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This activity has 3 maps with real stratigraphic data recorded adjacent to drill holes in the Illinois Basin. Students contour the structural data. They may also contour the associated thickness data or they can just look at the trends of the thickness data relative to the structures on their completed structure map.

This project is designed to give students valuable geophysical experience in conducting an environmental assessment of a real-world problem. A scenario is developed in which students work for "Viking Consulting, LLC" as an environmental geologist. The company has been hired by the City of Salem to assess an appropriate confined aqueous disposal (CAD) cell location for contaminated dredge spoils from a proposed dredging project of the South River, Salem, MA. Students utilize sub-bottom SONAR technology to calculate volume of dredge spoils and potential CAD cell locations and analyze which location can accommodate the contaminated material.

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At the University of Nebraska at Omaha, we have involved students in introductory Geology and Chemistry classes in an interdisciplinary study of drinking water quality. The goals of this project are to introduce the students to the scientific method, get them to actually "do" relevant science, and show how science affects their lives. We have also used this exercise to help some students overcome their fear of science by allowing them to actively learn science, rather than absorb it in a passive fashion.

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An analogy of the Earth's history to a cross-country drive.

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To demonstrate how unimportant inertia is in plate tectonic problems, as part of a lecture, we calculate momentum and moment of inertia of both a supertanker and a plate. A supertanker running into a dock will do more than a million times more damage than a plate. This activity addresses student misconceptions and has a small quantitative component.

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Students will individually produce a written introduction for a paper about the presence of drumlins on Mars - this introduction describes different models for drumlin formation on earth. To prepare for this assignment, students work in groups to do library research to find and read articles. The groups summarize their findings for each other. Each student then writes an introduction incorporating material from all the groups.
Designed for a geomorphology course
Uses geomorphology to solve problems in other fields

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This exercise allows students to quantify advection and dispersion of an environmentally-friendly dye as it floats down a local stream. Digital images of the resulting plume are captured using a "remote aerial tramway" setup by the instructor. Students develop a conceptual model of contaminant transport, test it, then quantify results using a variety of spatial and temporal methods. By the end of the exercise, students should have an appreciation for the complexity of contaminant transport, and appreciate the challenges hydrogeologists face as they monitor plumes in the subsurface.

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This is an in-class activity analyzing our drinking water reservoir, but would apply to any reservoir for which there are basic crest/elevation data and maps available.

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