In class, instructor provides background on groundwater-surface water interactions, defines the hyporheic zone, and describes why knowledge of the HZ is important for both hydrology and ecology.

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Average inquiry level: Guided inquiry
This activity introduces students to the basic concepts of Groundwater and its movement. The lab format includes hands-on activities that allow students to construct their own aquifers, manipulate these physical models, and evaluate the behavior of the system. Students move through a series of steps to develop a basic groundwater system, assess the behavior of water and contaminants within that system, and then consider the implications of those behaviors in a natural setting including in their own water sources.

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Groundwater accounts for only 0.75% of all water on Earth, yet it is a precious resource for the biosphere. In the United States, about one-fifth of the population taps into the groundwater reservoir of the hydrologic cycle as their main source of drinking water. However, worldwide, about 40% of all irrigation water comes from groundwater, and up to 80% of groundwater withdrawals are used for agriculture. Groundwater is also at risk and vulnerable to pollution, especially in areas with karst topography such as Tampa FL. Thus, the more people who understand the potential and the problems associated with groundwater, the better are the prospects for this resource.

Student materials for this exercise include a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with with data for dye tests and elevations, a .zip archive with two versions of the topographic map (PDF and JPG), as well as the instruction sheet. The exercise is divided into three parts.

In Part I, students study the Sulphur Springs topographic quadrangle and identify features of karst topography on the map. This part of the exercise also reviews basic groundwater terminology.

Part II involves transferring hydraulic head information from Microsoft Excel to a simplified sketch map of the quadrange and drawing contour lines on the potentiometric surface. Next, students use the contour lines to add arrows indicating the direction of groundwater flow. Finally, students apply their knowledge to determine which lakes could be affected by a toxic spill within the quadrangle.

In Part III, students study the results of dye tests in the Sulphur Springs quadrangle to analyze the flow of groundwater. They also use elevation data to construct a vertical cross section that illustrates the ground surface, the water table, and the potentiometric surface for the Floridan aquifer, and they relate the cross section to features on the topographic map.

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One topic I suggest to students is under the umbrella topic of Tectonics and Igneous Activity: Mt. Vesuvius. I expect the student group to research the area, explain WHY Mt. Vesuvius is there, what's gone on in the past, and evaluate whether or not they think the threat still exists. Once the physical world is addressed, I also enjoy when students discuss cultural aspects of the area. With this particular topic, we always hear about the 79AD eruption, and this adds a richness to each presentation.

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Many compounds crystallize rapidly from evaporating solutions, and many can be crystallized from melts. Because of this, it is possible to do simple crystallization experiments and to watch crystals grow over short times. Students can study several different compounds during one lab period. Crystal habit, growth zones, nucleation, deformation textures--students can examine many things quickly and easily.

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In a Global Environmental Politics class, I devoted several weeks to the different issues concerning the nature of contemporary global food systems. As part of their study of these systems, students partnered with Parsons Family Farm, an urban organic farm in Olympia, Washington. They spent 15-20 hours during the semester helping them grow food, which we subsequently donated to community food banks. This community-based activity provided a useful window into alternative agro-ecological food systems and helped them examine the different ways local farms are addressing environmental issues and hunger in their community.

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To prepare for this project, students read a journal article about the processes and products of chemical sedimentation and early diagenesis in saline pan environments (Lowenstein and Hardie, 1985). In class, students are given some handouts that tabluate various evaporite minerals and how water chemistry affects their formation and dissolution. A short slide show and video illustrate some different types of saline environments. Photos and samples guide a lecture on the formation of different types of evaporite minerals and how they form. For example, chevron halite crystals are generally large (cm-scale) and grow upward from the floor of a shallow (less than ~0.5 m) surface water body; cumulate halite crystals are smaller (typically mm-scale) and grow on the water-air interface and settle to the bottom, regardless of water depth. Randomly-oriented halite crystals can grow displacively from groundwater in mud or sand. The students learn that the specific sedimentology of halite can be used to trace past surface water depth and groundwater salinity. I also give examples of how past quantitative climate data, past chemical data and even past microbiologial data can be interpreted from evaporites. I emphasize how, in order to understand evaporites, one must think critically about sedimentology and geochemistry.

The students are told, at the end of this lecture, that their next lab period will focus on designing and setting up a research project on growing salt. They are encouraged to start thinking about a research question they can pose about evaporite sedimentology. At this time, I also tell them what materials are available for their use (tap water, distilled water, seawater, various types of saline water I have collected during field trips, various types of store-bought table and road salt (including iodized, non-iodized, sea salt, etc.). A variety of table salts can be purchased cheaply (~$1 - $2/carton) at almost any grocery store. If you live in a cold climate, most grocery stores and hardware stores also sell several types of road salt (~$3-$4/bag). The table salts are mostly Na and Cl; some have lesser amopunts of Ca and SO4. Some road salts have Ca, Mg, Na, and Cl. In my experience, one carton and one bag of each type will provide more than enough salt for a class of 15 students.

When it is time for lab to begin, I gather my students in my research lab (but could also be done in a classroom), where I show them the materials I have available to them: various types of salt, various types of water, and plastic, glass, and metal containers of various shapes (baby food glass jars, plastic take-out food containers, etc). My lab also contains a variety of other miscellaneous materials, such as sand, gravel, clay, morter and pestle, wooden sticks, metal stirring rods, string, plastic tubing, beakers, food coloring (shows fluid inclusion bands well and everyone loves playing with food coloring), etc. I remind the students that they have a microwave oven, a freezer, a lab hood, a windowsill with plenty of sunlight, and a heating vent that can be used, as well. I make available a few thermometers, pH strips (or pH meter), and a hand-held refractometer for measuring salinity. These analytical field instruments are not neccessary for this assignment to work. However, as instructor, I would encourage you to use anything available to you.

I ask each student to tell me informally of their research question/hypothesis and then I try to help them find any materials they need for their experiments. Here are some examples of student research questions that have been tested with this assignment: (1) Does temperature of water affect rate of haite/gypsum growth?: (2) Will evaporite minerals grown from a complex saline fluid form a "bulls eye" pattern as their textbook claims?; (3) Will halite grow preferentially on glass substrates versus wooden and plastic substrates?; (4) Will evaporation of salt water make halite cement equally well in a gravel, a sand, a clay?; (5) What conditions best produce large halite crystals?; (6) Does pH of water influence halite and gypsum precipitation or dissolution?

Students spend most of a lab period (2-3 hours) setting up their experiment. As part of this initial experimental set-up, they start to learn basic research skills such as labelling samples well, documenting starting conditions, and taking detailed notes.

The students are allowed to leave their experiments on a windowsill in my lab or our classroom, on a radiator, in a lab fume hood, or in a lab refridgerator or freezer, depending upon the nature of the particular experiment. I encourage the students to check their samples on a daily basis and remind them to record their observations each time they check their experiment.

I give the students an assignment sheet that details the final lab report requirements. Most students will have results in 2-3 weeks, but some experiments may last up to 4-5 weeks. For this reason, I plan for this lab assignment to be started in the middle of the semester (which works well if your syllabus, like mine, calls for weathering, physical sedimentology, siliciclastics, and carbonates to be covered in the first 6-8 weeks of class; evaporites follow well after carbonates). The final lab report is not due until the end of the semester so that all students have time to bring their expermient to completion, make interpretations, and write their lab report.

At the end of the semester, depending on the number of students and time permitted, I ask the students to informally tell the class about their experiment and show the results. This has worked well for me. However, even in semesters in which we have not done this, the students still become familiar with each other's projects. On the initial experiment day, the students informally share their ideas. As students come to check on their own experiiments periodically, they usually look in on their classmates' experiments as well.

Students tell me that this is one of their favorite lab exercises. It encourages critical thinking and shows the importance of experimentation in science. In addition, I feel as if the students leave my course knowing more about evaporites than the average geologist.

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A series of spread sheets have been set up to provide a framework of observations and questions as a "guided discovery" exercise to clearly demonstrate the observations that a master petrographer would make. The observation of a thin section is broken down into a series of manageable tasks: reconnaissance overview of the thin section at low power; followed by creation of a systematic inventory of the rock-forming minerals (stable mineral paragenesis), alteration phases, and accessory minerals; and finally, analysis of the textures of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.

Comprehensive lists of a) optical determinations, and b) textural features are provided as "cues" to the student to help focus attention on the full range of observations that could or should be made towards a comprehensive petrographic analysis of the thin section. These sheets are organized to include:

Consideration of the geologic context of the sample: What is the geologic setting where the rock was collected? What is the rock type (if known), or at least is it igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic? This type of contextual information will help guide you to interpret what minerals are likely to be present (or excluded) in the sample
Mineral Optics (identification of mineral phases in thin section.

Observations at low power in plane and cross polarized light.
Systematic characterization of the (stable) rock-forming minerals
Identification of a) secondary or replacement minerals, and b) important accessory minerals;

Description and Interpretation of Rock Textures

Igneous rocks
Clastic Sedimentary rocks
Non-clastic Sedimentary rocks (carbonates)
Metamorphic rocks

Applications; can these minerals/assemblages/textures be used to determine source area, physical conditions (thermobarometry), geo- or thermochronology, and other useful geologic information?

Initially, use of these spread sheets will appear to be prescriptive. However, given the complexity observed in Nature, no single set of questions can be universally applied to all types of samples. So, the steps and observations represented in these spread sheets provide a general framework--a place to start--and the lists of optical properties and textures are meant to be a reminder to students about the types of observations that should be made. Students can use these spread sheets as a guide to make decisions about what is important and useful for the overall interpretation.
Metacognitive components of the activity

Students derive an awareness of their own learning processes by considering "what" they are doing and "why" they are performing certain operations on the petrographic microscope.
Students monitor their own progress by considering a) what they expect to find based on geologic contexts, b) are their observations and interpretations consistent with what can (or cannot) occur in Nature, and
Adjust their learning strategies to accomodate new lines of evidence towards formulation of internally consistent (if not "correct") observations and interpretations of the thin section.

Metacognitive goals for this activity:
The first encounter with an unknown thin section can be both confusing and overwhelming: Where do I start? What should I look for? How should I proceed? How will I know if I'm doing the right thing, and making the right observations?....

The purpose of this exercise is to "unpack" the steps taken by a master petrographer, to describe "what" observations can be made, and explain "why" these steps should be taken, what the utility or significance of the observations is, and how these observations can be appropriately interpreted (often these observations are done instantaneously in the mind of the petrographer, but in this exercise we try to explicitly outline these steps). With practice and experience these steps will become second nature. The goal of this exercise is to help students master the art of petrography so that they can independently do petrographic analysis of any rock from any context.
Assessing students' metacognition
In the course of teaching petrography in my regular coursework, I find that I continually articulate to students (one at a time) what I am doing (and why), what I am seeing (and they may or may not be seeing the same thing), why certain relationships are to be expected or prohibited in Nature (by considering the larger geologic context). The development of these guided discovery activities is an attempt to clearly articulate to all students the steps that are routinely taken in the petrographic analysis of a thin section. The goal is to more efficiently and effectively get students past the "mechanical" stages of mineral identification and textural descriptions, and help them to begin to develop higher order thinking skills of application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

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This is a sequence of assignments for my Structural Geology course that guides students through the process of critically reading and analyzing scientific journal articles. For each article, I outline the general questions they should try to answer as they read any journal article, then give specific versions of each of those questions for the particular article assigned. For the last article, I leave it to the students to figure out what the specific versions of the questions would be for that article. The general questions are:

1. What basic research question are the authors trying to answer?
2. What makes that research question significant? (That is, why try to answer that question? Why does it matter?)
3. What data did the authors collect?
4. What is the authors' interpretation of their data?
5. Do you think that the data they collected supports their conclusions? Why or why not?

While the handouts below are specific to the articles we read in my class, these questions could be re-framed for any scientific journal articles that you would like your students to read and understand.

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In this activity students work in groups to investigate the problem of Gulf of Mexico hypoxia before developing mitigation strategies based on local contriubtions to the problem. The students present their ideas in a public meeting debate format from which a solution must be selected by the entire class.

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Students are presented with a scenario (problem) to recommend whether the Gulf Stream is responsible for keeping Europe warm and the potential effects if polar ice were to continue melting. The students work in small groups and discuss the problem and identify the issue. They then list everything they know about the issue and develop a problem statement. They then ask what they need to know to solve the problem and search the Internet data sites, etc., and analyze the information gathered. They complete the activity by preparing an individual report and PowerPoint presentation where they make a recommendation or other appropriate resolution of the problem based on the data, visualizations, and background information.

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Prior to this homework assignment, students will have been exposed (for ~2-3 in class activities and lectures) to general concepts in plate tectonics, plate boundaries, hot spot volcanoes, use of earthquake/volcano trends at plate boundaries, as well as GPS as a modern use to document plate motion. Students receive this activity as a homework assignment to be completed outside of class. Their task is to use provided topographic/bathymetric data, earthquake and volcano distribution, GPS data, as well as ocean floor and hot spot age trends to characterize plate motion in modern, future, and ancient plate boundaries. This is a three-part exercise that involves a modern plate boundary study form the eastern margin of the Pacific plate, a potential future plate boundary in eastern Africa, and a identification of possible ancient plate boundaries in the Eurasian plate.

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Teaching sustainability through Habitat for Humanity.

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Compiled by Kyle Gray, University of Akron, 'krg10@uakron.edu' and David N. Steer, University of Akron, 'steer@uakron.edu'

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In this activity, students create and interpret a water table contour map. Students utilize groundwater well elevations and the depth to the water table at each well to determine the water table elevation at each well location. Then they utilize that information to create a contour map of the water table and determine the direction of groundwater flow.

A hands-on lab to explore Superfund, Toxics Release Inventory and TOXMAP online data to examine geographies of hazardous waste, toxic releases into the environment and their connections with socio-economic, environmental and health impacts. The lab includes directed and self-directed components.

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Students first study the movement of water in aquifers through a lecture on Darcy's flow experiment. Then they practice applying the concepts of hydraulic conductivity and head differentials to 1 dimensional column examples. Next they use flow simulators to view flow through a cross section of an aquifer model. This activity is the final piece in the development of the idea of head driven flow. Students are given data about the thickness and head values of an aquifer member. They plot the aquifer thickness and potentiometric surface then determine the flow direction and estimate the groundwater flow velocity.

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Minerals are inorganic chemical compounds with a wide range of physical and chemical properties. Geologists frequently measure and observe properties such as hardness, specific gravity, color, etc. Unfortunately, students usually view these properties simply as tools for identifying unknown mineral specimens. One of the objectives of this exercise is to make students aware of the fact that minerals have many additional properties that can be measured, and that all of the physical and chemical properties of minerals have important applications beyond that of simple mineral identification.
Please do not let the title of this exercise scare you away. Introducing students to thermodynamics is not the primary objective. Getting students to "do" science - to observe, record, and interpret experimental data - is the primary goal. Heat capacity just happens to be a good vehicle for this purpose.

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This exercise follows several class lectures and reading assignments that focus on solar energy fluxes, wind, and ocean circulation as separate components. Students are split into small groups (2-4 depending on class size) and are asked to answer the questions presented based on the graphed data. Student groups are given approximately 20 minutes to discuss their answers. This is followed by instructor moderated discussion of the different group answers in the context of the role of heat as the engine of the climate system. Most students have little background in graph interpretation (especially understanding negative values) and the small group format creates a less-threatening peer environment which helps to involve all students in the exercise. The group discussion provides a great lead in for further lecture on interactions between different elements in the global climate system in following class periods and assignments.

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The is a curriculum module from the project Data Sets and Inquiry in Geoscience Education (DIGS). The module consists of a week-long unit and two-day performance assessment in which students apply the inquiry skills to problem-based investigations of urban micro-climates. The unit and performance assessment present semi-parallel tasks but about different cities (Phoenix and Chicago).

Sudents draw conclusions about the extent to which multiple decades of temperature data about Phoenix suggest that a shift in local climate is taking place as opposed to exhibiting nothing more than natural variability. The data are from the Global Climate Historical Network (GHCN) database. GHCN is a large, multi-year, international project to measure temperature, precipitation, and air pressure from near the ground. Each monthly maximum and minimum temperature is the highest and lowest temperature reading for the month, measured in Celsius. In Phoenix and in most other places, the temperature data are collected at local airports. The performance assessment for this module requires that students apply the methods and findings from the investigation of the climate data for Phoenix to climate data for Chicago. The Chicago data shows less evidence of trends in temperature change, and this is most evident comparing the night-time minimum temperature fluctuations between the two cities. Chicago also exhibits less increase in urban development and population growth than does Phoenix. In contrast to the curriculum unit, which primarily uses constructed-response tasks to encourage student explanation and discussion, the climate assessment tasks pose explicit selected- and constructed-response questions to ensure that the items elicit the intended thinking and hence provide evidence of the targeted standards-aligned skills and understandings.

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