This short, pedagogically flexible activity guides students to answer six questions about …
This short, pedagogically flexible activity guides students to answer six questions about the radiative energy budget of the earth as a whole. The activity gives students practice applying basic physical principles to observations and raises a question that can motivate investigation of the greenhouse effect.
Earth's temperature has increased over the past 120 years. Explore the interactions …
Earth's temperature has increased over the past 120 years. Explore the interactions between factors that affect Earth's climate. Explore temperature data from ice cores, sediments, and satellites and greenhouse gas data from atmospheric measurements. Run experiments with computer-based models to discern the interactions between Earth's atmosphere, surface, and ocean. You will not be able to answer the module's framing question at the end of the module, but you will be able to explain how scientists can be certain that Earth is warming while not being entirely certain about how much Earth will warm.
In this investigation, students make observations about how water behaves connecting those …
In this investigation, students make observations about how water behaves connecting those observations to known properties of water. They explore why water is so important for life, how it is different from other liquids, why the components of water (hydrogen and oxygen are important), and how electron distribution affects observations of water. This investigation builds towards NGSS PE: HS-PS1-3.
During this activity, students learn how oil is formed and where in …
During this activity, students learn how oil is formed and where in the Earth we find it. Students take a core sample to look for oil in a model of the Earth. They analyze their sample and make an informed decision as to whether or not they should "drill for oil" in a specific location.
Given the extensive literature on the composition and evolution of continental crust …
Given the extensive literature on the composition and evolution of continental crust there are a number of teaching strategies that can be employed to encourage active learning by students. A critical reading of this collection of articles will provide students with a good opportunity to evaluate the chemical isotopic and physical evidence that has led to the development of these models of continental crustal growth. These instructional approaches build on recommendations from Project 2061, Science for all Americans: 1) Start with questions about nature. 2) Engage students actively. 3) Concentrate onthe collection and use of evidence. 4) Provide historical perspectives. 5) Use a team approach. 6) Do not separate knowing from finding out. A compilation from the primary literature has been provided (see the reference list at the end of this web page: http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlyearth/questions/crust.html), along with guiding questions for deeper exploration and discovery. Recommended instructional methods include: jigsaw method, role playing or debates (have each student play the role of Richard Armstrong, Ross Taylor, William Fyfe...), reading the primary literature, or problem-based learning (which is purposefully ambiguous and addresses questions that require independent discovery).
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In this assignment students use real world data to solve an applied …
In this assignment students use real world data to solve an applied problem in geomorphology. They use ArcGIS and time sequential aerial photography to determine when a marina on Lake Mead must be moved to avoid problems of sedimentation related to a major drawdown of the lake. Students must estimate the rate of delta progradation and come up with a timeframe for when the marina will become unusable. It is set up as a realistic consulting project, based on a project completed by the author.
In small groups, students "invent" a way to figure out the location …
In small groups, students "invent" a way to figure out the location of a house, based on the walking times of two housemates to various locations near their house. This cover story is an analogy for using the arrival time differences between P and S waves to locate an earthquake epicenter. Students then create and compare graphs analogous to a Jeffreys-Bullen diagram and come up with a generalized way to use this type of graph to find distances. The activity prepares students for learning how to locate an epicenter and makes the relationship between distance and arrival times meaningful, since they have to figure out how to use arrival time differences to estimate distance.
This activity will help students to explore why hurricanes/typhoons spin counterclockwise in …
This activity will help students to explore why hurricanes/typhoons spin counterclockwise in the Northern Hemisphere (and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere). They will explore how air moves in high and low pressure systems and how the flow of air is affected by the spinning of the Earth.
Smog events have become less common in the United States since the …
Smog events have become less common in the United States since the Clean Air Acts went into effect. Yet there are still poor air quality events in some areas of the country. Other regions of the world have many more bad air days. What causes poor air quality? Explore the question, will the air be clean enough to breathe? You will be guided through the analysis of models and real-world data as you explore the interactions of factors that affect a region's air quality. You will not be able to answer the module's framing question at the end of the module, but you will be able to predict the effect of human development on a region's air quality.
Fresh water is necessary for life on land, but it is not …
Fresh water is necessary for life on land, but it is not evenly distributed around the world. Explore the distribution and uses of fresh water on Earth. Explore models of porosity and permeability to determine how water moves underground. Run experiments with computer-based models to determine how human actions affect the supply of fresh water. You will not be able to answer the module's framing question at the end of the module, but you will be able to explain how humans can preserve supplies of fresh water for the future.
In this assignment, students evaluate depositional and erosional landforms created by wind …
In this assignment, students evaluate depositional and erosional landforms created by wind processes. This exercise looks at sand dune and yardang features using satellite images and topographic maps in an online GIS.
Sea surface temperature is a critical variable that determines biogeographic and distribution …
Sea surface temperature is a critical variable that determines biogeographic and distribution patterns of marine organisms. Changes in temperature influence species reproduction and survival and can affect the spread of invasive species spread and marine diseases. As a result SST is a vital indicator of changes in ecosystem health and understand patterns and causes of change are necessary for conservation decisions. . In a previous activity (Working with Scientific Data Sets in Matlab: An Exploration of Ocean Color and Sea Surface Temperature), you downloaded and sub-scened global, annually averaged SST data. In addition to understanding the year-to-year variability in SST patterns, it is important to understand the SST variability over shorter time scales e.g. daily, seasonal). In this activity we will work with a daily imagery to understand intra-annual variability of SST and interpolate values for where data has not been collected.
This activity requires students to read a journal article with the title, …
This activity requires students to read a journal article with the title, abstract and keywords removed. After reading the article, they must submit a title, abstract and keywords. Designed for a geomorphology course Has minimal/no quantitative component Addresses student misconceptions
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students use foundational …
Spreadsheets Across the Curriculum module/Geology of National Parks course. Students use foundational math to study the velocity of the North American Plate over the hot spot, the volume of eruptive materials from it, and the recurrence interval of the cataclysmic eruptions.
This Yellowstone National Park website contains thousands of photographs of the Park. …
This Yellowstone National Park website contains thousands of photographs of the Park. Images are organized by category including fire, thermal features, mammals, park structures, petrified trees, water, weather, scenics, and more. The photographs may be freely downloaded and more are being added through time.
Students will create their own glacier, and explore their effect on the …
Students will create their own glacier, and explore their effect on the land, modeling how they melt, how they move, and erode and deposit sediment. Students will be able to determine and describe isostatic rebound, create and identify common glacial landforms such as moraines, drumlins, erratics, kettle lakes, and striations, and explain the role glaciers play in landscape development and how climate change may impact glaciers and their related features.
The San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains provide an excellent setting for …
The San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains provide an excellent setting for exploring the evolution and diversity of crystalline rocks in California. The oldest rock-forming events which can be explored in these ranges involved episodic Paleoproterozoic magmatism and orogenesis extending from 1.81 to 1.65 Ga. Rock units of this age are widespread both east and west of the San Andreas fault. This Paleoproterozoic tectonism was followed by intrusion of younger Mesoproterozoic anorogenic igneous rocks that are areally limited, but well exposed in the San Gabriel Mountains as 1.19 Ga gabbro, anorthosite, and syenite. Proterozoic igneous activity and tectonism in southwest North America was followed by rifting during the Neoproterozoic, which led to development of the Cordilleran geosynclinal belts. Belts of rocks within the geosyncline in southern California trend northeast-southwest, with deeper water rocks to the northwest, and Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks in the San Bernardino Mountains belong to the transition zone between the cratonal and deeper water miogeoclinal sequences. Passive margin sedimentation ended with initiation of arc magmatism oriented along a northwest to southeast trend in Late Permian time. A diverse group of Mesozoic plutons and dike swarms as young as Late Cretaceous in age characterize the crystalline terranes of both the San Bernardino and San Gabriel Mountains, culminating in emplacement of large calc-alkalic intrusive suites in both ranges about 78 Ma.
The diversity of ages and types of crystalline rocks makes a field trip through either or both of these ranges a great opportunity to engage students in active learning while linking petrology and historical geology course content in a field context. Students can utilize rock identification skills learned in the laboratory, and with knowledge of available geochronologic data, can construct a more detailed geologic time scale for the region.
Here we will provide an example of a one-day trip to examine Proterozoic metamorphic and Mesozoic intrusive igneous rocks that are easily accessible in roadcuts and on short field traverses along National Forest roads. The trip is adapted from more detailed field guides and road logs for this region (principally Barth et al., 2001), with a focus on undergraduate learning.
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Introduction to the different types of slip behaviors that can occur on …
Introduction to the different types of slip behaviors that can occur on subduction thrust, and comparative analysis of data sets derived from earthquakes and slow slip events to learn to discriminate among events.
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